[Fr0nt0ffice]

I recently started and internship at a mid sized public accounting firm, and I am an absolute RETARD at almost every task they give me. I take 10x as long as the other interns to complete my work, and my managers are getting frustrated because I’m running up time billed to the client, and I’m not getting enough work done. They see I am trying my hardest, and they are really cool, helpful and supportive, but even after studying this stuff for 4 years, and studying for the CPA, this stuff looks like another f’ing language to me. I seriously don’t even care that its boring “soul killing” work as they say, as long as I was decent at it, and I could do my job ok, I would be fine. But I seriously have the learning curve of a autistic child (not the math genius type) trying to learn astrophysics.

[Fr0nt0ffice]

I've always been an artsy type rather than a math person, even though I did pretty decent in math when I was in school. I imagined that being a good artist, musician, creative person was a talent that couldn't be taught, but math, logic, sciences, and structured thinking just required time and discipline. But now I'm starting to wonder, is math/science/logic also a talent? Or are some people just born to be accountants, and some people don't have it? I've been trying to shove my square peg into a round hole for a really long time now, shaving off the sides, trying my best to put myself into a high paying, prestigious, and numbers-oriented business career, but its just so hard for me.

[Fr0nt0ffice]

Someone please tell me this will come in time, and I'm just new. Managers, staff, and everyone was reassuring the new interns on the first day, “don't worry, you guys will do well, the work is easy, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to do accounting, just give it effort and you will do fine.” I'm sure it's not rocket science when you have a math oriented brain, but I see everything in shapes and colors. The only reason I know to input into this sheet is cause that blue bar on the top and the font looks familiar, and I remember that's what I was shown. The words “general ledger, trial balance, depreciation expense, capitalizing, invoices” means absolutely nothing to me. I consider myself a pretty smart guy, but I am an absolute moron when it comes to this stuff.

[Anonymous]

I doubt accounting is a talent….Don't be afraid to ask questions, sometimes you may have missed one small thing the keeps following you around… And I hate math, I really don't think accounting has anything to do with math. Has to do with numbers but math is pretty rudimentary. …

[Anonymous]

I think what it comes down to is how well you retain knowledge as an Accountant.

Oh, and do you have the patience to deal with boring information (kidding, kinda)

[Mike J]

Just relax.

They had to learn from someone at some point. No one is born knowing exactly how to do their job.

You have to put the blinders on because you can only control what…well…what you can control. Everyone is different and sees things differently.

Go look at your resume and remember what you did to get to this point. Go look at your college transcript. If youre this worried about flaming out youre obviously conscientious and hard-working. That is to say, you deserve your opportunity at the current job.

So just relax and try to take things as they come.

Do you take notes? If not, do so. Write down the answers to questions you ask and procedures to things you're shown how to do.

And with your notes, don't ask your boss a question every time youre stumped. Write them down and ask for like 10 minutes to go over (and I'm just picking a random number) 17 questions. Also show, write down how you tried to solve it yourself.

Further, don't work like youre afraid to be fired. If it happens, it happens. You can't work like that. Plus you can always spin it later. “It was a terrific learning experience…they wanted someone with 5 years exp.” But that is IF that happens. I suspect you will be fine.

So just absorb whatever you can from the people you work with and what you see on the job. You'll get it soon.

[Fr0nt0ffice]

Someone please give me some advice, I just wanna be a fancy business guy who wears a suit, does highly complex formulas for work, has a CPA title after his name, reads the newspaper, talks about Dow Jones, drinks coffee, wall street journal, diversifying his portfolio, has cool business calls, calls up people and says blue horseshoe loves anacott steel, lets buy those December calls and put the rest in a tax free mutual fund, or something fancy grownup business lingo, even though I don't have a clue what any of that stuff means, I just wanna be that guy.

[Fr0nt0ffice]

Sorry for multiple posts, I couldn't post all together for some reason.

Von: Yea, apparantly its all memorization, which I thought I would do great with, I have a tremendous memory, I remember the most obscure tiny little things, it blows people away little detail that I can remember. But its so hard with accounting, because it all looks the same. It like flipping through 500 walmart receipts, all the same size and look, and remembering that receipt #0098273 was for a computer accessory sale.

