Connecting the classroom to the "real world"
Acct Profession
This Way To CPA : AICPA
1 year ago
The AICPA has launched a new website specifically for college students to explore the CPA credential. If any of you are considering taking the CPA Exam, take advantage of the resources found on this site.
Welcome : This Way To CPA : AICPA.
Also, you might want to consider forming a team to compete in the 2010 AICPA Accounting Competition. Details on that are available by clicking here.
Guide to New CPA Exam Released
1 year ago
by Brenden Schaaf
in CPA Exam
The AICPA Examinations team has released a guide to the revamped CPA Exam that will be used starting in 2011. There are major changes coming to the Exam, so if you are a current or future candidate you should check out this resource including its many links for more information.
Link to the PDF guide: http://www.aicpa.org/BecomeACPA/CPAExam/ForCandidates/HowToPrepare/DownloadableDocuments/New_2011_CPA_exam_guide_to_CBTe.pdf
Sustainability Emphasis at the AICPA
1 year ago
In Chapter 2 of the Blocher text, we discussed the idea that Sustainability is becoming a new focus in the accounting profession. Coincidentally, today I received the following by email from the AICPA. It is interesting to see this emphasis coming from the primary association for CPA in America.
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Accounting & Auditing Student Conference
1 year ago
by Brenden Schaaf
in Employment
How many times have you heard that it isn’t what you know it’s who you know? Networking in all of its forms probably leads to more professional doors opening than anything else. Professional conferences are great ways to meet people and to learn some new skills and I want to alert you to an upcoming conference that is well-suited for Accounting Majors. If you are interested in networking with potential employers and/or are considering a career in the accounting field, you should strongly consider attending the upcoming 13th Annual Accounting & Auditing Student Conference at the Minneapolis Convention Center.
This one day conference will be held on Thursday , September 16th. According to the conference website, there will be representatives from over 50 accounting employers in attendance. Additionally there is a keynote speaker and opportunities to learn important skills in breakout sessions. Metropolitan State University has had strong participation in the past and I’ve heard good things from formers students. The registration fee is $15 in advance or $20 at the door. Your fee covers lunch so everything else is basically free.
For more information visit the link below:
Lack of CPA Credential Hurts Job Seeker
1 year ago
In our entire lives, many of us have never seen times with high unemployment like we are seeing today. The number of people unemployed or under-employed is as high as 35% according to some estimates that I’ve read. With that kind of competition, any advantage one can find to stand out from the rest of the applicants can be huge.
The Wall Street Journal had a piece a couple days ago that looked at stories of real people that have struggled to find work after being the definition of “successful” for many years. Paul Hansen was laid off as vice president and director of accounting after 23 years with Hensley Beverage Company. He was making $90,000/year and probably would make an excellent employee in a similar capacity elsewhere. The problem is that many jobs aren’t even a possibility for him because he lacks a credential, such as CPA, to even get his foot in the door.
Mr. Hansen suspects his lack of a Certified Public Accountant credential hurt him with prospective employers. Promotions within Hensley, the only place he had ever worked as an adult, gave him a false sense of security that he would never need the CPA, he says.
So if you are considering at all pursuing the CMA or CPA credential, I offer you this example of where it could have helped one person in his job search. Is it a guarantee of lifetime employment? Of course not. But there are certain jobs that require one of these just as a minimum qualification. If your ultimate career-goal isn’t an accounting role, check out credentials that may be available to you in other fields…the more you do to differentiate yourself (think of y yourself as a product) from the rest of the crowd the more opportunities you will have to choose from.
Read more about Paul Hansen and several other job seekers at:
The U.S. Job Market: Faces — and Fates — of the Jobless. Anonymous. Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Aug 9, 2010. pg. A.6
Study: CFOs Focus on Attracting and Retaining Accountants
1 year ago
As the economy recovers (which is hopefully happening now) I expect to hear a lot of news about companies fighting hard to retain employees as well as to attract new ones. For a while now, employers haven’t had to work hard to keep the people they have because of the inability of their people to find jobs elsewhere. Also, it has been easy to recruit for the few open positions a company might have because of the number of high-quality applicants that have been looking for work. As the supply of jobless folks dries up, retaining and recruiting will once again be huge if companies want to remain competitive.
Frequently, accountants are being asked to be more than the “bean counters.” As we discuss in class, management accounting is a field where people are expected to wear many hats while also being financially focused. These “non-technical” skills are exactly what employers will be looking for in the near future:
Over half of the executives surveryed answered that “There are not enough individuals in the market with the necessary soft skills.” Similarly, 31% said that personality or people skills are important than technological capabilities when deciding between two job candidates.
