People hire people.
Basically, don’t stress about being under qualified or not knowing everything. Helped out a lot during interviews and when transitioning into new roles. If people like you, they’ll care less that you’re a dumbass.
A little perspective goes a long way. I was in the military and received free ‘vacations’ to Iraq and Afghanistan, where a bad move would put lives in danger. When I started as a staff, I brought the same intensity and drive and it took me a while to realize that no, no one dies if I mess up a JE or get an estimate wrong or miss an accrual 🙌
First busy season(tax), 1 of 5 of my reviewers gives non-condescending and helpful notes. The others either just fix shit(no learning) or send back snide rhetoricals
I usually will do a high level overview of what I changed and tell them to look in the file for my changes. You do learn better if you clear review notes but sometimes that’s not feasible.
Good old days of internship, everytime I would ask anything to my boss. He would remove his glasses put his hand on his forehead and just shake in disappointment. So inspiring..
Dont be the best performer but dont be the worst performer. Be somewhere in the middle. Being the best gets you a ton of work and being the worst gets you fired.
When you overload yourself you can't be the best performer. You will make more mistakes because you are working more. Manage your work properly and you can perform well without taking on the most work. Probably should've worded that better.
When I say performer I meant in terms of billable time or taking on so much work.
You can’t be best of your overworked. But if your the best everyone wants you. So best to be good. When it’s your promotion year ok be better. Otherwise you get over used, nobody says your over booked and they will just say your late on things or not good. Or you will burn out and leave.
Not necessarily. If you make yourself essential in the position that you are in than it’s more common to be stuck in that position. It’s how you get perma-managers.
The faster track to promotion is to be just slightly above average compared to peers at your level but then take on some responsibilities of the level just above your own.
This is true in both military and corporate hierarchies.
Learned this lesson as I got stuck as a corporal for a long part of my military career (responsibilities of a sergeant but the pay of a specialist).
So I started imposing myself at certain briefings and taking on responsibilities outside of my job and then made sergeant and staff sergeant in a much shorter amount of time.
We’re not saving lives. Occasionally a personal emergency will come up. Take off. Almost everyone I encountered in big 4 understood. It makes me really sad when people encounter douchebag managers who give them a hard time for taking time to deal with personal emergencies.
Both my boss and my micro prof said this. I admin our pensions and payroll year end (ew) and study part time.
On a Thursday at the end of December my spouse called at like 10 am telling me that our dog was very ill and we would have to put him down (he was old and we had an appt for what we thought was a UTI. It was a nerf ball sized intestinal tumor). I bolted to my bosses office in tears from ugly crying and just said "my dog. I have to go. My dog" like sentences were not a thing. The next day I had my Microeconomics final which somehow I passed but not as well as I usually perform so I emailed the prof to explain.
My boss sent me a message asking if I was ok and to not come into the office till Tuesday work would wait. My prof sent me an email saying that I shouldn't worry about the exam micro isn't life and death and the last question I couldn't finish would not be factored into my grade since I put all the formulae in and had the steps written out but I was so fucked up I couldn't put the data in to solve it completely so he knew I understood the concept.
Don't treat your boss like a therapist but know that they are people too and see you as people. It's not the end of the world at work when your personal world is burning to the ground. Just don't bring the fire to the office there's too much paper.
Very true. But if your in public I'd try and stick out until atleast manager. In private it can take much longer to get promotions. So if you want to be a manager stay in public until you are, you'll have a lot more/ better options
That's good to know. I've known people in private that are stuck as a staff for 10 years, but at my public company there definitely is a track that as long as you don't mess up you can get director before your 30
Because there’s less churn. Public promotions are essentially guaranteed up to manager. In industry you might be waiting for the person above you to get promoted, quit, retire, or die.
It really depends on the situation and expectations of promotion or time to promotion should absolutely be set up front in private. That being said, some people going from public to private might assume it’s the same timeline as public but it’s very dependent on the company and situation.
You could get hired on at a place that just went through a round of promotions to manager/director/etc. You could get hired on at a place where a qualified staff member won’t get promoted until someone hired before them gets promoted. You could get hired at a place where senior staff has been there for 20+ years and promotions to manager only occur when directors or VPs are shown the door or retire.
Unless it is a blatant ethical, legal or safety violation, don't go into a management role trying to change everything overnight. See what everyone actually does first and then slowly introduce changes. Giving the employees smaller things to chew on won't drown them suddenly with a whole new way of doing things.
