[EDM1204]

I apologize in advance for the long post.

I was hired at the end of November and this was my first tax season. I was told that we would be working Saturdays by mid February and Sundays a couple of weeks after. There are 2 partners and 3 seasoned staff with over 15 years each. We hired a former employee who quit the past year for help. Now my scope of work could only be limited to easy clients. I was basically an input junkie for tax returns. Learned barley any tax law and would ask a lot about clients because everyone here knows them and when a problem arose about something I’d ask them instead of looking up the answer. Am I wrong for this? Should’ve I spent a long time looking up and answer or was I right to ask someone for the quick answer? So as tax season went on I wasn’t working late and the Saturday work days never came until later on past the expected date. I have yet to work a Sunday due to my workload not being there. I probably have not worked 10 Saturdays but idk. Some of my Saturdays have been a complete waste of time because nothing would’ve came in and no one had work. So sometimes I was here for a pitiful 2 hours and I left for lack of work. I could go on forever about what has gone on this tax season at this small firm, but I seek NINJA advise about when I should start applying to new firms.

F- 78
A- 70, 69, 74, 70
R- 68, 70
B- 76

[MaLoTu]

The bottom line is if you aren't happy now you are probably not magically going to be happy later.

About asking about stuff versus researching, it depends. Some stuff you should be able to find on your own and it may be an added burden to the senior level staff if you are constantly asking questions that are found relatively easy in the tax code. I guess a lot of it boils down to your firms' culture, as well. I think some firms foster independence and others are more inclined to walk you through everything. However, I think that figuring out the answers on your own and verifying with someone if you are right is where you will see the most professional growth. If you think about it, you are sort of asking someone else to take on your responsibilities and their own every time you ask a question that you can spend a little more time to figure out.

I think that since you are new that you should expect to just be inputting information, anyway. Nothing strikes me as totally off about what you are saying. However, like I mentioned first off, if you are not happy then you should seek out a bigger firm. You have some experience now and that might get your foot in the door at a bigger firm if you leverage it.

[Missy]

It sounds logical to me that you'd be doing what you've been doing, been there five months more complex tasks go to more experienced staff. If it's not busy enough to work more hours that can happen. Use the down time you've got to learn anything and everything you can. I'm not convinced your experience will be much different elsewhere unless there's more going on.

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[Anonymous]

“Learned barley any tax law and would ask a lot about clients because everyone here knows them and when a problem arose about something I'd ask them instead of looking up the answer. Am I wrong for this? Should've I spent a long time looking up and answer or was I right to ask someone for the quick answer? “

To be honest, it could be that you are definitely in the wrong for that. Unless it's a “hey, I've spent an hour trying to figure this out and I can get to A, B and C, but I'm unsure about D, do you have a minute to give me your opinion?” Meaning are you are using the more experienced staff as your reference librarian – which also may be why you're not getting any work to do on Saturdays, why bother if it's just easier to do it themselves.)

Or the firm could be a toxic, horrible place to work. IDK.

[EDM1204]

Thanks everyone for the input.

I'm believe most of the questions I was asking was not code related and more of a question about what something was. But then again I don't remember (my mind has been horrible since I start working).

As for barely working on a Saturday it was more in response of there nothing being there for me because there is only so much I could do due to my experience. IE I had to do a 2555, which is foreign income exclusion, and it was hard for me. I was told to look up what was needed and stuff like that. Ok no problem, I did, but what it came down to was me trying to understand what it was saying. Now looking back I should've taken more time to read it and understand it before I asked for help.

I feel like I am unhappy because I am not busy. Don't get me wrong I like the downtime because then I can focus on the CPA exam, but I mean it was tax season.

F- 78
A- 70, 69, 74, 70
R- 68, 70
B- 76

[confusedcandidate]

I work at a big firm and my advice to the younger staff there applies to you too. I always tell them to take a good ten minutes or so, maybe a bit more, to see if they can figure out the problem/question on their own. Look at prior year, play with the numbers/software, google, etc. Then if they can't figure it out after a reasonable amount of time, write down the question, and move on to something else on that client. When they have done as much as they possibly can, THEN you come to me with all of your questions and we go through them one by one.

Don't go running to senior staff with every little question immediately. Just do your best, take a reasonable amount of time, and go to them when you've done everything you can and have all your questions compiled.

Regarding you low work load on Saturdays and stuff. It's really hard to reassign work, especially to inexperienced junior staff. I wouldn't take it too personally. You're probably ok and in good standing, it's just hard to reassign work. If you aren't happy at that firm, or don't like your coworkers, or whatever, then look for a new job. But you're probably fine.

Weekends are meaningless to a CPA candidate

[Author]

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