“Technical accounting skills are critical, but it wasn’t the primary issue of concern,” said Gina Kim, director in the public policy and external affairs group at Grant Thornton. “Now that accountants are expected to put more professional judgment into their determinations, they have to be able to think critically about an issue.”
Read more at: CFOs Focus on Attracting and Retaining Accountants, According to Study – Finance Career Management, Finance Career News – fins.com.
Management Accounting Careers with IMA Chair Sandra Richtermeyer
1 year ago
For anyone interested in a career in management accounting, here is a great post from Going Concern that would be great for you to read. It contains an interview with the IMA Chair so it is obviously coming from their perspective (that’s not a bat thing — just be aware). Read more at this link:
Job Hunting Ideas for Metropolitan State Accounting Students
1 year ago
The following was originally written as an email response to one student asking about internships. In the interest of helping other students that have similar questions about how to approach job hunting (for internships or permanent positions) I am posting it here. Like all posts on here, I welcome comments from everyone regarding the things I have written and/or with additional resources that I have missed. Good luck!
Getting an internship is a great idea but has grown increasingly difficult in the past couple years. Many companies have severely cut back due to the rough economy and may not be offering internships as they have in the past. Also, labor laws have been interpreted differently of late to make companies leery of offering unpaid (or underpaid) opportunities so those have largely disappeared.
On my blog I have posted some resources that may be helpful:
http://acct320.com/tag/internships/
I think by far the best way to get an internship (and, in fact, any job) is to network with other professionals. A lot of these positions are not advertised and only “through the grapevine” will you hear about them and meeting regularly with other professionals could be the only way to find out about openings.
You might check into the upcoming Accounting and Auditing Student Conference at the Minneapolis Convention Center (see http://www.studentconf.org/) and consider joining accounting organizations such as the Metro State Accounting Club (see http://accountingclub.metrostate.edu/) to get the ball rolling.
Other resources for networking include local chapters of the Institute of Management Accountants or the Minnesota Society of CPAs. Both of these organizations have local meetings and that is where the value is when it comes to job hunting. More information about student memberships can be found at: http://acct320.com/category/accounting-profession/organizations/.
Within the Metropolitan State University community, the best resource is the Career Services office. They have resources online (at http://www.metrostate.edu/msweb/pathway/academic_success/counselcareer/career_services/) and host frequent events with the goal of connecting employers with prospective employees (like you!).
Last, but not least, a lot of networking happens online these days. For professional purposes, LinkedIn (at http://linkedin.com) is a winner. Every young professional (and most older professionals) should have accounts on LinkedIn and update them frequently. Because of my involvement on LinkedIn I have built a large base of accounting/business professionals that could help me out if something happened to my current job. I’ve even been offered the chance to do things like edit textbooks and author articles for the professional magazines and blogs. These are things that just “came up” because I’m active on LinkedIn. I like to think of LinkedIn as a Facebook for business contacts.
To get started, feel free to connect with me on there (LinkedIn only allows you to connect with people you know by using their email address) and build your network from there. I would imagine there are student groups specific to every topic of interest that you can join and those can expose you to lots of openings and news information that will make you smarter about how things happen in the profession.
If you are in to the social networking thing, Twitter can also be a great tool. The nice thing about Twitter is that you can follow anyone whether you know them or not and eventually relationships are established if/when people follow you back. The definitely requires effort, but it can be well worth it if you have a few minutes each day to keep tabs on things. I use a program called TweetDeck that allows me to see my Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn updates all in one program.
Good luck in your job hunting endeavors! Things are beginning to thaw out there but the same skills that have helped people to the top in the past are the same ones that are important now: mostly it comes down to who you know and being in the right place at the right time. You can increase the chance of this happening by putting yourself into opportunity filled situations both online and offline.
2010 MNCPA Management & Business Advisers Conference Resources
1 year ago
This page is a collection of resources from the MNCPA Management & Business Advisers Conference held June 14 & 15, 2010 at the Minneapolis Convention Center.
I compiled this list originally at posterous starting with a list of books recommended at the sessions I attended. I have since expanded it to include books and websites from all sessions based on information I got from others on Twitter as well as from the conference materials.
This is as much a selfish endeavor as it puts all the information for books and website I want to check out in one place. Hopefully some other folks find it useful too!
