Accountant Interview by Ruth Paget
When I started high school, I attended a Friends School in Detroit (Michigan) to learn about my Quaker ancestors from New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The Friends School taught standard high school subjects as well as electives such as non-violence workshop where we read the works of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, non-violent games that promoted happiness for everyone such as caring for an egg for a week, meditation and journaling for conflict resolution, and the World of Work for vocational training.
For World of Work, we began our studies by reading Working by Chicago writer Studs Terkel, who interviewed people from all sorts of jobs about job satisfaction and the skills needed to perform the job. We all took the Myers-Briggs Interest Inventory which tests on which jobs that are suited for you based on skills and interests. I wanted to be a writer, but my quantitative skills came out first and writing came out second. I was mortified! However, my Quaker teacher told me, “Just use math when you write.”
After the Myers-Briggs Interest Inventory, I set up informational interviews to find out about the world of work. I found some of my write-ups recently and wanted to share what I learned during my teen years, because the jobs still exist with some changes brought about by technology. I had a very good interview with an accountant from Coopers and Lybrand – Certified Public Accountants. This is still a position that exists in the 21st century and might interest readers studying business. I retained my ninth grade English:
Ms. S. likes her job as an accountant. She has worked at Coopers and Lybrand since last May. She graduated from college in April. She works Monday through Friday. She has been expected to work overtime and accepts that as part of her job. She says 55 hours a week is a lot.
Ms. S. told me certified public accountants work with facts. They go out and review clients’ systems, document them, and make sure they are functioning as documented by the clients. The accountants perform various tasks to make sure that the clients’ business functions as documented.
I asked for more details. Ms. S. said accounting is a recording of what is happening at the business. Businesses have cash coming in and goods going out. These activities are recorded. This is where business begins. This is the exchange of goods and services.
For two years, she was a liberal arts student at the University of Michigan. This course of study consisted of art, history, calculus, chemistry, and French. Then, she applied for business school. At the University of Michigan, you need approximately 21 hours of accounting.
At UofM, that is 7 classes with 3 credit hours each. These classes involve a wide array of accounting: asset, corporate, cost, and tax. Auditing is included in these classes also. (I though asset accounting sounded interesting, if you got to go through safe deposit boxes.)
Ms. S. said business law is required to become an accountant. Business law is included on the CPA (Certified Public Accountant) Examination. You must take and pass this examination to be certified. In addition to passing the examination, you must work with a public accounting firm in order to be certified. Business law is essential. An accountant has a legal liability towards the client. There are certain things you can and cannot do.
Every accountant who comes into the firm must have a college degree. Ms. S. has many bosses. Each time she goes to a different client, she is on a different auditing team. Each new boss evaluates her work in the field. She chose to be an accountant, because she reached a decision point in college where she asked herself, “Do I need a French degree? Do I need a degree in painting? Shouldn’t I develop something practical with my degree?” If she had not become an accountant, she would have looked for a job with languages. Ms. S. noted she would probably still be looking for a job. (Note: 1979 was not the global era.) She has seen many people with anthropology degrees have a hard time finding a job. She said 15,000 people graduate with anthropology degrees and there are 15 job openings.
In business school, there are a few choices of what job you can go Into:
-Marketing – this is basically salesmanship, but it is not sales work. An example, would be IBM. At IBM, you sell computer systems. They send you through training courses to learn everything about computers. You go through training for 1½ years. You have to be extremely confident, know your stuff, and have a quick memory.
-Retail Sales – sales management
-Actuarial – I was very interested in this. Their function is very mathematical. They analyze life insurance tables. These tables estimate how long people live on the average and what kinds of risks they are running with different factors in their lives. An example of these factors would be old age and sickness. They also deal with pension plans. Actuarial work is very challenging.
I asked her to explain the promotion system at Cooper and Lybrand. Promotions occur in January and July. Personnel looks at employee evaluation forms that various supervisors and managers filled out. These people observe your attitude, leadership, maturity, how well you get along with other people, how well you work on teams, technical competence, and assertiveness. Ms. S. explained to me that with 4 or 5 years of experience at Coopers and Lybrand, you were eligible to be a supervisor.
After the supervisor level comes manager. You need more talents to become a manager. Some people are not born leaders. If you do not attain manager in three tries, that is a subtle clue to look for another firm. Personnel does executive searches to help people find other jobs.
Becoming a partner is an entirely different ballgame. The partners do not have to promote anyone to partner, if they do not want to. A special kind of politics comes into play. If a manager is up for partner twice but does not make it, they should look for another job.
Night school is discouraged, because employees are expected to work overtime. Courses are offered in the office and self-study materials are available to employees, so that they can keep up with the times. They are expected to read the Wall Street Journal and other magazines dealing with business. Ms. S. said, “Studying for the annual Certified Public Accountant Exam will occupy your time.
Many of the client systems are computerized, so it is wise to know at least one computer language. A group of computer specialists always accompanies the audit team, but if you do not understand how a computer system works, you cannot tell the computer team what results you need. (Note: I first used a desktop Apple computer in my senior year of college.)
Coopers and Lybrand takes up 3½ floors of the Renaissance Center. I got to go on an office tour. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about accounting. Later in life, I worked for two major accounting firms (EY and Deloitte) in Chicago and Paris using math in my writing.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
