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oldog new trics
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Joined: 30 May 2009
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Posted: 03 Dec 2009 at 15:24 \| IP Logged

Maybe its my marketing degree raising its ugly head... but putting a positive spin on negative items makes you look better, feel more confident and in control of your destiny, and keeps the interview upbeat. If nothing else, you come across as a positive person with a plan instead of a desperate drowning person looking to latch on to anything that floats till his next real job comes along

As for getting caught (if you lied about employment gaps) later on – I don’t let bosses/co-workers into my inner circle that often. I have my friends outside of work (some of them old co-workers/bosses, but not many). I don’t confide in my co-workers, go drinking with them, or turn them into best friends either. After you get hired, how many co-workers are going to ask you to recite where you worked and the dates in conversation?

And a credit report doesn’t show your full employment history, only if you paid your bills on time.

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Inspired
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Posted: 03 Dec 2009 at 16:31 \| IP Logged

My friend has been an auditor for 3 years and hasn't passed any section.

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onlyregleft
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Posted: 04 Dec 2009 at 02:43 \| IP Logged

I've become a huge tightwad. I've put my accounting skills to use on my own finances, such as performing monthly expense variance analysis. I find myself watching cooking channels to learn how to cook for myself. I clip coupons and buy generic stuff. Basically, I do all things that I thought was crazy about my mom. LOL.

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onlyregleft
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Posted: 04 Dec 2009 at 02:47 \| IP Logged

oldog new trics wrote:

moosen34 wrote:

oldog new trics wrote:

moosen34 wrote:

Laid off by my previous company right before I got my CPA license number so I couldn't get my bonus. BOOO!

Honestly, I hated audit anyways and I have close to 2 years experience at a big name mid-size firm and I have my CPA license so I'm not disgruntled, but I'm on a totally different career venture right now and it's tough. Sticking too it but I'm trying to find out everything I can about tax to see if I would prefer that. Will never do audit again. NEVER

Moosen,

What about auditing was so bad? I've never worked in this area, but your comment has peaked my curiosity.

Auditing was AGONIZING work for me. The experience is totally dependent upon the team that you're working with and the client that you're working on. I worked in a pretty high profile firm mind you so I was working with high-profile clients that you would assume they have their stuff together. This was NOT the case. Clients have missing links all over their financial statements and have the craziest ways of explaining how they accounted for things throughout the year. When you finally get done grinding it out with the client and have the actual numbers down that you're going to use, you have to to present your support in a way that will appease the higher-ups who themselves have conflicting opinions on what they want the workpapers to look like and can never agree on the definition of sufficient support or materiality or reasonably stated, etc. etc. etc.

Praise is snatched up at the top and criticism and blame is funneled down, leading to managers disgruntled from the partners, seniors disgruntled from the managers, and staff running around blindly trying not to get hit with the head of the hammer and doing dummy work that they don't understand the purpose of just to keep everyone happy.

I worked on a lot of Hedge Funds and investment companies and when FAS157 came out, forget about it! It was like everyone had their own interpretation of what it meant, why it was there, and who should take care of it. In a larger firm or a larger office you need to have communication across the board and standardized ways of doing things. Maybe that would prevent managers getting into arguments with each other in training meetings.... but I might be just ranging now

Thanks for sharing your experience with me. I can see where there would be a lot of pushing and shoving regarding standards (which is fairly interpretive), adding to the heightened political climates within a CPA firm. I’ve been in companies audited a couple of times, and I noticed the tension between all the players. Especially between the managers. The staff always seemed to be scared witless. Working in that environment must have been toxic. Good thing you got out.

When you describe workers zig zagging around, trying not to get hit with the head of the hammer... it reminds me of that kid's game where the prairie dogs poke their heads up and you have to hit them with the little hammer before they drop back into the hole.

I thought the game is a reference to the notion of "mole whacking"?

__________________
BEC: 75(BOOYAH!)(8/09)
REG: 80 (11/09)
FAR: 81 (8/08)
AUD: 80 (8/08)

08 Becker for AUD, BEC, FAR
08 Becker & 09 Wiley for REG

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