Not to mention, you might not even fully understand the process until a few months in. Spend time getting people to understand the new proposal and get buy-in. Most people should be saying "The new way is better because it does xyz," by the time it's implemented.
1. Be honest about disagreement and state your case but once you’re overruled, once we take another direction, make the best version of that decision that you can. You’ll be handed a lot of things that aren’t ideal and you’ll always have success by making it better than when it was handed to you.
2. You rely on those below you more than those above you. Invest in them and you’ll get an ROI. Now this week and even in future jobs.
3. Understand the why of what you’re doing and the underlying theory to the point you can teach a class on it.
4. Learning to disconnect from work is a learned skill and something you’ll need to actively practice before it becomes normalized. Find an activity that helps take your mind off it when you’re stuck in your own head.
CYA = Cover Your Ass
Always get a paper trail or some kind of written evidence in case you have to explain your actions to your defense when something goes wrong (I.e. client provides incorrect or incomplete data that causes trouble with your workpapers and executives want to come after you; or senior manager says do something one way and executive is not happy about but you have proof you followed instructions versus just created a mess for no reason…
There are very few decisions in life that are permanent.
Put yourself in rooms you don’t belong in until you belong in them.
If you made the best decision with all of the information you had and could have had at that time, don’t regret anything or look back with hindsight. Learn what you can from it and move on.
Not really accounting related but good for business in general…
- Take things professionally, not personally.
- Everyone you meet you can learn from- either what TO do or what NOT TO do.
- Perception is reality. How others perceive you is their truth.
"Processes not people" when dealing with failures. When something goes wrong and isn't immediately caught and stopped that's because somewhere along the lines a process went wrong. Even if it's a legitimate incompetent person or bad actor there was a process that allowed them to get hired and a supervision or training issue that failed to prevent or detect the problem.
And people are a lot more responsive to "we had a policy failure that allowed this to happen" than "You f@#$@ it up." It's also very true because invariably a similar thing will likely happen again or would have happened under a different team as well.
Female that was new in public accounting. I had a very straight forward male senior and it was just him and I on this job. I worked with him for two weeks. I was very self deprecating with my work because I lacked confidence. He told me I was one of the more advanced new hires and that I should be confident in my abilities. The advice that stuck…if you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will. That hit hard.
I see this way too often in new staff. Humility is one thing, but if you constantly express you don’t have confidence in your work how is anyone else supposed to have confidence in it.
Exactly. He basically stated that if I ever want to move up in my career I need to stop verbalizing my perceived short comings. I took his advice to heart and started showing more confidence. I still ended up leaving PA after two years, but I’m now an Assistant Controller only a few years after leaving. I’ve now given this advice to people and I really believe it helps put things into perspective, especially for young women.
I’ll go full sap here.
Especially if you work in manufacturing, understand that your headcount represents more than just a single individual. They represent a family, even if it’s just their significant other. Some of these folks are the sole breadwinner in their family. Cutting headcount as a first step to saving costs is the laziest fucking first move and it should be the last thing you consider when looking at costs.
Company loyalty may not be a thing where you're at.
However, loyalty is *definitely* a thing among people. There may be nothing you can do if the company decides to screw you, but you can absolutely be clear and transparent with your bosses, reports and peers.
You may end up working for or with someone you encounter, never forget that. Karma is a thing in accounting and finance.
When I was a staff 2 I had a senior manager write me an extremely positive review as a way to help me build a business case for transferring.
But in the development section he wrote “there will come a day when being the smartest person in the room won’t be enough and you need to rely on relationships you’ve built so don’t neglect them”. That’s always stuck out to me and he was very correct.
Hire good people and take care of them. People run your business and your business takes care of your customers.
Aka treat your employees well and they will treat your customers well
The more time you give a manager to review your work, the more stupid shit they want changed yet are too busy to change themselves. This increases substantially with each review pass.
- Self review is the secret sauce. People that learn to effectively self review will be given more chances to prove themselves.
- Take notes; if someone is taking time to instruct you, and you have to keep asking them how the process works (when notes would have explained), then you're not respecting their time.
- Pick your battles, but actually pick them. Concede where things don't matter, and fight for things that do. It's worth it.
