Accounting student hunting for an internship

Here is a thread of an email exchanged between an student and me earlier today.  I thought some students, especially accounting majors, might find this instructive.

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Dear Professor Griffin,

I am an upcoming graduate(January 2013) in the Charlton College of Business. I only need two courses to graduate so I will be a part time student for the Fall 2012 semester. On my job search most corporate employers and employment agencies require degree. I believe that is because a so many applicants on file already have degrees. I am reaching out for some advice on internships. I seek internship as an alternative to employment, plus, I'm only interested in becoming a CPA.

I have a compiled of CPA 50 firms. Before I call the CPA firms and getting the "No" from the secretary, I wanted some tips. What did you market most for UMassD students? What lessons did you learn from the firms that said no? What pitfalls should I avoid when seeking the internship opportunity? Have you ever convinced a firm to hire interns when they were not seeking interns? Finally why don't some firms hire interns or the reason they give?

Dear Student:

Your questions are excellent.  Unfortunately, I am not sure I have the answers.  If you want to work for a CPA firm, you are doing the right thing in compiling a list and going after those "leads".  You should try other approaches too.  I have attached a booklet that I updated this summer on how to land an excellent internship and their may be some ideas in there.  Networking is big and don't ignore that.  I have never convince a company to hire an intern unless they were already leaning that way.  But the good news is that many enlighten firms want interns.  The spring is better than the fall because of tax season and more work but I would push for the fall too.  Sometimes firms (especially the smaller ones) don't want interns because they either can't be bothered to guide them or they don't have enough work to keep them busy.  The accounting profession as a whole believes in internships and many firms use internships as their feeder system - like the sports analogy of minor leagues.

Good luck.

Professor Griffin

High School Students Interested in Accounting

Still in High School?

If you are still in high school, there are a few things you can do to prepare for a career in accounting. The first thing you should do is to become familiar with the types of courses you will need to take as a college student majoring in accounting (or earning a concentration in accounting.)

Since accounting is a profession (like law or nursing), there are established college accounting curriculums. Many of these curriculums match up with the requirements for the state CPA requirements. 

Take a look at the requirements to sit for the CPA exam in your particular state. In my state, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to be eligible to sit for the exam, you must:

1. Be at least 18 years old

 2. Have completed 120 semester hours (or 180 quarter hours) of credits from a nationally or regionally accredited college or university - Associate degree or Community College courses will be accepted only if transferred into a four-year bachelor's degree program.

3. Have 21 accounting credits including coverage in

• Financial accounting
• Audit
• Management accounting
• Taxation

Introductory or elementary courses can be counted toward the 21 credits.

4. Have 9 business credits including coverage in

• Business law
• Finance
• Information Systems

5. Have completed all requirements for the conferral of a bachelor's degree.

Keep in mind that colleges and universities typically also require a common body of business knowledge that all business students must master (including accounting majors). Courses such as marketing, management, statistics, business communications, and economics and typically required along with general education courses (writing, social sciences, humanities, and natural and applied sciences).

Each state has similar if not slightly different requirements for "sitting for the CPA exam"and if you are interested in becoming a CPA, I suggest you Google your own state's education requirements for the CPA exam.

Keep mind that quality colleges and universities that offer accounting as a major or a concentration, have faculty who take the time to assure that their curriculum matches the education requirements of their state's regulator of CPA licensing. So unless the college or university that you will ultimately attend is a "fly-by-night" school, their accounting curriculum should satisfy the basic education requirements to "sit" for the CPA exam.  Also keep in mind that most states will not award the CPA until the student has earned 150 credits.  The 150 credit hour rule is satisfied by most students by pursuing a graduate degree (i.e., MBA).

If you are a high school student who wants to pursue an accounting career, it would be wise to review the required courses that colleges and universities require to earn either a major or a concentration in accounting and see if you can get a jump start on any of the courses while in high school.  Although there is no Advanced Placement (AP) exam yet for high school accounting courses, a high school accounting course will at least give you an introduction to accounting. In addition, some high schools allow their students to take college courses, perhaps at a local community college or university, while still in high school.  If you have that opportunity, here are a few suggestions:

Most business school programs require macro and micro economics. Such courses are usually 100 or 200 level without any prerequisites. Either course would be helpful to an aspiring accounting major. Micro or Macro economics is also offered as AP courses at many high schools.

