Career Advice

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  • #200841
    Hello2016
    Participant

    Hi Everyone,

    Wish everyone has a great 2016, promotion and good health. I need some career advices about what kind of job titles I should look for. Here is my background, I have B.S degree in Statistics in 2012, but I couldn’t find any job related to Statistics ( Probably I don’t have much experience on resume and my English is not so well ). And my friends told me accounting is easier to find a job, so I start taking accounting classes, and got an accounting assistant job in a small CPA firm in 2013, but the paid is very low. So I got a junior staff accountant position in a small size company ( around 25 M annual revenue ) in 2014. My job responsibility is for AR, AP, bank reconciliation and create some simple cost reports, but our accounting department doesn’t have much knowledge about accounting, example: we do not have Allowance for Doubtful Accounts (we bad debt it whenever we want), we do not have inventory( We put it as expense it when we purchase), and we do not have depreciation(Our CPA helps us calculate in the end of each year) Etc. I am feeling I just go to work only for the small paycheck, but I really want to learn more accounting knowledge while working and move up in my career, So I am taking CMA now, I just passed the part 1 on Jan 2016, and planning to take the part 2 on Jun (I want to take the CPA exam, but I still need few more accounting classes. And I can’t wait. I might want to take more accounting classes and take the CPA after I finished the CMA). I am looking for a cost accountant position, but there isn’t a lot of cost accountant positions on the market ,and the cost accountant usually requires 3-5 years of cost accounting experience ( I live in the Bay area). My question is what kind of job titles should I look for in order to help me get a cost accountant position in the future. Should I stay in my current company or look for some other company so I can gain more accounting knowledge while working? But it is kind of hard to get a accounting position in a Mid-size company with my current resume. I do not want to look for other similar size company, because I am afraid of they do not have proper accounting procedure either and it just makes my resume looks bad as a job hopper. Sorry it is kind of long, but thanks in advance for your input.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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  • #762801
    Hello2016
    Participant

    🙁 Anyone .please give some advice

    #762802
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    The way I looked for a job always was to look search “accountant OR accounting OR cpa” on job search sites. Of course the CPA might not apply as much for you right now, but job titles vary so much that the “accountant OR accounting” term should pull up a lot more hits for you than specifically searching for cost accountant or any other specific title. Then, once you find accounting job postings, I'd suggest submitting a very well-put-together resume and cover letter to every posting that you're even close to qualifying for. You've got a little over 2 years of experience, right? That's close to 3, so I'd apply for the 3-5 year jobs, as well as the 1-3, 0-1, etc. However, the key is to have a well-written, well-edited, well-formatted, overall well-put-together resume and cover letter. Anytime I'm hiring, I'm appalled by the shoddy resumes that people submit all over the place. Someone who edits their resume well stands out from the stack regardless of their experience. That's not to say that experience doesn't count, but simply to say that a good resume counts for a lot, too.

    Also, don't write off all small companies just yet. 🙂 Smaller companies will be less formal, but it sounds like yours is a bit of an exception! One that goes through an audit every year might be a good start, but the place I work is smaller than where you work, from what you say, but has an annual audit, so has to keep things fairly well in line throughout the year. There's some things we do that don't make a lot of sense, but we do track inventory, have Allowance for Doubtful Accounts, etc. So, if you find a job that seems good but it's with a small company, it might be worth giving another one a chance. Now that you know what to be wary of, you'll probably be able to get a feel from the interview for how closely the company follows standard accounting policies.

    #762803
    Hello2016
    Participant

    @Lilla Thank you for your detailed response, I also feel like my resume needs a lot of improvement! I will spend some time on Google this weekend to work on my resume. So I guess I need to do few more years staff accountant first before try to apply for cost accountant. Right now When I have interview, I just try to avoid company that is using quickbooks as their accounting software, because I am afraid of end up working in a company like the one I am working right now. Would you give me some insight about what kind of accounting software a good manufacture company usually use?

