[Mike J]

Hello all,

I started a new job as a Staff Accountant about a month ago. I would like some advice for how I can improve on the job.

After passing each CPA exam section this is my first Accounting job. I’m really excited to start my chosen career.

Further, hes told me on a number of occasions that he hired me because he wanted someone raw but anxious to learn. That’s me 1000%

Mostly my assignments consist of bank reconciliations and data entry. I actually like doing the bank recs. You get to know the client and solve little puzzles. After the bank recs, the boss wants me to perform analytical procedures on comparative P&L and B/S.

Most likely because he doesn’t have the time–it is a 10-person firm–he hasn’t given me much direction. But, he wants me to ask him the right questions about certain transactions “to see what you know and how you’re progressing.” After all, you learn by doing and messing up.

The problem is that the client’s arent anything I have seen before in textbooks. I’m trying to identify trends and (to me) unexplained increases or decreases from the prior year as I input the bank account transactions.

I do ask him plenty of questions about transactions that I dont understand or recognize in current year bank statements and why certain accounts are used for certain transactions.

…

In short, does anyone have any advice for how to improve in a sort of sink-or-swim environment?

[mafalo1989]

I'd just do some research on the things you don't know about, ask questions, and wouldn't get too attached to the job. Ask questions and if he says it's too much then be real with him and say that you need some guidance and mentoring with that stuff because you aren't understanding it and it's your first real job and they shouldn't expect you to know all of that with no real world experience. Working for a small company sucks. I started out in Private in a small company and I swear, NOTHING I did was ever correct. I was never properly trained, I had a quick tutorial on how to use the software and then I was given about 50 packets of multiple page procedures to follow for every transaction and accounting scenario you could imagine. I would literally follow written step by step instructions that were prepared by the CFO and she would still find something wrong and tell me to ask more questions. Obviously I did what she said and asked her more questions but then it was too many questions so I backed off and then it was back to criticizing me for every little thing all day long. If you've ever seen the movie Office Space it was seriously like that, I would make one small mistake and the CFO would tell everyone in the office and multiple people would come up to me within the 9 hours I was stuck in that POS shed they called an office building and criticize me for something I was 99% sure I was doing correct. I swear the CFO would just change procedures whenever she felt like it just to give her a reason to be a b-word. Then they fired me and the CFO, who is a licensed CPA and should have been practicing ethics, spread my name around the metro area and said told at least 5 big employers that I was a terrible employee with a horrible personality and that she thought I was actually retarded and that I had several learning disabilities, little did she know I'm a popular person with lots of friends (because I actually have an at least decent and tolerable personality) and lots of those friends I have work in accounting and finance in those big companies and a few of them with good relationships to the hiring manager asked about me and found out what the CFO was doing. Just be prepared for something like that, if there is one thing I've learned along the way it's that people in this industry can be rude and heartless and a lot of people say they are there to help you succeed and learn and then they actually aren't.

[ellejay]

Are there any other staff accountants that you can ask questions? Sometimes it helps to have a mentor who isn't your boss. Maybe try befriending another staff and see if they can provide you some tips. I am also a staff accountant but there are no other staff accountants at my firm. What I basically do when I don't get something is I review how it was done previously and try to understand why.

Also I gather all of my questions and ask them all at once. I write them down in a notebook and have a little mini meeting with my boss and ask her all the questions I have. Sometimes she comes to my office to correct my work and I will catch her then, to talk about other questions I have. It seems to make it easier on them when you aren't constantly interrupting them and just plan to meet in one big 15 min period for questions. I have seen others at my firm get fired for asking too many questions because my boss found it “annoying.” So this is what I have done to prevent that from happening to me. I also write down everything in a note book so that I don't ask the same question 2 x. When we hire new staff I have heard my boss tell them to do the same thing I am doing so it must be making her happy that I am not asking questions every 20 mins – sometimes I do have to interrupt because I cannot proceed on a deadline but that doesn't happen that often and she is usually pretty understanding when that happens.

[Mike J]

@mafalo1989, It sounds like I work for your former boss. You described it to a T. I'm definitely not getting attached to my job. Haha. There has been a lot of turnover, so much so the guy mentioned it on the interview.

@ellejay, I do take notes. That's a great suggestion, especially to write down several and hit him with them all at once. Though, perhaps I need to revamp how I've been taking and organize my notes/questions. Maybe I should dedicate one page for each client.

Little update: Today my boss told me that perhaps “you're the victim of age discrimination because you're an older man but sometimes I forget youre not experinced. At times I've expected you to know what someone with years experience should.”

He understood that when he hired me. Indeed I changed careers from working as a paralegal with a print journalism degree to Accounting. I am only now working on an Accounting degree–MS vs BBA in Accounting–because I only needed to take a handful of undergrad classes to sit for and pass the CPA exam. Why incur more debt? But that's the subject of another thread on here.

Anyway, thank you both for your advice. I will try to implement it. Hopefully things improve.

[Author]

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