Reflection 1

Greetings, hope everyone had a happy Christmas. This year I had a nice low key Christmas with the family which was a change from the usual parties we attend. Our results were released early last week and I'm quite happy with them, getting a distinction in ACCG315.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, in the unit we were assigned weekly 'reflections' where we were given a couple questions on our thoughts of the profession. In the final week, we were given the same questions as the first week and were asked to compare our answers to see how our perceptions on the profession had changed. Today I am sharing my last reflection.

1. When you think of the accounting profession what comes to mind?

Before studying ACCG315, my knowledge of being an accountant was limited to the technical aspects of accounting such creating journal entries and ledgers, calculating depreciation, providing and presenting financial information to management and financial reports for external stakeholders. Long hours behind a desk and in front of a computer, the big four accounting firms and accounting bodies also came to mind. The different types of accounting such as management, taxation and auditory services also connotes with the accounting profession.

When I think of the accounting profession now, I think of working in teams and having one on one time with clients. In the beginning, I was not aware of how people oriented accounting was, and that networking and forming client relationships was also a large part of the profession.

With the technological revolution, I am now aware that technology plays an increasingly larger role in accounting with technologies such as cloud computing and AIS and their implications on accountants.

2. What contextual factors do you think could influence the accounting profession?

Previously, the only contextual factors I thought that could influence the accounting profession were regulators such as the government (and the current political situation), accounting standard setting bodies such as the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), the situation of the economy, and scandals involving poor accounting or failure in standard setting.

After attending seminars and presentations, I have found that are a wide variety of contextual factors such as the current state of technological advancement, globalisation, and public perceptions of sustainability and ethics also play a large part in influencing the accounting profession.

3. Describe the people you expect to interact with as an accountant.

I expect to interact with fellow employees and management of a company as an accountant, and stakeholders such as financiers, suppliers and customers. Also, auditors, professionals who work in the legal sector solicitors and possibly debt collectors.

Expectations on the people I will interact with as an accountant has not dramatically changed but I will also now expect to spend a great deal of time interacting with clients in order to conduct business.

4. What role do you think you should play in contributing to your community as an accountant?

I think as an accountant, my role to the community is to provide relevant financial information that is accurately and faithfully represented in order to give users the information they need to make informed decisions about my company.

According to The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, the role of accountants are becoming increasingly technically demanding and specialised involving; compliance w/ financial reporting standards, pensions solvency, and corporate governance legislation. In addition, accountants now feel more empowered and have greater career ambitions; demanding and expecting more career development prospects.

This was all reinforced with the seminars as this was addressed by the industry partners. Leadership skills were a part of accounting that I had originally overlooked and the extent of the role people play in relation to the accounting profession. As pointed out by James Solomons, as a result of the technological revolution, there has been a shift in the role of accountants as accountants are now able to place more focus on their analytical skills rather than spend their time on tasks such as data entry or creating financial statements.

I now know that accountants must possess a number of ‘soft skills’ as well as technical skills to succeed.

5. What might the clients and fellow employees expect of you as an accountant?

Clients and fellow employees can expect me to act ethically and in the best interest of the company. As an accountant, there may also be expectations to be proficient and to have technical skills, analytical skills, interpersonal and communication skills, business skills, leadership and team building skills and to be efficient with time management.

Industry partners such as Kamlee and Lynn highlighted the importance of time management and maintaining a good work life balance as being an accountant can be very demanding and many tasks can be due at once.

Performance Education also taught me the significance in understanding cultural differences and useful skills in making presentations stand out which will be of great benefit in the business world.

6.  What do you think are the major issues accountants face in their profession? 

As learnt from the student presentations, accountants can face a broad range of issues from maintaining a good work life balance, the threat of offshoring and redundancy, a gap in the market of the services demanded and services that are provided by accountants, issues regarding cyber security, sustainability and ethics, the digital disruption and international financial reporting standards.

Accountants can also face specific challenges depending on what area they specialise in. For example, accountants specialising in taxation will need to keep up with the annual changes to regulations imposed by the government.

References

A Changing Profession?, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, London, viewed 9 August 2014 <http://ilearn.mq.edu.au/pluginfile.php/2736496/mod_resource/content/1/A%20Changing%20Profession%20by%20ACCA.pdf>.