Financial Accounting (also called Principles of Accounting I) would also be a helpful course. It covers the fundamentals of bookkeeping (debits, credits), accounting systems, and financial statements. Managerial accounting (sometimes called Principles of Accounting II), which covers principles of cost accounting, budgeting, and special reporting for managers and staff, is also offered as a freshman or sophomore level course at many community colleges and sometimes at the high school level. A course in financial or managerial accounting before starting an accounting major or concentration would be a good start.

As a high school student interested in accounting, you should also be aware of the kinds of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) needed by successful accountants. Are you interested in these kinds of KSAs? Would you be happy learning this kind of knowledge? Would you find it interesting? Do you have some basic skills that are congruent with the skills needed of this profession? Are you confident that you will develop and enjoy employing the abilities necessary to do accounting work for a living?

Accounting requires a very special attention to detail. In the early days of learning accounting, you will need to memorize the rules of debits and credits (double-entry) accounting. You will need to work with very detailed records called ledgers. A ledger is a collection of accounts and account balances must be accurate. Are you good at keeping a lot of details straight? Are you neat and organized in the way you work? Can you substantiate, in great detail, the manner in which you derive an answer in your math classes?  

The basic accounting system that you will first learn about is a precise system of interrelated records and special rules that you must follow to establish accurate records. An audit trail, which is audit trail gives a step by step documented history of a transaction. It enables an auditor ore examiner (or in the classroom - a professor)to trace the financial data from general ledger to the source document (invoice, receipt, voucher, etc.).

The presence of a reliable and easy to follow audit trail is an indicator of good internal controls instituted by a firm, and forms the basis of objectivity - a very important characteristic of good information. The accountant's job - whether it is in preparing financial statements, doing a tax return, or preparing a personal financial plan for a client, is to produce good information - information upon which many important decisions might be made. If you have the ability to master details, organize information, and substantiate your final numbers, you may have what it takes to be a good accountant, auditor, tax advisor, or personal financial planner - all career paths for which an accounting degree is great training.

Accounting requires solid math skills. You don't need to be a math wizard or genius but you must be good with fundamental math. Most accounting math is basic - addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. You will also have to master debit and credit math which is just a set of rules that guide how math (really just addition and subtraction) is done in the accounts of san organization.

More than ever, accounting requires analytical skills - especially in the upper level (junior, senior, and graduate) courses. The ability to analyze annual reports, internal reports, and financial statements and to arrive at significant conclusions is key to being successful in the study of accounting and beyond. In addition to performing the analysis of financial information, you should be able to communicate your conclusions in clear and concise communications that can be understood by financial people and nonfinancial people.

Integrity is also important in the profession of accounting. For each specialized area of accounting there are ethical standards to which you must adhere. If your ethical compass is pointed in the right direction and you are concerned about always doing the right thing, you may make a great accountant.

It is true that attention to detail is very important for accountants. This is helpful when preparing accurate and timely reports. Accountants must also keep up to date with rules and regulations such as developments in the area of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (called GAAP) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations.  In addition, since technology (software and hardware) play a critical role in today's accounting world, you need to be technology savvy.  

Learning the basics of software such as MS Word, PowerPoint, and Excel will serve you well to start but eventually you must be an advanced user of many types of software. For example, I tell my accounting students that knowing the basics of Excel is good but they need to be a power user of Excel, the electronic spreadsheet that has become the standard in business. They need to know how to use all the financial functions, be able to use Pivot Tables, write basic macros, and be really good with charts.

Students who want to work in the area of tax must eventually master income tax return preparation and planning software and know how to research tax issues with electronic services. At our business college (Charlton College of Business) some of our juniors and seniors intern at CPA firms and they learn how to use tax return preparation software and do research using web tools provided by the firms.  The point is you must become comfortable with technology because the bag of tricks in accounting today has so many technology tools.

If you are a high school student thinking about a career in accounting and have questions, feel free to email Professor Griffin, Charlton College of Business at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth: mgriffin@umassd.edu