Mike030882: Yes, I do take notes, its hard for me because I'm not a very fast writer, and I either write or listen, I can't really do both. So when I copy a bunch of stuff, I usually have no clue what it means later on. But I'm getting better at this. But yes, I walk around with a little notebook everywhere I go.

[Madhav]

You are describing a scenario i had when i took Computer programming class. Initially i wanted to study Computer science because it has good job prospective but regardless of my attempts, i was just not getting the material. I always knew accounting was my kind of subject but was stubborn on becoming computer engineer. Finally after consulting with my advisory, i decided to pursue Accounting major and i am glad that i did it. For me accounting is interesting and not to be mean Accounting may not be your thing. I always thought that for people who do not like business in general, accounting could be boring just like computer science for me. Computer science made no sense for me but with accounting even with toughest topic, i kind of get general idea on how to solve that problem. If i were you, i would definitely looks for things that i am better at while continuing to work there.

When you said you wanted to be fancy guy wearing suit, i know where you are coming from. I also thought the same when studying computer science. I never truly enjoyed computer science but just wanted that Computer Engineer tag badly. It did not work for me well. I was worried every day when going to school or doing homework and lose concentration very quickly. With accounting, i do dream of doing things but when ever i am studying accounting, i just forget about every thing and just study. May be you are made for other things to excel at.

[Skynet]

It is a skill you have to learn and practice over and over again to be good at.

At the same time you also have to have good teachers and mentors to support and show you the right way to do things. At the same time, you also have to put in a lot of extra work to get good at it.

I was in your situation 2 years ago. I basically had to go back to my CPA studies, had to do a lot of research, and also had the support of my mentors to be able to pick up on a lot of things on the job.

Don't beat yourself up. It takes time to learn especially when you are just starting out.😀

[Tim]

Some people definitely do have an innate ability with numbers/logic just like others have it with arts. Accounting is a tough field for a creative person. I'm personally in this field because of my complete lack of creativity. I mean “creative accounting” is pretty much a derogatory term. I'm not sure what to give you for advice but I guess just try to find a way to leverage your strengths to your advantage as much as you can. It can be helpful to have a skill-set that most of your peers don't have.

I don't know how old you are but if you're in your early 20s it really isn't too late to gravitate your career in another path. My undergrad degree was in engineering and I didn't go back to school for a master's in accounting until 29. I wouldn't quit your job or anything, but do your best, and maybe when you move on to the next position try to branch out more and over time transition to something you're really good at that's tangentially related.

[aaronmo]

My opinion…yes and no. Like anything, it has to be developed whether you have the talent or not. Picture it like athletic talent…if you have less talent, you'll be somewhat capped, but with hard work, you can still be competent to some level at many sports. If you have talent but do nothing with it, you'll be better than someone with no talent who doesn't develop it…but you won't be as good as people who put in the prep either.

A lot depends on the type of accounting. I think the strategic/conceptual stuff…yes…some are more talented readers and intelligence comes into play. Someone with less ability in that area is at a disadvantage and it will be harder. Some things are memory/detail oriented…day to day bookkeeping. That's just a skill you develop over time.

I have a lousy memory and it can impact how quickly I learn something. That's a disadvantage for me. It can take longer.

So…it depends.

[hhjogger]

I think accountants are born. I'm am a technical natural at accounting, but could never do sales. On the other hand, if you are at firm people skills are key. You have to play politics and work with clients. Some people at the firm I worked at were not that smart when it came to accounting, but used their people skills to get to the top. In short, technical skills are not everything in accounting.

Passed all 4 parts of the CPA exam.

[alloverit]

The only thing that concerns me is that the other interns are so much faster.

My story is somewhat similar. I was a total fraud coming out of college. I had a 4.0 GPA and was recognized at the business banquet as the “Distinguished Graduate” (the top of the top honor).

My first job I had to leave before they could fire me. Second job…same thing. I finally settled in at a small firm that really didn't need me and I could take tons of time to figure stuff out. Then, I altered my billing to show something more reasonable (slow, but not 10X slower). And yes, I realize you don't have that option.

After some time I actually got it. I'm now a CPA and find the work rewarding. I'm very good at in-depth, complex work, but struggle with the mundane stuff that accountants spit out quickly.

I wish you Godspeed in your troubles and good luck in your future.

[Author]

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