Many current and future tax CPAs think they can control the flow of their careers when in most cases they are merely in the eye of the hurricane. But that doesn’t mean you’re without options. [click to keep reading…]
Accounting LIONs
If you have followed my blog for a while you are aware that I created a LinkedIn group with the same name as my blog titled Advice for Tax Preparers. That group is devoted to the same premise as my blog in that the group provides accounting students and tax professionals the opportunity the learn, share and discuss tips and tricks on how to succeed as a tax preparer in a public accounting firm.
I have now created a new LinkedIn group called Accounting LIONs which goes in a completely different direction. This group solves a big problem for accounting students and accounting professionals who want to expand their accounting and tax professional connections on LinkedIn, but do not know enough people or have the time to do it. [click to keep reading]
The Definition of a Secret in a Public Accounting Firm Tax Department
I could not find who originally said it. But the following quote is one that I heard from a management consultant friend of mine on a regular basis. He said the definition of a secret is
“merely information that is passed one person at a time”.
His point was that any information you give or action you take in front of anyone at the firm is at risk of being communicated to another person in the firm. It does not matter if the information is personal or professional or if the information was given accidentally or on purpose.
Therefore, you should keep to yourself anything that you do not want the partner group to know.
Breaking the Rules
I know that you are going to break the rule I just noted to you. All of us do it at one time or another. We form friendships with our coworkers and we want to talk with them about our personal and professional lives.
But keep in mind that every time you do it, you need to consider the following questions: [click to keep reading…]
Assigning & Accepting Blame in a Public Accounting Firm’s Tax Department
Since I did my previous post on learning how to accept praise, I thought it was worth sharing how most tax departments decide who is at fault for an internal problem before looking at who actually did anything wrong. Although tax accountants tend to be very law and order oriented (its one of the reasons we don’t get selected for jury duty), we hate to get blamed for doing something wrong. [click to keep reading…]
Using Your Lunch Hour to Advance Your Career
Why in the world did I put lunch as a topic? It’s not that hard. You find a place outside the office to eat lunch or you eat at your desk.
Life is never that simple.
Let’s put it this way. Under normal circumstances, you will spend roughly 250 hours each year going to lunch during the work week. There are office rules as to how you spend this time. But you have a couple of choices. [click to keep reading…]