Hirings and Mergers

Our weekly roundup of hirings, promotions and mergers is online here.

Does SOX 404 Improve Processes?

It may be causing you to stay late far too often, but Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley has led to improved processes, according to 65 percent of chief financial officers at technology companies surveyed for BDO Seidman’s 2008 Technology Outlook Survey. The other 35 percent feel 404 has curtailed innovation at their businesses.
“Although technology companies were hesitant to adopt Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley, the majority have realized improved processes due to their compliance efforts and do not believe 404 has adversely impacted their level of risk-taking,” said Hank Galligan, a Partner in BDO Seidman’s Technology Practice. “The CFOs at these technology companies are also very optimistic that 404 costs will stabilize this year.”
The survey of 100 CFOs at technology firms with revenues between $100 million and $15 billion also found:

• 53 percent of CFOs believe their 404 costs will hold steady in 2008, 22 percent think costs will climb and 24 percent expect 404 costs will decline.
• Over half (54 percent) of the surveyed CFOs manage Section 404 compliance in-house, while 11 percent who use an external provider. Just over one-third (35 percent) use a combination of in-house and outsourced resources to manage SOX compliance.

Hedge Funds Expected to Add CPAs

Hedge funds in New York and New Jersey need CPAs who can handle risk management. Even in the midst of the credit crunch - and maybe because of it - funds will bring on board more accountants as they mature and receive more scrutiny.

Here's our story.

We Got A Challenge For You

How well do you know finance and accounting rules and trivia? Our marketing department - always looking for ways to make friends - is offering a chance to test your knowledge and compete against other finance professionals in the JobsintheMoney Accounting Challenge. You could win $1,000. "Hurry," exhorts our Marketing Director Maria. "The Challenge ends on February 22nd!" (You'll need to register for JITM to participate.)

Check out the accounting challenge.

Switch Jobs During Tax Season?

With so many empty seats to fill, public accounting firms may be willing to overlook a candidate's willingness to jump during the busy season. But that doesn't mean doing so is a good idea.

Here's our story.

E&Y Gets Behind CSU Career Center

Ernst & Young is offering a $500,000 matching grant to California State University, Northridge, to create the Ernst & Young Center for Career Advancement, which which will provide career counseling and placement services to students pursuing careers in accounting and information systems.

Here's a press release.

Our Weekly Roundup...

Flexible scheduling is losing ground as a recruiting tool. Dixon Hughes absorbs a Memphis firm, while Archer Daniels Midland, CNET and Conn's name new CFOs.

Our weekly roundup is here.

Which Is It?

Another data point on staffing being the critical issue accounting firms face: A press release for the Institute of Management and Administration's Accounting Office Management & Administration Report says:

Staffing challenges are encouraging CPA firms to work smarter and more efficiently through technology improvements, and more CPA firms are moving firm administrators and other administration leaders into the executive management ranks, providing administration expertise that frees CPA firm partners to do what they do best.

What's that mean? Seems like firms are looking to redeploy their staffs so that the genuine accountants are spending more time billing and less time doing administrative chores. The IOMA also says:

Recruitment trends reported in the "Handbook" include using internships, flextime, telecommuting, and established relationships with local colleges and universities. Only 12.4% of the firms surveyed felt that offering a higher starting salary was a successful hiring tactic (my bold). CPA firms reported that flextime, greater involvement of staff in firm operations, more CPE, more social activities, and training in marketing and leadership development were the best methods for improving staff retention.

But: Contrast that with Robert Half's survey, which we reported on here, that found 37 percent of chief financial officers think compensation is the most effective incentive for attracting accounting professionals. It also found that the proportion of CFOs who cited telecommuting and flexible schedules as the biggest draw for candidates

...plummeted to just 13 percent this year, from 33 percent in 2003. Meanwhile, soaring medical costs are making the benefits package almost as important to job candidates as salary. While a mere 2 percent of CFOs named benefits as the top influence on candidates' choices in 2003, the figure jumped to 33 percent in 2008.