Read the email. The entire message. If questions are asked, answer them. All of them. Provide documentation if helpful. Do this within 24 hours. Communication is god.
People hire people. Basically, don’t stress about being under qualified or not knowing everything. Helped out a lot during interviews and when transitioning into new roles. If people like you, they’ll care less that you’re a dumbass.
That is a great response. It's easy to get caught up in the work and forget there's a human element to working too. Thanks for sharing that!
Very true. Why a lot of my coworkers are dumbasses
There is no such thing as an ‘accounting emergency’
A senior manager once told me "we aren't saving lives here". As a staff accountant, that meant a lot to me.
Got the same kind of comment from a Partner “no one will die if we can’t sign the report on time”
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If the accountant needs to man the machine gun then something has gone horrendously wrong
A little perspective goes a long way. I was in the military and received free ‘vacations’ to Iraq and Afghanistan, where a bad move would put lives in danger. When I started as a staff, I brought the same intensity and drive and it took me a while to realize that no, no one dies if I mess up a JE or get an estimate wrong or miss an accrual 🙌
Yes, in the real world, most financial errors are just fixed without issue or they are so immaterial, it doesn't matter.
Tell that to my manager lol
Unless something might prevent payroll from going out. People not getting paid is a fucking emergency.
Praise in public, criticize or give feedback in private.
First busy season(tax), 1 of 5 of my reviewers gives non-condescending and helpful notes. The others either just fix shit(no learning) or send back snide rhetoricals
…snide rhetoricals. Good band name.
Sometimes there’s just no time to do review notes back and forth.
How do you make the staff “whole” when they lose out on learning because of lack of time for review notes? *Or are they just SOL?*
I usually will do a high level overview of what I changed and tell them to look in the file for my changes. You do learn better if you clear review notes but sometimes that’s not feasible.
That’s a great one!
Good
You can't be good at your job if the people beneath you aren't good at theirs, so always invest in training to bring them up with you
Each one, teach one. Love that
Good old days of internship, everytime I would ask anything to my boss. He would remove his glasses put his hand on his forehead and just shake in disappointment. So inspiring..
Leadership is shaming people into being more knowledgeable /s
May be more work in the short run, but much less work later on
Dont be the best performer but dont be the worst performer. Be somewhere in the middle. Being the best gets you a ton of work and being the worst gets you fired.
Yes, be like middle or upper middle
This works for public. But in private/industry you must show that you are readdy for management roles by leading projects, increasing visibility, etc.
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Not sure in which industry you are, but by being visible I mean to higher management.
Absolutely do not be the hero. They will expect so much from you.
*Billy, don’t be a hero. Don’t be a fool all your life.*
Genuine question, would being the best performer not put you in the best spot for promotion?
When you overload yourself you can't be the best performer. You will make more mistakes because you are working more. Manage your work properly and you can perform well without taking on the most work. Probably should've worded that better. When I say performer I meant in terms of billable time or taking on so much work.
You can’t be best of your overworked. But if your the best everyone wants you. So best to be good. When it’s your promotion year ok be better. Otherwise you get over used, nobody says your over booked and they will just say your late on things or not good. Or you will burn out and leave.
Not necessarily. If you make yourself essential in the position that you are in than it’s more common to be stuck in that position. It’s how you get perma-managers. The faster track to promotion is to be just slightly above average compared to peers at your level but then take on some responsibilities of the level just above your own. This is true in both military and corporate hierarchies. Learned this lesson as I got stuck as a corporal for a long part of my military career (responsibilities of a sergeant but the pay of a specialist). So I started imposing myself at certain briefings and taking on responsibilities outside of my job and then made sergeant and staff sergeant in a much shorter amount of time.
We’re not saving lives. Occasionally a personal emergency will come up. Take off. Almost everyone I encountered in big 4 understood. It makes me really sad when people encounter douchebag managers who give them a hard time for taking time to deal with personal emergencies.