    #762804
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    ” So I guess I need to do few more years staff accountant first before try to apply for cost accountant.”
    I didn't say that…just said if you want out of your current job, expand your job search. And also that different companies call the same job by different titles, so you might want to expand your search terms anyway, and then weed through the results to find one that's really cost accounting regardless of the tile. Like, I think I've seen jobs called “Plant Accountant” that the job duties were exactly what I've seen in “Cost Accountant” jobs. So, if you search “Cost Accountant”, you'll never see “Plant Accountant”, but if you search “Accountant”, then you'll see both. You might need more years experience before you get a job doing what you really want to do; I don't know. But, I didn't mean to say that you do, just that you should expand your search terms to increase your chances of finding what you want.

    There's about as many accounting software packages as there are companies that use it. Not quite, but almost. I couldn't even begin to mention ones to look for. Partially cause I have no manufacturing accounting experience, but also just because there's soooooo many. Quickbooks is more entry-level, generic accounting software, so for you to determine that a company that has its books on Quickooks probably does more entry-level, generic accounting probably isn't too big of a stretch (personally I'd leave the door open to Quickbooks companies, but I can understand why you wouldn't). However, listing the good software packages is a lot harder than listing the bad ones. Usually I think what you'll run into is an entire ERP system which includes the accounting software, so your question really is “What's good ERP systems”, and that's really a manufacturing management question, more than an accounting question.

    I think improving your resume will pay huge dividends for you. So many people submit such terrible resumes that putting 2-3 hours into making yours good can make you the 1 out of 10 people (or one out of 20 or even better odds) that actually looks like they pay attention to detail enough to do the job. Cause…if you can't spell your university name right on your resume, what's going to make me think you have the attention to detail to type numbers right in a JL entry after I hire you? Spelling and accounting aren't related fields necessarily, but if when you're trying to impress me you can't do something things with attention to detail, I'm not going to trust you with my organization's finances and with paying attention to detail with them.

    #762805
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    If you're good with statistics, maybe an actuary job can be a good fit. Insurance companies are obvious employers but not the only firms with actuarial needs. Assuming you have a good maths background with a BSci Statistics degree, plus your accounting studies, other areas to consider are risk management, forecasting and financial modeling. In addition to the previously mentioned cost accounting.

    #762806
    Hello2016
    Participant

    @Lilla Thank you so much for your advice!!!! I have been applying for jobs recently, you are right, some company has didn't title, but it has the job duties I am looking for. Even thought I haven't received any responses from them, but I will keep looking. Thank you again.

    #762807
    Hello2016
    Participant

    @Call Me Al To be honest, I only remember some basic statistics and linear regression, all those forecast model, hypothesis testing and probability distributions. I forgot most of them already, I did pass the actuary P exam, but it is kind of difficult to get into the actuary field. plus I already have 2 years of accounting experience ,and spent money& time to take the CMA exam. I am not sure if I should look for actuary position again. Thank you so much any way!

    #762808
    Missy
    Participant

    It is always worthwhile to look and see what jobs are out there imho, the only time it becomes a dilemma is when you have an offer.

    However I would encourage you to ask more questions at work. The things that you are assuming are not proper accounting procedures may very well be proper but transparent to you. For example, we have an external CPA that calculates my bad debt accrual and depreciation for me. I am perfectly capable of doing it myself but the truth is what she charges my company is less than I am paid for the same amount of time. Our bad debt expense is pretty consistent year to year so I don't deal with monthly accruals etc. When I write something off it goes to expense. At the end of the year my external cpa reviews the expense and the amount remaining in accrual (usually last year's year end balance) and if an adjustment is necessary we do it in December. I'm probably the only person in my office that realizes it was even done so it wouldn't surprise me if it happens where you work and you're simply not aware. Same goes for depreciation, my CPA already has very expensive fixed asset software so its more cost effective to book estimates all year long and let her reconcile it at year end.

    But definiately ask WHY, there may be a proper explanation as I have and at the least you are demonstrating initiative by asking.

    Old timer,  A71'er since 2010.

    Finance manager/HR manager

     

     

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

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