So, accounting firms are thinking flextime and involvement, while corporations think money and healthcare benefits. Hm. I'm wondering why the difference.

Health Benefits Overshadow Work-Life Balance

Traditional benefits such as health insurance are surging as recruiting tools, while telecommuting and flexible work schedules are losing ground.

Read our story.

Merger Trend Can Impact Careers

If you work in a small CPA firm, would your career suffer if your employer were to merge with a larger organization? If you think so, you'd better start preparing now.

Here's our story.

Tech CFOs Sweat Recruiting More than Credit

It's official. The challenge of recruiting accounting talent is bigger than the challenge of the credit crunch.

San Francisco's BDO Seidman, LLP questioned 100 chief financial officers at technology companies throughout the U.S. to find 38 percent believe the ability to recruit and retain talent is the greatest challenge they face for the coming year. Risk management (23 percent) was second, followed by access to capital (15 percent), financial reporting and corporate governance issues (14 percent) and foreign competition (9 percent).

As a group, CFOs in Silicon Valley were even more worried about talent management. A whopping 55 percent listed it as their greatest challenge for the year.

International accounting issues are also worrying the CFOs. Almost half (49 percent) say new accounting rules that allow foreign companies to use International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) without reconciling the figures to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) put their company at a competitive disadvantage.

Not surprisingly, the CFOs think GAAP's revenue recognition rules are better than IFRS' for technology companies. Nearly 70 percent of the CFOs prefer U.S. GAAP revenue recognition compared to 21 percent for IFRS. Yet, more than a third (38 percent) said they'd switch to IFRS if they could, to better compete with international firms.

The lack of concern over the credit crunch may be due to the fact only 27 percent of the CFOs think they'll be seeking additional capital in 2008. Among the Silicon Valley CFOs, 86 percent didn't expect to need a capital infusion this year.

These findings come from the BDO Seidman 2008 Technology Outlook Survey, which queried CFOs at companies in the software, hardware, telecommunications and Internet sub-industries with revenues ranging from more than $100 million to $15 billion including. The survey was conducted in January of 2008.

Last Week's Poll

The question was which specialties will be hot this year. The answers:

• Compliance 30%
• Internal audit 22%
• International accounting 19%
• They are all hot 15%
• Tax accounting 14%

This week, we're wondering what you think about the Recession: Is it here, is it coming, or is it not going to happen? Let us know, on JobsintheMoney.

Professors Say PwC is #1

Grant Thornton has the best work/life balance and ethics, but PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) was the top overall winner when Public Accounting Report asked 1,200 accounting educators to rank the Global Seven firms.

PwC ranked first in five categories: future outlook, client service, technical reputation, staff training and career opportunity. KPMG won the diversity category and Ernst & Young finished first in compensation, according to Public Accounting Report’s 26th Annual Professor’s Survey—2007.

After adding up all the scores from the nine categories, Public Accounting Report ranked the firms this way:

1. PwC
2. Deloitte
3. KPMG
4. Ernst &Young
5. Grant Thornton
6. RSM McGladrey
7. BDO Seidman

More 'Resources' at the IRS?

The IRS is likely to get more money for enforcement in the budget proposal now wending its way through Congress, though exactly what that means for the Service's headcount isn't clear. Says The Wall Street Journal:

… lawmakers in both parties sound eager to give the IRS more tools to improve tax compliance and boost revenue.

In addition, Congress is expected to increase the IRS's budget, especially for enforcement activities, such as audits. President Bush asked Congress to appropriate a record $11.36 billion for the IRS for the year starting Oct. 1, according to a Treasury Department publication. That would be an increase of 4.3% from the amount enacted for fiscal 2008; spending on enforcement would rise more than 7%, the publication says.

