The Philippines is Running Low on Accountants and US Firms Should Be Worried
In recent years, US firms have shifted heavily into offshoring and it seems it never crossed anyone’s mind that offshore talent might be a finite resource. So far it seems dwindling accounting graduate numbers in the Philippines are mostly affecting in-country businesses and firms, still something worth keeping an eye on. This is from CNN […]
Intuit is Using Fear and Uncertainty to Snatch Up Talent
620 tech companies have laid off 184,616 employees so far in 2023 per Layoffs.fyi, up from 164,511 employees in 2022 and we’re not even halfway through the year. The good news is tech layoffs are trending down for now after a peak in January, hopefully we don’t repeat last year’s pattern. It goes without saying […]
Robert Half Reports Finance and Accounting Talent is in High Demand (Duh)
According to the results of a recent Robert Half survey, companies across the U.S. are hungry for talent and of all professional roles, finance and accounting are nearly the most in-demand, second only to technology. The survey also shows that few respondents expect to freeze hiring or eliminate positions in the first half of this […]
What Shortage? EY Is Supposedly Hiring 220,000 People This Year
According to the horse’s mouth, EY is buried under millions and millions of resumes and on track to hire nearly a quarter of a million people this fiscal year. Bloomberg: EY is on track to hire around 220,000 people in the twelve months to July 2023, having achieved its highest growth in nearly two decades […]
Another Deloitte Survey Says ‘Purpose’ is Just as Important as Pay (Yeah Right)
Deloitte pushed out some survey results this week that confirm what leaders have been telling themselves ever since the first Millennials entered the workplace at the turn of the century: ‘purpose’ is just as important as pay. Sure, guys. Sure. A Deloitte survey of over 4,000 respondents* found that over half of employees (62%) consider […]
No Wonder Your Accounting Manager Quit, You Clown
Spotted on Twitter: Putting an emoji at the end doesn’t make your dysfunctional, underpaid workplace charming FYI 🤡 Any takers?
Finding/Retaining Staff and Challenges Working With the IRS Are Top PITAs for CPA Firms, Says AICPA Survey
Small firms think ‘challenges when working with the IRS’ is a bigger PITA than trying to find and retain talent according to the results of the 2022 AICPA Private Companies Practice Section (PCPS) CPA Firm Top Issues Survey released by the AICPA this week. Via Journal of Accountancy: The IRS issue didn’t resonate only with […]
Yes There Is Still a Talent Shortage, and Yes We’re Tired of Discussing It
As far back as I can remember, we have been discussing talent shortages within the accounting industry. My former esteemed colleague Colin (RIP bro) once referred to it as Groundhog Day, in that it felt like every other morning we woke up and wrote a story about it. I even put a considerable amount of […]
PwC’s Recruiting Will Take a Hit Over the Oscars Debacle
Forty-two years ago I sat down to make an important life decision, my second in two years. The first was to go to graduate school instead of accepting a commission in the Marine Corps. The second was to join Price Waterhouse. Marriage would come later. I was the first in my family to go to […]
To Most Accounting Students, Small Accounting Firms Don’t Exist
Here’s a fun article by Marc Rosenberg about “how totally uninformed young accountants are about CPA firms.” Now, you might think that this is one of those condescending KIDS TODAY posts, but it’s actually pretty self-aware. Rosenberg offers a picture of a profession that has an enormous perception problem, citing some pretty surprising examples. He […]
Starting Salaries for Accounting Positions Keep Going Up
If you're a college student studying accounting, prepare your gloat face. Starting salaries for accounting and finance positions are expected to go up 3%-4.3% next year according to Robert Half's new salary guide.
