Tips for surviving busy season

Do you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night during the holidays in a cold sweat, nervous that that bank confirmation was not sent out or that tax return was never done.  You may be suffering from pre-busy season anxiety!

Is E&Y to blame for the collapse of Lehman Brothers?

By now, many of you have heard quite a bit about the E&Y lawsuit (if you haven’t the Cliff Notes version is that Andrew Cuomo, the outgoing NY Attorney General, has filed a civil suit against E&Y for its role in the collapse of Lehman Brothers).

My question to the AG and everyone else is this – why are you surprised?  

Flash mobs…your firm may be next!

Yesterday, Blakes, one of Canada’s largest and most prestigious corporate law firms held a flash mob in a food court to ring in the holidays.  One has to wonder when other professional service firms will catch on to this trend.  Will we be seeing a flash mob at your next inventory count?

Where I’ve Been

“Does anyone here know what the anonymous accountant is up to these days? Is the anonymous accountant still grinding it out at a big four? Or did they leave? I can see that two months in they hated it, what about 2 years in? Can’t seem to find any recent posts, the most recent one is May 2009.”

I am back to answer that question.  To be honest, as those of you in Big 4 accounting know well, the combination of both studying for the UFE and working is brutal.  I kept on pushing off my post, thinking, ohhh well I’ll just post tomorrow…or the next day…

Then, I came across to a link during some random web surfing that brought me back to this site.  I saw all the comments and realized this site had really become a great resource for people out there who want to get in this industry / complain about it.

So I am back…hopefully for good this time.

Summer Reading

For me, the period following busy season (known to mere mortals as “summer”) is a great time to catch up on some reading.  As I get through them, I will post my thoughts and let you know if they’re worth the time.  My reading skews to non-fiction, mostly business (yeah, I know, I can’t leave it at the office), biographies, politics and history.  Feel free to share your summer reading picks, I am always looking for good reading material and I find there aren’t very many good places on the web to find reviews of business non-fiction.

First up on the docket – House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street by William D. Cohan

The CBV: What’s it worth

As someone who has been trying to figure out what to do once leaving the banal existence of auditing,  I have been doing my share of research.  I have been trying to find a balance between my knowledge of accounting and interest in finance.  The result?  The CBV may be the way to go for those who share the same interest.  Check out the article attached below for some more details.

Hot jobs: The valuation players

I’m back in business…

I have returned, wiser, with somewhat grayer hair and plenty of stories from the front lines of the accounting world to regale my readers.  Any of you who are currently at a Big 4 firm are probably in the midst of your own personal Dante’s Inferno, a.k.a. busy season.  To those of you who are still enduring, I salute you.  To those who have moved on to bigger and better things by leaving, I say congratulations!  While I plan on discussing, as always, the pros and cons (unfortunately, the cons seem to always beat out the pros!) of the Big 4 world, I will also be talking about the exit opportunities that I have seen presented to my coworkers over the last few years. 

Out of Town Training=Free Food, Free Booze, Good Company

For all of those that have embarked on that all important Big 4 rite of passage or dream of one day doing so, I will be blogging my experience. Stay tuned!

Want a Doostang invite? Here’s how to get one!

To those who have requested Doostang invites, all we will need is your email address so that we can send you the invitation. If you do not want to post your address, you can email it in confidence to anonymous.accountant@gmail.com.

How to Stand Out at Accounting Firm Networking Events

It’s that time of year again.  A time filled with firm tours, networking cocktails filled with nervous undergrads and CACEE forms (if you live in Canada, CACEEs are the standardized form used by all of the firms is lieu of resumes).  For the next few weeks, I will be giving some advice from my own personal experiences with the recruitment process.  In my first entry, I am going to deal with the firm cocktails, meals and parties that have become increasingly prevalent in the process. 

1) Dress to impress.  Try to dress up for any event that you go to.  If you only need to wear a shirt and pants, wear a tie.  Always remember, being overdressed will not be held against you while being underdressed WILL cost you the job.  I remember one girl who showed up to a firm cocktail in jeans and a sweater.  Needless to say, she did not make it!

2) Always ask for a business card.  This way, the next you can send a nice Thank You email to the person you were speaking to.  When you do so, try to personalize it by bringing up something that you spoke about, so that you can jog that person’s memory.  You would be surprised at how few people take the time to do this.  This can help you immensely during the process, because you want people to remember you and root for you.

3) Be prepared.  Know everything you can about the firm.  Research its web site, ask people, see who their clients are and what their values are.  You want them to see that you have done your homework.

4) Don’t get drunk.  This one’s a no brainer.

5) Ask good questions.  What is a good question?  Ask about the firms, opportunities for advancement and what kind of programs the firm has to help you pass the CA/CPA exams.

6) Don’t just go for the partners.  Everyone is going to try and make a bee line for the partner.  This can be a mistake.  Talking to junior people can give you valuable insight into the firm and the job.  Plus, they will be easier to relate to and find common ground with.  In recruiting, a senior can have just as much say as a partner and is more likely to want to push your application than a busy partner.

Stay tuned for my next entry on how to write an appliation.

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