The Most Wonderful Time of The Year

So last weekend was the much anticipated weekend where our choir groups sang for the final Catholic Indonesian Community mass and for Venee Burgess house and Scalabrini Village. It did involve a lot of standing and waiting around in between songs during practice but the performances were as rewarding as always.

Saturday was the mass and I will admit that it was a little exciting getting dressed in the traditional wear as there are few opportunities to dress like that. Met with a few people I hadn't seen in years which was nice.

On the Sunday, we sang at Venee Burgess house and Scalabrini Village. Putting on my 'performance face' may have started as an act to hide my nervousness (particularly during my solo in the second song) but as I saw the smiles of the residents and patients and hearing them singing along instantly boosted my mood. Going to a retirement village and hospital are not places I would usually visit so it's always an interesting experience. The place was decorated nicely and the residents really did seem to be filled with Christmas cheer. 

However, there was one thing I noticed. There was this one cerebral palsy patient who didn't seem much older than me. She just had this bored/blank expression and I guess I couldn't really blame her. Obviously, having cerebral palsy is incredibly unfortunate and sufferers will not be able to have the same quality of life as non sufferers, but to be surrounded by people generations ahead of her, not having the chance to really to talk to anyone her age.. That just really saddens me. She didn't stay for the show so I didn't get the chance to talk to her.

Although volunteer work can be draining and a bit hard to get motivated about, it is always a rewarding experience and a good way to give back every Christmas. Hopefully I can get an internship (unpaid or paid, I personally don't mind) this year.

The choir (not a very good photo, I'm on the left)

The second place we visited, Venee Burgess House

Volunteer Experience

Made an update on my Linked In profile so it now shows that I have experience. Volunteer experience, that is. I was told by some industry partners to include all kinds of volunteer experience. Something about it felt a bit weird though, like I was showing off or that I took up a bunch of volunteer experience all at once for the sake of putting it on my profile. This is definitely not true.

I am currently volunteering at three places and have been for a while. The reason that I only listed them now (and not when I created my Linked In account) is that I've been doing it for so long that it felt like part of my routine that I never thought of it to be volunteer work. I mean when I think of the term 'volunteer work' I think of volunteering at a soup kitchen or knocking on doors for the Salvation Army.

I can thank my Dad for getting me into these jobs. Being part of 3 church communities/congregations/groups he thought that it would be good to get me involved with him. He probably also wanted to show off to his friends.

I clean my local church on a monthly basis, doing things like sweeping. mopping floors, cleaning windows and dusting. It's usually about 2 hours and always gets me sweaty. Sometimes I feel reluctant going but I think of it as a workout.

I also sing as part of a choir every two months as part of the monthly Indonesian masses. Out of all the volunteer experiences, I find this one the most taxing. Not because it is challenging (but it does push me, singing in Indonesian and Latin) but because the rehearsals (which last about 3 hours, and are held 2-3 times a month) involve a lot of waiting around which wastes a lot of time. One thing that really annoys me is a disruption in productivity, especially having to wait around, being unable to do anything. This is why I can't join every month, it's much too time consuming. But it's always worth it in the end.

Every Christmas, our bible sharing group also sings carols to a retirement village and hospital. The rehearsals also involve a lot of waiting around because people get chatty but it's tolerable. It's always good to give back, especially in the Christmas season and it always gets me in the spirit.

So those are the volunteer experiences that I am currently involved with and getting busy with this season. I don't expect listing these experiences to significantly make me stand out to future employers as I'm clearly not pursuing a future in cleaning or singing. But it does make me feel slightly better to be able to include some sort of experience as I've never had a part time job before.

My Experience with ACCG315

ACCG315 is the brainchild of Rahat Munir and took 1-2 years for him to create. I found this unit fun (not synonymous with laid back) and it was definitely a different experience compared to my other units. At first, I was a little intimidated by the fact that we had weekly assessment tasks and that we were given the opportunity to network with the industry partners at the end of each seminar. As the unit progressed and we became more familiar with the structure of things, it was manageable.

