Guys, I need your advice.

Please be advised that I post this at one other place

For those of you who don`t know, I am a recently guaranteed Honours Bachelor of Accounting Co-Op student. There are several things I want to talk about (some dealing with myself & my personality, the co-op work term experience and others with the accounting profession as a whole). I would love to hear your advice.

Chartered Accountant = CPA in the US
CMA = Certified Management Accountant
CGA = Certified General Accountant


Starting Out & School:
When I first chose accounting co-op as my major, I had no idea how much accountants made. There were no delusions of grandeur of making hundreds of thousands of dollars and living in a gold house with a rocket powered car. I picked it because I thought it was a good mix of my math skills and my interest in business affairs. Over the next five years, my school experience at Brock was very positive, I liked learning about accounting and the various things that had to do with it (such as tax). Although I knew that I probably wouldn't need much of the information taught, it was still interesting to learn about it in the classroom. I finished with a 74% average overall (roughly 3.0 GPA), and my last semester contained my highest average achieved.

Co-Op:
The simple truth is that I have never been hired back by any of the three co-op firms that had me as a co-op student.

For my first co-op work term (4 months), I went through about 8 interviews with various firms (big 4 and small town), before I ended up at the firm (large local one office) I worked for for 4 months. Over the course of the four months, I was a very green co-op. The problem that I think they had was I would ask a question and not learn from it completely the first time, which lead to further unnecessary questions on my part. My attention to detail & analytical skills were poor; plus I put too much pressure on myself (my dad did that too) so my self confidence was always low at work (but high at school). I did not get much in the way of training (more like `here, do this`) which was hard for me trying to learn things on my own. I think some of it was because the accounting firm had not had a co-op student for a couple of years, so they were not particularly focused on that area. Regardless, at the end of the work term, they opted not to hire me back. A professor who recommended that I work there before the work term, said after the work term that I would not have been a good fit there (I am more laid back and they were I more get up and go).

For my second co-op work term (8 months), I was hired by a small niche firm. They were satisfied enough with my performance for four months, but over the course of the next four months, my performance degraded. They were expecting me to grow substantially in the later four months, but I had stayed at the same level. It was my first tax season at the Toronto place (did not do any tax returns in the previous place), and boy did I hate it (being one of two underlings preparing tax returns). Starting in February, working six days a week, wore me down significantly. To add to that, my attention to detail & analytical procedures had not really improved alot since the first work term, so there were alot of phone calls (could you come here please?) and the managers pointing out the mistakes I made. This in turn lowered my self confidence which in turn probably increased my probability for making mistakes (not helped with a verbal lashing from the partner (more on him later)). Again, training was on the skimpy side (even more than the last place). At some point in March, I had a mental breakdown where I couldn`t stop crying (not at the office, at my house). There were some days were I would be crying before I came to work. The issue that the firm had with my performance is that I did not improve as they hoped, and I had a somewhat `silo` view of my work (procedures and other things that I did on one job I forgot to use it in another similar job). But the biggest drag of all was the main partner; there are not enough bad words in the English world to describe him. His style of `management by walking around` always put me on my feet, and you always knew that office politics were there. But I`m glad I`m not back there.

For my third co-op work term (4 months), I was hired by a firm. They were more laid back from the first two firms. This is a compliment when I say that this was the most pleasurable experience (it really was). The people were nice and the work wasn`t too bad. However on my first day, I was struck a George Contanza moment when my partner was talking to me and after that he left, I realized `Oh my god, I don`t want to do this`. For tax season, I was given quite a few little-old-lady returns (basic stuff) and most of the other time I would be doing compilations. But again, my deficiencies kept coming up, but I was trying hard to correct them. Given my experience on my resume, they were expecting me to be operating at the much higher level than I was currently working at. Again, this firm had very little experience with co-op students and it had been years since they had a co-op student work for them. At the end of the work term, it was my choice whether I wanted to come back or not. I chose not to, partly because where the firm was located is a bit far away from the area I had been living to begin with, but also that I wasn`t sure if I could bring the higher level they wanted (and down the road, I might be let go). Another fact was that (and I didn`t know till I was hired), I would be a non-traditional CA student which meant my audit hours would not count towards my Chartered Accountant designation. This irked me a bit, that they didn`t tell me before. But needless to say, it was a pleasant experience but not going back there.

Commentary on the Accounting Profession:
1) I find the atmosphere of an accounting firm to be unattractive at best. The hours will kill you if you don`t actually like it. You can`t really talk to people because you know that everyone is charging per hour and 15 minutes of not charging is money to them.
2) The snobbish tendencies of the ICAO (the provincial accounting body) can be astounding at times. In their promotional material, the ICAO makes CAs seem like the be-all and end-all of accounting (using their magical powers for good) when CGAs & CMAs play different roles than a CA. Even my uncle who`s a CA said ìt was disgusting when looking at their material.
3) Just because you have a designation does not mean you`re actually are qualified or you`re smart enough to do the work. Accountants with ANY designations do dumb things, look at Arthur Andersen & Enron.
4) If you need positive re-enforcement from superiors for you to be happy, an accounting job is not it. The only feedback you really get back is when you`ve done something wrong (ie review notes from a manager).
5) The accounting firms care more about the money than the clients (I have a story to back that up).

Me:
My strengths overall:
-My initiative is very strong; I do not sit back and hide away from work.
-My ability to work in a team; I have strong people skills
-I follow the rules set out by others
-I am willing to accept suggestions and feedback from others
-I can communicate well orally.
-Good attitude in general

My weaknesses overall:
-Ability to problem solve
-Attention to detail
-Need to understanding the tasks given to me (listening)

Those three negative things cancel out all the positive things that I listed out, simply because they are the three most important things that an accountant (especially a CA) needs to have. After my last work term, one of my final university courses was a case-writing course to give the basics of how to do the SOA and UFE (there are three professional accounting exams that one must pass to become a Chartered Accountant, the CKE, SOA and UFE. Turns out I failed the CKE in January and will have to rewrite in May). I think this was helpful in terms of my problem solving & analytical side.

If you haven`t clued in by now, I have low self confidence at work. I put too much pressure on myself to do the right job (and that leads to mistakes). I take things personally. A good friend of mine commented that I would be good in general business matters. In regards to accounting (being a CA), I would be a square peg in a round hole (probably true). But I like helping people with their financial matters (it`s really the interaction that is the attractive part). Also, I still need more hours of working in an accounting firm (30 months experience needed in total, which I have cut into that a bit). So that means I have to get hired and do more interviews. The number one question they will ask is, `why didn`t you go back to your previous places?` because they know that people stay at firms after co-op. I can`t lie, but I can`t tell the truth that I am not the best worker and they shouldn`t hire me.

I want to get a Chartered Accountant designation because it opens a lot more doors than a regular accounting degree (or even a CGA (maybe a misnomer)). My intention is to get my CA and get out of public accounting, maybe start my own business. But then again, I probably have not experienced enough of public accounting to really make a judge of it (the grunt work side is still on for me). Also, I probably haven`t worked enough to say that I don`t like my job yet and not I`m just complaining for nothing. The thing is that I do care and I want to do a good job when I work. Maybe I need a bigger firm where there are the resources to help me succeed.

I`m sorry to all the accountants who read this, it`s just my experience and I needed to let it out.

Any advice?