Last month the group OMB Watch said the IRS was suffering from a lack of enforcement resources, misplaced priorities and inefficient policies. In addition,

The funding shortage has also impacted the number of staff the IRS can hire. Over the last ten years, the workforce has shrunk 18 percent, according to IRS statistics. The number of revenue agents and officers -- IRS employees who perform audits -- has decreased even faster, by 40 and 30 percent, respectively.

Stay tuned.

Best Workplaces: CPA Firms Rank High, But Not Tops

They may be great places to launch a career, but the Big Four landed far from the pinnacle in Fortune Magazine's annual ranking of America's 100 most desirable employers.

Here's our story.

Roundup

Our roundup of mergers and moves is online here.

No Surprise

What's interesting about this report by the Associated Press isn't the main topic - hiring's good at accounting firms - but that the general business media seems to be noticing how strong the job market is for accountants right now. A week or so ago, we saw a similar piece in The Wall Street Journal, and I've noticed other versions in local newspapers. The focus of this piece is on interns.

All the firms said interns are a key to their success.

"Interns are your best channel to filling your full-time positions," said Diane Borhani, Deloitte & Touche's U.S. campus recruiting leader.

"The way the labor market is, with the boomers retiring, it's imperative companies hire. By 2010 we think that half our work force is going to be Generation Y," said Dan Black, director of campus recruiting at Ernst & Young LLP.

It's more good news for anyone interested in swapping jobs, or students planning the start of their careers. And another reason for a deep sigh from executives looking for someone to hire.

Are You Sitting Next to a Lout?

Are accounting firms so desperate they'll hire even self-centered clods?

The question came to mind the other night when I pulled into my local convenience store. A car was parked across three or so spaces, preventing me from parking my own car in front of the door.

"Why is that car parked that way?” asked my 10-year-old, who was in the backseat with a friend.

“It belongs to somebody who doesn’t care whether anyone else can park in front of the door,” I told her.

We go in, I grab a gallon of milk, and at the register my daughter points out there’s a pile of gum packs lying on the floor in front of the counter. The clerk says he knows all about it. "That little kid who just left knocked them over," he tells us. "Her mom said, ‘Leave them. We don’t have to pick them up.’”

Guess which car they were driving?

"You'd make me pick them up," says my daughter. I agree and tell her I'll help her pick up the gum now. Even though we didn't spill it, we'll do a good deed. My daughter's friend chimes in: “If I knocked over the gum, my mother wouldn’t even help, she’d just make me pick up the gum by myself.”

Naturally, I wonder where the sideways parking, gum-leaving woman works. It's what made me wonder if it was at some accounting firm. After all, these days firms sometimes just want a body behind a desk.

So, back to my question: Are firms desperate enough to hire the self-centered? Can you be oblivious to the needs of others and still make it in accounting? How many of these idiots do you work with - or for?

Post your answer below.

Life in Forensic Accounting

Here's a factoid for you:

Ninety-one percent of convicted bank robbers go to jail, while only seventeen percent of those convicted of embezzling from a bank serve time, according to the American Bar Association.

I found that in an article in Knowledge@WPCarey, published by the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. The article, Financial Detectives: The Rising Demand for Forensic Accountants, is a good overview of the state of forensic accounting right now, including some aspects on the lifestyle that goes with being a practitioner. For example:

...only one of every hundred or so certified public accountants currently focuses primarily on forensic work. That may be partly because forensic investigations often wind up as evidence in legal proceedings, including full-fledged trials. As Epps said, "some don't want the stress of ending up on the witness stand, being cross-examined. And once a judge sets deadlines, and the trial starts, you lose control of your life; your schedule revolves around the needs of the case."

Financial Detectives: The Rising Demand for Forensic Accountants [Knowledge@WPCarey]

More on Why Accounting's Popular

Dave Simanoff of the Tampa Tribune writes a nice wrapup about why accounting has become such a popular choice for undergrads, and why demand for accountants isn't going away anytime soon.

Instead of scaring young people away from the profession, the scandals earlier this decade may have helped recruit new accountants.