The weekly assessment tasks came in the form of 'reflections'. We were given a couple of questions based on the previous seminar and we were to answer them in relation to our expectations, opinions and what we had learnt. The reflections really did get me to reflect. I was prompted to think about the ways I was and wasn't prepared for the profession and what actions I could take to improve. I will most likely share them on this blog. For all my reflections, I was graded 4/5. Was hoping for maybe at least a 4.5 but not going to complain.

I was also surprised to find that there were no lectures, practicals or tutorials but instead, 3 hour seminars. I really enjoyed the seminars. For me, the most memorable presentations (in no particular order) were given by Anthony Matis, James Solomons, Lyndal York, Joycelyn Teh, Lynn Morrisson and Chris Mamarelis. The industry partners talked about their journey, what their industry was like and skills that were needed to do well and stand out. This was really beneficial to me since I did not know much about the day to day life of an accountant or much about the profession at all really.

After all the presentations, I have taken a liking towards advisory services, small to medium enterprises and not for profit organisations. I think it's the fact that it can be more rewarding and that the hours are much more sensible, which is a big plus for me.

30 percent of this subject was assessed on a 3000 word case study on the downfall of Enron, which is pretty much any accounting lecturer's favourite story. I managed to get a 24 out of 30 which I am very happy with as I was not confident about it. The group work also totalled to a 20% of our grade. Our group scored roughly over 75% in the report and we were awarded the "Best Presentation Award" which I was thrilled about. Watching the other groups' presentations also helped highlight issues accountants could face in their profession and what we could do to avoid or deal with them.

Although this unit was designed for third year accounting students, I am glad I took this in my second year as it made me aware of how difficult it is to land an internship and that we need to be persistent. If I had not taken this subject, I would probably have put off gaining any experience, creating a Linked In profile and writing a resume until after graduation. I think overall, this subject was really useful and neatly planned.


My takeaway from this unit is;

• The accounting profession is changing, and this is being driven by mainly technological, global and regulatory factors
• We need to be resilient and be able to not only adapt but even take advantage of these changes
• Accounting is not about numbers as much as it is about people
• Soft skills are just as important as being technically proficient
• You are allowed to have a personality
• First impressions are crucial
• Networking is not as daunting as you make it out to be
• Don't give up, get started early

(Our group with our awards and Lyndal, Joyce, Kamlee and a nice man who decided to join us in the back)

Update

It's been a while, so glad that exam period is finally over! For me anyway. It's been a tough couple of weeks, I remember when I used to consider staying up until 12am as 'late' but apparently 2am is the new normal for me. Well not for long.
Feeling pretty confident with my exams actually. There's always that concept or topic that you seem to dismiss when you're studying because you assume it won't be tested later, then you walk into the exam to find it is worth 5 marks. Student life problems.

So about a fortnight ago, I was on the way back from the gym when I saw that there was a new Co-op store and guess what was in the window? I remember making a mental note to get my hands on it after the ACCG315 awards ceremony in week 12. Anthony was going on about the book and how important the way you present yourself is in the professional world and it motivated me to prepare myself for the corporate world so I would know what to expect.

Every day since buying the book, I would walk past and it would call to me but I resisted since every bit of time before exams was valuable. (If only I had this much self control with social media..)
So now I finally get to read it. Of what I read on the bus trip home, it looks promising. 'The story of Alex Malley, a suspended schoolboy to CEO', sounds enthralling. Haha. Expect a future post on my thoughts of the book.

Intro

Decided to log my thoughts on the profession and figured that I might as well post it online. While this will be publicly available, this is mostly for me to reinforce things I've just learnt or to look back on in the future.

I will try to post on a weekly basis on current events so there might be the odd political/economic article or two. I will admit that my knowledge of the profession doesn't extend much further than what has been covered in university coursework so this is where I will share my thoughts on accounting blog posts and journals that I come across (so don't expect anything groundbreaking..). I'll also share any relevant experiences. :)

I got the idea of setting up an accounting blog from Matt Mansour who is currently one of my lecturers. He is the bees knees. haha

Confession:I stopped for a couple of minutes, trying to come up with some sort of accounting pun to name my blog, but alas, nothing original came to mind. It will probably come to me later. I thought 'Accounting Student Journal' would be an appropriate title as 'journal' is also accounting jargon (that works, right?). Anyway that introduction was longer than intended, if you are reading this, thanks for stopping by :)