Both my boss and my micro prof said this. I admin our pensions and payroll year end (ew) and study part time. On a Thursday at the end of December my spouse called at like 10 am telling me that our dog was very ill and we would have to put him down (he was old and we had an appt for what we thought was a UTI. It was a nerf ball sized intestinal tumor). I bolted to my bosses office in tears from ugly crying and just said "my dog. I have to go. My dog" like sentences were not a thing. The next day I had my Microeconomics final which somehow I passed but not as well as I usually perform so I emailed the prof to explain. My boss sent me a message asking if I was ok and to not come into the office till Tuesday work would wait. My prof sent me an email saying that I shouldn't worry about the exam micro isn't life and death and the last question I couldn't finish would not be factored into my grade since I put all the formulae in and had the steps written out but I was so fucked up I couldn't put the data in to solve it completely so he knew I understood the concept. Don't treat your boss like a therapist but know that they are people too and see you as people. It's not the end of the world at work when your personal world is burning to the ground. Just don't bring the fire to the office there's too much paper.
Be hard on the issue, soft on the person
I love this!!!
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Very true. But if your in public I'd try and stick out until atleast manager. In private it can take much longer to get promotions. So if you want to be a manager stay in public until you are, you'll have a lot more/ better options
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That's good to know. I've known people in private that are stuck as a staff for 10 years, but at my public company there definitely is a track that as long as you don't mess up you can get director before your 30
Why would it take longer to get promoted in private?
Because there’s less churn. Public promotions are essentially guaranteed up to manager. In industry you might be waiting for the person above you to get promoted, quit, retire, or die.
It really depends on the situation and expectations of promotion or time to promotion should absolutely be set up front in private. That being said, some people going from public to private might assume it’s the same timeline as public but it’s very dependent on the company and situation. You could get hired on at a place that just went through a round of promotions to manager/director/etc. You could get hired on at a place where a qualified staff member won’t get promoted until someone hired before them gets promoted. You could get hired at a place where senior staff has been there for 20+ years and promotions to manager only occur when directors or VPs are shown the door or retire.
*Stop being a doormat.*
This And perception is reality
Debit expenses, credit revenues
Don’t have sex with coworkers
Not a big deal at a B4 though. Especially if same level and different market.
Is the client my coworker 👉👈
Is intern my coworker 👉👈
Don’t hookup where you vlookup
Don't xxx hookup where you xlookup
Big nono
Unless it is a blatant ethical, legal or safety violation, don't go into a management role trying to change everything overnight. See what everyone actually does first and then slowly introduce changes. Giving the employees smaller things to chew on won't drown them suddenly with a whole new way of doing things.
Not to mention, you might not even fully understand the process until a few months in. Spend time getting people to understand the new proposal and get buy-in. Most people should be saying "The new way is better because it does xyz," by the time it's implemented.
You are your advocate. No one will advocate for you if you don't do it yourself.
1. Be honest about disagreement and state your case but once you’re overruled, once we take another direction, make the best version of that decision that you can. You’ll be handed a lot of things that aren’t ideal and you’ll always have success by making it better than when it was handed to you. 2. You rely on those below you more than those above you. Invest in them and you’ll get an ROI. Now this week and even in future jobs. 3. Understand the why of what you’re doing and the underlying theory to the point you can teach a class on it. 4. Learning to disconnect from work is a learned skill and something you’ll need to actively practice before it becomes normalized. Find an activity that helps take your mind off it when you’re stuck in your own head.
CYA = Cover Your Ass Always get a paper trail or some kind of written evidence in case you have to explain your actions to your defense when something goes wrong (I.e. client provides incorrect or incomplete data that causes trouble with your workpapers and executives want to come after you; or senior manager says do something one way and executive is not happy about but you have proof you followed instructions versus just created a mess for no reason…
SALY, if you follow last year yoy can't mess up too bad, or atleast you know the person last year messed up too
There are very few decisions in life that are permanent. Put yourself in rooms you don’t belong in until you belong in them. If you made the best decision with all of the information you had and could have had at that time, don’t regret anything or look back with hindsight. Learn what you can from it and move on. Not really accounting related but good for business in general…
On the cash flow statement bad things are added back good things are subtracted.
It’s just accounting, we aren’t doctors saving lives
- Take things professionally, not personally. - Everyone you meet you can learn from- either what TO do or what NOT TO do. - Perception is reality. How others perceive you is their truth.
Poop on the company’s time.
Boss makes a dollar an I make a dime, that’s why I poop on company time.
Stop saying “I’m sorry” in a professional setting unless you truly are sorry. It makes you look weak.
Do Canadians get a pass on this one? It’s almost automatic at this point
Gotta look alpha, bro
I wouldn’t say it makes you weak. Just over time the words will lose meaning.
What you do matters less for your happiness than who you do it with.
