[Kls238]

I recently started a job in corporate tax. Things were great up until our first major deadline, which was two weeks ago. Although I submitted my work to my reviewer before the deadline, I got a lot of my work sent back to me due to minor errors. Some of the mistakes were 100% my fault, but some of the errors I feel were due to lack of training on the matter and even senior staff showing me how to do a task incorrectly. Today, I could tell one of my supervisors was frustrated with me and I’m starting to feel like the weak link among the new staff. I also fear that my superiors will lose trust in me and that I’ll get reputation of not doing my work well. Anyone else ever have a similar experience? How can I recover from a rocky start?

Passed all sections.

[Anonymous]

Being trained in the wrong way definitely makes it hard to do things correctly. I always hated it when I'd get in trouble for something that a senior member of the staff had told me to do – made me wonder if s/he had been doing it incorrectly all along too or given me bad advice on purpose or just not listened to the question before answering or been clueless so made something up to sound good…I think I've had situations where all those options were probably the “real” answer!

As for how to recover, I'd say that the best way to change their opinion of you is to make sure that any errors you can possibly catch are caught before you hand them in for review. I'm assuming you're salaried, so can stay later to review extra – if so, do it. Or maybe at the end of the day, your mind is too tired to review, so maybe you could do something like come in on the weekend to review your work for the week. Bust ass to do better than you did before. Don't slow down your turn-out to be more thorough; increase your hours to be more thorough. Review your own work with a fine-toothed comb to find anything that's your fault…and if you get any advice from senior staff members that sounds fishy, research it and find out if it's right or not.

I would also take note of who you got bad advice from and make it a point to not ask their advice in the future and if you do get advice from them, research it extra to make sure it's right before you follow it.

This will all take a LOT of extra time and effort, but it sounds like your impression is that you're currently behind everyone else, which means you have to work harder to get ahead of them so that your “average” will be on par with the others.

You might also see if your supervisors and/or reviewer might have some advice for you. It could be that there's something specific they're wanting to see change – maybe even something you don't know they have an issue with – and if you ask them, they can say “We'd appreciate it if you did _____ in the future”.

[s2sylvir]

I want to start off by saying, “Everyone makes mistakes, that's what makes us human.”

You're new, you are going to make mistakes. Your senior staff is going to make mistakes. Sometimes you're going to get the sharp end of other people's mistakes. The one thing to keep reminding yourself is to not let that bring you down.

Since I don't know your situation completely, I'm going to try to be as objective as possible.

1) Most firms have departments. Each department has different partners, managers, senior associates, etc. The end result is a tax return. But there are 50 million ways to get there. Also, every manager/partner has their own way of supporting documentations, etc.

One thing I learned the hard way is that everyone does things differently. My best advice is to ask those who are 1) in your same department or 2) a staff that work closely with the supervisor and understands their preferences.

Perhaps the person you asked just doesn't work in the same industry/department as you. Maybe what they said is how their supervisor likes things done, but it's not how your supervisor likes things done.

Also, forgive the senior staff. Give them the benefit of the doubt, because a big part of being an accountant is teamwork, and you're not going to go far if you hold it against them. Once again, realize they make mistakes just as much as you. Actually, if I were the senior staff, I'd want the new staff to tell me if I did something wrong. Even partners make mistakes, and if it's not someone below them pointing it out, who is?

Finally, you'd be surprised how hard it is to try to teach others what you know. That's why I think the senior staff just wanted to be helpful to you (how can you hold that against them?). There's a reason we're not teachers, we're accountants, haha!

2) The past is the past. You said you received a handful of minor changes — well, the best thing going forward is just to make sure you're improving and not repeating those minor mistakes.

You can always prove how capable you are. A highly valued asset is the ability to take in constructive criticism, thank the supervisor for them, and SHOW them that they're heard.

I know that project probably brought you down a bit, but think of it this way, the next big project you do for that same supervisor will be so much better.

Growth is highly valued… And if you think of your situation from another point of view, if you can wow them in your next assignment, they're really going to notice since the difference in quality of work will be pretty significant!

Anyway, just stay positive, hope I helped! 🙂

BEC - PASS (79)
AUD - PASS (63, 71, 74, 74, 83)
REG - PASS (88)
FAR - PASS (58, 89)

Becker for all + FAR 10 Point Combo

[Samurai Plamenco]

“Don't slow down your turn-out to be more thorough; increase your hours to be more thorough.”

THIS! I can't argue enough about how this is bad. Our office actually encourages us to STOP working after the 11th hour. There is only so much you can sanely do and keep everything straight. Especially if you're looking at things all day, after so much time, you're not doing yourself favors. If you're the first one to leave everyday, then yea. you should probably up your hours but don't up your hours just to review stuff. Your manager has deadlines just like you do and dumping a bunch of extra time into something to get it 2 steps closer isn't worth yours or your managers time. this doesn't mean turn in BS. They understand your ability and that it can only get you so far efficiently.

As for being the weak link. Every staff gets that feeling. On my 5th year, I still get that feeling when its just me, senior manager and Partner on a job. All you can do is your best. No one has trust in the first years anyways. It isn't until the 2nd-3rd year that they really start trusting you to do stuff. Yea, that sounds rough, but its reality. Until you get significant exposure to something (2000 hours), you won't be competent at it. Some people may disagree with me, but there's a reason why we need 1 year of experience under a CPA to get licensed and even then, you're not going off to open your own firm just cause you got licensed. You're going to continue working under other CPAs so you can get more experience and more exposure to more difficult and complex issues.

Your best bet for recovery is going to be just keep going in, showing your willingness to learn more, owning up to your mistakes and then moving on to the next job to show you've improved and learned. No one's going to hold your mistakes against you if you're honest to god trying to get it right and showing you're putting thought into it.

As for your seniors seeming annoyed, its not you, its probably all the other stuff they've got going on also and they may have inadvertently pushed that on you. Don't take it personally. If it keeps going on for several days/weeks, maybe talk to them about it, but i doubt its directly related to you and more related to just it being the busy time of year. You'll see, after the 4/15 deadline, everyone's going to mellow out a lot.

[10keyLeah]

Great advice in this thread from the Ninjas! I've went through something similar in my first year, and I'd bet that most people do. Learn from your mistakes. Make notes, a check list, or do whatever you have to do to keep from making the same mistakes again. I've found it very helpful to go to a co-worker that has a little more experience than myself. I get a long with her and it keeps me from asking my boss a million questions. If you aren't asking enough questions, then consider it.

Ninja Combo, Yaeger, Wiley -- Licensed CPA, May 2015

[Kls238]

Thank you, everyone. Your advice helped a lot. I'm still new and learning, so I realized over the weekend that I'm probably being too hard on myself. While I do need to make improvements at work, I am working better and more efficiently than I did at the beginning.

Passed all sections.

[Author]

Replies