Our well-behaved cousins over at AccountingWEB published an interesting article today with 10 questions young CPAs should ask firm partners. This is important because a lot of you are completely awkward and don't even know how to make small talk with recruiters (Exhibit A: Reddit), much less partners.
Here's Phyllis Weiss Haserot's list:
- What do you wish someone had told or taught you from your first day at the firm (or on the job)?
- What were the most important things you learned from your mentors?
- Who was the best accountant or professional you ever worked with, and in your opinion, what made that person so great?
- What is the most enjoyable part of your work?
- What are your interests outside of work?
- What would you most like to achieve this year?
- What contributions to the firm would you most like to be remembered for?
- If you could start over, what would you have done differently?
- What's your best advice about serving and pleasing clients?
- How would you characterize your approach to marketing?
We're pretty much on board with all of those except for the last one. Marketing?
Chances are, someone at the firm — who, by the way, isn't the partner — is paid to worry about that. It's also highly likely that the firm's marketing is a sore subject due to its sheer awfulness. So just don't even bring that up and everyone will be happy.
For those of you who have been around the tired old block for awhile, what questions would you add?
