Public Accounting As A Career Option. Sexy? You Bet!

As I start this month’s column, I am sat here at night in my hotel room in Winnipeg, Manitoba, during a visit here to host some PD courses for the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Manitoba.

If you think February and March are cold in the Toronto area, or Vancouver, get this – it was minus fifty-one degrees here in Winnipeg this morning!

Nature provides us with such extreme weather circumstances and our clients often chip-in to provide us with extreme work circumstances.

Just look at the work-flow our profession has evolved – not enough hours in the day in March and April, when busy season hits, yet often quiet periods in July and August (I guess not many clients have year-ends in the first quarter).

Another extreme that we enjoy in the public accounting profession is the wide variety of work assignments that clients provide us with.

And this leads me nicely to the point I want to make this month.

Just think about it for a moment. Let’s take a look at a day’s schedule for a partner in a mid sized firm of CAs, let’s call him Michael:

Michael’s day for last Tuesday looked something like this (with Michael’s comments in italics):

7.30am

Breakfast meeting (second interview) with a senior candidate thinking of joining the firm

 ‘I love selling the firm to new talent, especially when the candidate reminds me of myself, only a younger version.’
9.15am

Client meeting at the office to discuss putting an SR & ED tax credit claim together for a new client

 ‘This is an area of work that helps clients think we walk on water – which, of course, we do.’
10.30am Staff Meeting

‘While we sometimes have to deal with serious matters at these meetings, I always try to end them on a high note to have the troops leaving pumped up.’

 
12.00 Lunch with a David Bates, Bank Manager ‘David and I go back a few years now and we’ve referred a lot of business to each other. Looking forward to getting together with him again today.’
2.30pm Year-end meeting with a client ‘We’ve done some great tax planning work for this client – can’t wait to see their reaction when I talk them through it and they realize how much we can save them.’
4.00pm New client presentation ‘We’ve put a lot of work into developing a relationship with this prospective client over the last eighteen months. It all comes down to this – One hour with the executive committee to talk them through our proposal.’
5.30pm Back to the office to review a couple of sets of draft financial statements ‘Not my favourite thing to do these days, but hey, all part of the job, but it’s good to keep myself involved.’
6.30pm Partner Meeting ‘We try to have some fun at these monthly sessions – but there’s often some serious business to discuss. This month we are considering merging with a smaller firm and I’m sure there will be some hot debating about this.’

What other occupation can you think of that provides such a rewarding and varied workload?

When we get close to our clients and develop a good working relationship, it’s amazing how much vale we can add to our clients.

Becoming a key part of a client’s management team can be a big responsibility.

However, when it happens, as often it will, you get to the point where the client calls you to discuss any key issue that will have a major impact on their business, and some great things start happening;

1. Clients start involving you in more detailed and enjoyable issues
2. Fees are never an issue
3. Clients refer more new clients to you

We should try to dispense with the myth that Accounting is boring. If you ask me, it’s one of the sexiest careers any bright young graduate could possibly choose.

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