Hiring Watch ’15: Accounting Firm IT Departments
A recent survey from Information Technology Alliance found that accounting firms are almost as desperate for IT people as they are accountants: “The demand for qualified IT staff within accounting firms is at an all-time high across the accounting industry,” said John Bowles, chief information officer for Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP in Charlotte, North […]
PwC Poaches Someone From EY and Issues a Press Release, Part I
Let this serve as the inaugural post to the immensely popular sister series: KPMG v. PwC. And while Ernst & Young has been proactively adding talent via competitive poaching from Deloitte and others, to our knowledge Papa Whiskey Charlie and the Black and Yellow have not had any public personnel entanglements until today: Michael Spielman has […]
KPMG Seeks Benchwarmers
For the past year or so, we've noted the efforts of PwC to stack up its talent via "competitive poaching," mostly at the expense of its smaller rival, KPMG. During this time, people familiar with the situation have informed us that this trend has been noticed by people at KPMG with slight agitation. In one […]
PwC Falls Victim in the Competitive Poaching Game to…WTP Advisors
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you know, the Big 4 are pretty competitive when it comes to landing the best talent. The brightest brains. The biggest, swingingest…well you know. Anyhoo, PwC has been on tear this year, luring an accounting firm equivalent of a platoon from KPMG. They’ve also managed to pick off people from Duff and Phelps and the SEC.
But now the tables have turned unexpectedly on P. Dubs. They certainly had to be wary of the likes of Deloitte, E&Y and yes, even KPMG trying to woo their partners seeking greener pastures but it’s highly unlikely they saw this coming:
WTP Advisors, an award-winning, global tax and advisory firm, announced today that it has opened a new office location in Long Beach, CA. The new site will be headed by tax expert, Jon Worden, who most recently managed PwC’s West Region International Tax Services Quantitative Solutions Team. “Jon is a terrific choice to lead WTP Advisors’ West Coast tax practice. Like all WTP directors, he has Big Four experience, combined with a drive to forge deep and lasting client relationships. His personality, talent, and ambition will represent us well with large multinational companies in this region,” says Mike Minihan, Partner and co-founder of WTP Advisors. In his new role, Worden will be responsible for serving the L.A., Orange County and Northern California markets, as well as cultivating relationships with organizations up and down the West Coast.
Or maybe they did. WTP Advisors was founded by “four PwC veterans” back in 2005 according to this Fortune blurb on the firm’s website. It also boasts that it “has retained 100% of its clients” since the founding of the firm. The clip above is also from said blurb which depicts some sort of Rumble in the Professional Services Jungle between WTP and PwC. Perhaps WTP is gunning for P. Dubs because there is some bad blood there, we don’t know (but would love to hear about it). And with only 75 employees and $12 million in revenues, they barely register on Bob Moritz’s radar but it’s clear that they can poach P. Dubs talent and they are already better at using PR to make it known than some other firms.
BREAKING: Big 4 Firms Compete for Talent
For those not previously aware:
A talent war is among the top concerns for both the accounting profession and their corporate clients, says Jim Henry, managing partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in San Francisco. Even as the nation struggles with persistently high unemployment, those with the right skills and credentials are in demand. “We’re seeing a hot market for those with the relevant skills,” said Henry. “It’s a sign of the economy improving over the last 18 months.”
Since this is a BizJournal publication we hit the paywall but can presume that Diego discussed PwC’s successful competitive poaching campaign (which included picking up James Draper in San Fran).
The Ernst & Young Las Vegas Office Should Try to Nab This Guy for Their Next Singalong
It’s fair to say that of all the fine accountants that participated in the E&Y video from earlier this week, none of them will be bagging a Grammy any time soon (regardless of what the E&Y bigwigs say).
That being said, there is at least one accountant out there who must decent enough pipes to garner this headline:
The Singing Accountant set to be this year’s Susan Boyle?
Not surprisingly, the young lad is a little timid:
Christopher is an accountant who lacked confidence to follow his singing dream. After years of hiding his talent, his family finally persuaded him to pluck up the courage and audition for the show.
“I’ve come to Britain’s Got Talent to audition today mainly from pressure from my parents, more than anything else. They’ve been telling me for years and years that I need to do something like this.”
If Simon Cowell says this, “I think you have a really, really good voice,” then that’s a pretty good indication that you’ve got a better than average singing voice (unfortch there’s no video at this time).
As opposed to what he might have said to the E&Y LV peeps, which we might be something along the lines of:
A) That’s the worst performance I’ve ever heard.
B) That would make my labrador howl uncontrollably for hours.
C) That explains why your pay was frozen.
D) I know Jim Turley, and when he gets wind of this, you’re all going to be fired.
E) Now I know why Lehman Brothers failed.
Now you go.