"In kind of a weird way, the bad news got more students interested," said Chuck Landes, vice president of the Professional Standards Group for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

"They saw it as a way to do something positive, not just for themselves, but for the public."

Yeah, yeah. We've heard all that before. Stephanie Bryant, director of the School of Accountancy at the University of South Florida, put it another way:

"The students get it - they see this is a very different job today, with many different avenues of specialty," Bryant said. "Kids today want to be challenged, and they want to do interesting stuff."

Demand For Accountants On The Rise [Tampa Tribune]

Pay Moving Higher in California

Why are California employers nervous? Because a whole lot of accountants are open to the idea of changing jobs, and their replacements are nowhere in sight.

Here's our story.

Here's a Twist: Employers Pay You For Interview

The economy is shaky, so candidates lack leverage with employers, right? Not exactly.

NotchUp.com, a newly launched Web site, leads off with this striking pitch: "Get Paid to Interview For Jobs." It's gotten off to a strong start with a business model in which employers actually pay candidates they interview. And we're not talking Joe's Fly-By-Night: such platinum names as Google, Yahoo and Facebook are already recruiting on the site, Associated Press reports.

The typical NotchUp candidate is what's known as a passive job-seeker – a person who's doing well where they are and doesn't post resumes or answer job ads, but is potentially open to the right deal if someone approaches them. The AP story explains:

You plug in your industry, job, pay and experience into a calculator on the site to help you set your pay for an interview. (NotchUp recommends a range between $200 and $500.) Then you submit your profile to the site. If a hiring company is interested in you, it deposits the money with NotchUp and talks to you. If you seem like a real, engaged candidate, NotchUp will transfer the money to your PayPal account once the interview is over. The site makes money by charging a transaction fee, which it estimates will be somewhere around 15 and 20 percent.

Site Arranged Pay for Job Interviews [AP]

Opportunities in Healthcare Companies

Hospitals, insurers and others in the business need accounting and finance help - and are willing to pay for it. Here's the story.

Looking for Trouble

I just have to believe there's going to be even more demand for forensic accountants in the next couple of years...

FBI subprime investigation targets 14 firms [Washington Times]
Trained to follow money trail [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review]

New Controller, CAO at R.H. Donnelley

R.H. Donnelley, purveyor of Yellow Pages around the country, named R. Barry Sauder as its corporate controller and chief accounting officer. Working out of the company's Cary, N.C., headquarters and reporting to CFO Steve Blondy, he takes the controller's job right away but will wait for Donnelley's annual report to be filed before replacing Karen E. Palczuk as chief accounting officer.

Sauder was previously chief accounting officer at InfraSource Services, a publicly traded utilities contractor that was bought out by Quanta Services in 2007 for more than $1.25 billion. Prior to that, he was accounting head at e-commerce company GSI Commerce.

R.H. Donnelley hires accounting head [Triangle Business Journal]

In Case You Were Wondering...

Demand Won't Let Up Any Time Soon.

The short-term economic outlook may seem dim, but good times are far from over for accounting job candidates.

Here's our story.

What Mid-Size Firms Seek in California

Despite the slump in real estate and worries about the economy, the market for accountants in Los Angeles and Orange County shows few signs of tailing off. Several small- and mid-sized firms will be adding employees in upcoming months, and even beyond. Consider Windes & McClaughry.

Read why.

The View From Over 50

Twenty one percent of the U.S. workforce will be 55 or older by 2014, says the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. So if you feel superannuated among your Gen X and Y colleagues, you've got age-appropriate company. And the good news is: Employers will value your experience.

Read the full story.

Down, but not Out at Deloitte?

Wall Street tabloid DealBreaker.com was reporting yesterday that Deloitte was reorganizing its mortgage, asset-backed and CDO transaction practice group. A company spokesman, cried foul and said they were just moving folks around. In what may be the biggest understatement so far in 2008 the spokesperson added that the “economy may have slowed securitizations transactions.”