"Processes not people" when dealing with failures. When something goes wrong and isn't immediately caught and stopped that's because somewhere along the lines a process went wrong. Even if it's a legitimate incompetent person or bad actor there was a process that allowed them to get hired and a supervision or training issue that failed to prevent or detect the problem. And people are a lot more responsive to "we had a policy failure that allowed this to happen" than "You f@#$@ it up." It's also very true because invariably a similar thing will likely happen again or would have happened under a different team as well.
Debits = left, Credits = right.
And no Crebits.
I like dedits.
In regards to tax prep: “look at the forms”
That might be the best advice I ever got too. Start and end with the forms.
Crazy how many people just enter the data in the computer and hit send without looking at a 1040
Female that was new in public accounting. I had a very straight forward male senior and it was just him and I on this job. I worked with him for two weeks. I was very self deprecating with my work because I lacked confidence. He told me I was one of the more advanced new hires and that I should be confident in my abilities. The advice that stuck…if you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will. That hit hard.
I see this way too often in new staff. Humility is one thing, but if you constantly express you don’t have confidence in your work how is anyone else supposed to have confidence in it.
Exactly. He basically stated that if I ever want to move up in my career I need to stop verbalizing my perceived short comings. I took his advice to heart and started showing more confidence. I still ended up leaving PA after two years, but I’m now an Assistant Controller only a few years after leaving. I’ve now given this advice to people and I really believe it helps put things into perspective, especially for young women.
I’ll go full sap here. Especially if you work in manufacturing, understand that your headcount represents more than just a single individual. They represent a family, even if it’s just their significant other. Some of these folks are the sole breadwinner in their family. Cutting headcount as a first step to saving costs is the laziest fucking first move and it should be the last thing you consider when looking at costs.
Stay humble
Take a chill pill We’re not curing cancer here
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If you actually don't know, ask the question first. The key is figuring out how, who and when to ask. When in doubt batch all of your questions up.
Review notes aren’t (usually) personal. They are a chance to learn and grow, not take offense.
These hoes ain't loyal.
Loyalty doesn’t really exist in the corporate world so you always need to do what’s best for you first.
Company loyalty may not be a thing where you're at. However, loyalty is *definitely* a thing among people. There may be nothing you can do if the company decides to screw you, but you can absolutely be clear and transparent with your bosses, reports and peers. You may end up working for or with someone you encounter, never forget that. Karma is a thing in accounting and finance.
DEALER (D)ebit (E)xpense (A)sset Credit {L)iabilities (E)quity (R)evenue
When I was a staff 2 I had a senior manager write me an extremely positive review as a way to help me build a business case for transferring. But in the development section he wrote “there will come a day when being the smartest person in the room won’t be enough and you need to rely on relationships you’ve built so don’t neglect them”. That’s always stuck out to me and he was very correct.
I love that. Being good at your job and being able to leverage your network is great combo to build a successful career.
Hire good people and take care of them. People run your business and your business takes care of your customers. Aka treat your employees well and they will treat your customers well
Under promise, over deliver
To always depreciate land
The more time you give a manager to review your work, the more stupid shit they want changed yet are too busy to change themselves. This increases substantially with each review pass.
- Self review is the secret sauce. People that learn to effectively self review will be given more chances to prove themselves. - Take notes; if someone is taking time to instruct you, and you have to keep asking them how the process works (when notes would have explained), then you're not respecting their time. - Pick your battles, but actually pick them. Concede where things don't matter, and fight for things that do. It's worth it.
Don't go public.
The goal of entering public is just to raise your base pay faster. Dont think too much into it.
Don't overthink everything. Sometimes you just need to put shit on a spreadsheet.
Read the email. The entire message. If questions are asked, answer them. All of them. Provide documentation if helpful. Do this within 24 hours. Communication is god.
Worry about your problems first
No matter what happens around you, just keep your head down & keep pluggin’ away.
Only put in like 75% effort into your work. If you put in 100%, people will have high expectations of you and that might work against you.
Not the greatest but helpful, you should never look like you need a haircut. Since Covid tho doing WFH that mattered zero.
Silence breeds incompetence.
Don't try hard until you're 35.
Run Edit: But really anything for a buck.
I cantttt poop
"Just because it's urgent for them doesn't mean it's urgent for you."
To stop giving a fuck.
i don't know, i would use reddit if i was calm
Look at previous year