Books
Authored by or about presenters:
- No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller by Harry Markopolos
- Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis by Bill George
- True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership by Bill George, David Gergen, and Peter Sims
- Pricing for Profitability: Activity-Based Pricing for Competitive Advantage by John L. Daly
- Mark Whitacre Against All Odds: How “The Informant” and his Family Turned Defeat into Triumph by Stevin Hoover
- Common Frauds and Internal Controls for Revenue, Purchasing and Cash Receipts by Glenn Helms
- Internal Control and IT: Reliable Reporting and Fraud Prevention by Glenn Helms
- Internal Control Essentials for Financial Managers, Accountants and Auditors by Glenn Helms
- Purchasing, Inventory, and Cash Disbursements: Common Frauds and Internal Controls by Glenn Helms
- Revenue and Cash Receipts: Common Frauds and Internal Controls by Glenn Helms
Recommended by presenters:
- The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis
- Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Revised and Updated by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones
- Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
- Wiley IFRS: Practical Implementation Guide and Workbook by Abbas A. Mirza, Magnus Orrell, and Graham Holt
- Interpretation and Application of International Financial Reporting Standards 2010, Book and CD-ROM Set by Barry J. Epstein and Eva K. Jermakowicz
- Activity-Based Costing: Making It Work for Small and Mid-Sized Companies by Douglas T. Hicks
- I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It: How Accounting Information Undermines Profitability by Douglas Hicks
- The Informant: A True Story by Kurt Eichenwald
- Rats in the Grain: The Dirty Tricks and Trials of Archer Daniels Midland, the Supermarket to the World by James B. Lieber
- Leadership from the Inside Out. Becoming a Leader for Life by Kevin Cashman
- Good to Great. Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t by Jim Collins
- How the Mighty Fall: and Why Some Companies Never Give In by Jim Collins
- The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Restoring the Character Ethic by Stephen R. Covey
- Principled Centered Leadership by Stephen R. Covey
- The Laws of Disruption: Harnessing the New Forces That Govern Life and Business in the Digital Age by Larry Downes
- And then the Roof Caved In: How Wall Street’s Greed and Stupidity Brought Capitalism to its Knees by David Faber
- Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
- Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
- Reading Between the Lies. How to Detect Fraud and Avoid Becoming a Victim of Wall Street’s Next Scandal by Jordan E. Goodman
- Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, Richard E. Boyatzis, and Annie McKee
- Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America by Arianna Huffington
- Ethics 101: What every Leader Needs to Know by John C. Maxwell
- Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
- Improving Corporate Boards: The Boardroom Insider Guidebook by Ralph D. Ward
- Accounting Irregularities and Financial Fraud (Third Edition) by Michael R. Young and Jack H. Nusbaum
- The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead by David Callahan
Websites
By or about presenters:
- Minnesota Society of CPAs
- Bill George
- Small Business Marketing Mavericks
- K2 Enterprises
- Mark Whitacre
- Gallagher Benefits
- James J. Hill Reference Libarary: Ethics
Recommended by presenters:
Ethics and Fraud
- Institute of Internal Auditors
- Association of Certified Fraud Examiners
- Cooking the Books. The Cost to the Economy
- The Enron Failure and the State of Corporate Disclosure
- Atlas Shrugged
- Business Ethics.The Magazine of Corporate Social Responsibility Report
- Ethics Matters…dedicated to promoting the thoughtful discussion of difficult moral issues. University of San Diego.
- Ethics Resource Center. Advancing High Ethical Standards and Practices
- The Future of Corporate Governance
- Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle. Written 350 B.C.E. Translated by W.D. Ross, 2007.
- Corporate Ethics for Financial Managers: Navigating with Case Studies and Practical Solutions by Robert W. Walter
- The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans are doing Wrong to Get Ahead
- The Case of “Enronitis”? Opaque Self-Dealing and the Global Financial Effect. Policy Brief #118. 2003. Wei, Shang-Jin and Milkiewicz, Heather. Brookings Institution. .
Technology
- Microsoft Office Web Apps. Scaled down versions of Micrsoft Office applications (Excel, Word, OneNote, PowerPoint) that runs on the web and allows for easy collaboration with others
- Microsoft SkyDrive. Cloud-based storage space for documents, photos, etc.
- Black Viper. This will tell you which services you can disable in Windows to make it run faster without sacrificing performance.
- Google Places. Make sure your business listing is correct on this site.
- Micosoft Partner Program. Some practitioners that do consulting may be eligible for benefits.
Accounting Standards, Financial Reporting, and Taxation
- Private Company Financial Reporting Committee Roadmap
- FASB Codification
- National Association of State Boards of Accountancy
- PCAOB Online – Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
- Sarbanes-Oxley Act/PCAOB Implementation Central. (AICPA Center for Audit Quality)
- IRS Small Employer Tax Credit
Healthcare
- Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
- Health Reform
- Red Flags Rule
- Putting Americans in Control of Their Healthcare
Twitter – hashtag #MBAC10
Presenters on Twitter:
Conference Tweeters:
CMA Exam Information
2 years ago
I’m not going to revinvent the wheel when Going Concern has done a nice job summarizing the details of taking the CMA Exam and the CMA credential including the move from a 4-part to a 2-part exam. See the complete post at this link:
http://goingconcern.com/2010/04/credentials-for-accountants-certified-management-accountant/