In response to the post, an anonymous commenter (who claimed to be one of the Deloitte folks in question) called Deloitte “liars,” an argument ensued over who gets worked harder IB or Big 4 folks, then everything degraded into gender and immigrant bashing. All in a day’s work at Dealbreaker.

Although the mortgage securitization market may be going down the crapper, Deloitte’s Web site today listed 467 NYC-based jobs as open, as well as 6,206 positions nationwide for experienced hires.

If you’re tired of Big Four work, maybe you can make your first million cleaning up the subprime mortgage mess. Anyone who watched the Resolution Trust Corporation tackle the $400 billion S&L wreck of the last decade knows just how much money can be made in a market where there are lots of mortgage loans lying around, few investors and plenty of technology to sort the good risk from the bad.

You Could Be the Next Compliance Star

Compliance costs “grew significantly faster than net income for financial institutions,” in part because banks and thrifts are adding people to monitor compliance versus using technology resources to manage it, according to a new report from Deloitte & Touche USA.

Compliance costs as a percentage of net income rose from 2.83 percent in 2002 to 3.69 percent in 2006, said survey respondents, which included chief compliance officers, chief risk officers and other senior execs at 20 of the top 50 banks and thrifts.

Deloitte also blamed the increase on failure to manage compliance across functions. Institutions have not taken advantage of the overlapping elements of Sarbanes-Oxley, Basel and the USA PATRIOT Act. And, they’re replicating compliance practices in individual lines of business, an approach that makes it tough to develop comprehensive compliance information.

Sounds to us like a case for you being in charge of a visibility-raising, across-the-business-lines committee.

What about Roberta in Accounting?

How do you feel about being called "Bob in accounting" and being too thoughtless to encrypt your data? “[I]f large corporations and government agencies can't seem to get into the habit of encrypting sensitive information, how can you expect Bob in accounting to do the same? Besides, encryption is a hassle. It's another step between Bob and his spreadsheets. Who needs more friction in their lives?” asks InfoWeek Blogger George Hulme.

Hulme writes about technology to control the flow of information into and out of companies, including stopping downloads from desktops to storage devices.

“(I)t presumably will be easier to lock down those gadgets, so if they're lost nothing of value can be gleaned from the drive. Will Bob do it? Will more companies now use encryption?” Hulme wonders

We wonder if any accountants are going to be willing to do Hulme’s taxes after reading the blog .

Apparently, There's a Shortage

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal had a long piece on the need for experienced CPAs.

"We beg, we borrow, we steal, we grovel, we scour the world" to find accountants with five-plus years of experience in public accounting, says Mark Friedman, New York-based managing director and head of U.S. experienced recruitment at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Hiring across the board at the firm is running nearly 30% above the levels of last year, he says.

The trends's not news, but the numbers in the article are all good to know, especially if you're thinking about broaching the idea of a raise.

Accounting Firms Scramble To Find Experienced CPAs [WSJ]

Pay Pressures in the Bay Area

CPAs in California's Bay Area are earning more than their peers elsewhere in the U.S. - and nearly 20 percent more than those in Southern California. Nearly a third would jump to another firm as a way to boost their salaries still higher. The findings didn't surprise Rich Williams, president of recruiter Kula Consulting, which conducted the "non-scientific" survey of 325 accountants. "What we're seeing is baby boomers retiring at a faster rate than they are being replaced," he says. "The number of CPA certificates awarded in California has remained flat at less than 3,000 a year for the past 10 years - and we've seen no indication this number will rise." That's not great news for anyone looking to hire accountants. "Companies can expect the seller's market to continue for 2008," Williams predicts. "I suggest companies spend time today with their accounting staff and find out what it will take to retain them - and give it to them."

More tidbits from around the country in our weekly roundup. It's here.

Does Virtual Connection Lead to Real Life Connection?

Recruiting new accountants on campus is a tough and competitive job these days, even if you’re working for KPMG. So it comes as no surprise the firm seeking to connect with professors via a new Web portal: kpmgfacultyportal.com.

Looking at the equation from the other side, the rising use of adjunct professors (who are renowned for spreading themselves thin commuting to several different campuses to teach a variety of classes) makes it more likely those teaching accounting will welcome KPMG’s help in creating courses, keeping up with accounting news and accessing KPMG research and resources. The company will even send a local accounting professional over to help with course work it’s created such as last fall’s “The Ethical Compass - A Toolkit for Integrity in Business.”

I asked three academics what they thought of the site. “Most of the firms seem to have some kind of web-based material for faculty. This one may be unique—but also, may not be much different from the others,” said Kathleen D. Lowman, director, MAC Career Services for the Kenan-Flagler Business School at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Shannon Mulally, who directs the MAC program at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich., thought the site was worthy of a mention on our blog. (See how well we listen?)

Peter Rea, chair of the department of business administration at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, pointed out these types of sites are beneficial. But in true professorial fashion, he added a few caveats:

(1) Marketing 101 tells us the number of these portals is increasing, so providers need to define the customer and their associate needs, wants and values clearly. In thoughtful portals like KPMG, this is usually the case.

(2) Connection should not be confused with community. We live in a world that is connected, but being wired is not synonymous with creating a community. At a time when employers are trying to create an “engaged workforce” and innovators are looking for creative cultures, engaged leaders understand relationships cannot be replaced by a portal.

Judge the new KPMG portal for yourself at: kpmgfacultyportal.com.

Happy Tank Day

Since early this morning, the news junkie in me has been watching the overseas stock markets and reading the predictions that the market is going to tank today. Time will tell, of course, but I don't think anyone much doubts business in general is heading for some kind of slowdown. That, of course, makes me think of corporate austerity programs, scaled back retention efforts, maybe finance chiefs will say they don't really need that extra staffer they've been looking for over the last year. Then I hear from someone who says, "Naaaaw. Not in Accounting. There's not going to be any kind of let up there."

Wishful thinking? Maybe. On the other hand, this guy argues there's still a structural deficit in the number of able bodies out there who are trained and ready to do the work, which has to be done, slowdown or now slowdown.

Stuff to think about. If you've got thoughts, let me know.

More than 'Feel Good'

Too busy for volunteer work? There's a reason you may want to find time to squeeze some in: It can boost your career, and even help you be a better accountant.

Indeed, through volunteering many CPAs have been able to shore up skills, gain management and international experience, widen their network of professional contacts and generate new business. Some say working for worthy causes has given them a new appreciation of the importance of their expertise, because it allows them to see results more directly than they do on larger team projects.

Read the Full Story.

Public Companies and the Big Four

Audits of large public companies continue to be the nearly exclusive province of the Big Four, the Government Accountability Office has found. According to a GAO, 82 percent of large public the Fortune 1000 saw their choice of auditor as limited to three or fewer firms, and about 60 percent said competition in their audit market is insufficient. Fees have risen, but executives generally said audit quality has increased as well. If you're interested, the report's here. Be sure to see Francine McKenna's take on the report on her blog, re: The Auditors.

Regulatory Relief, Or Consumer Rip-Off?

Accountants licensed in other states will face less red tape to practice in California, under proposed legislation endorsed by the California Board of Accountancy.

The proposal would remove California's current requirement that out-of-state accountants notifying the state of their qualifications before practicing there. Eleven states have already modified their laws to eliminate local registration requirements, and accounting regulators in another 33 states including California are supporting similar legislation, according to the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy.

That didn't prevent the Orange County Register from running a grandstanding column that portrays the measure as the latest in a series of plots by the Big Four CPA firms and industry lobbyists to rip off consumers.

Brian Joseph, the Register's regular "Capital Watchdog" columnist, wrote:

Board staff warned that eliminating the requirement would make it impossible to prevent unqualified accountants – or even convicted felons – from preying on California consumers. Furthermore, the board itself recommends that Californians carefully review qualifications before hiring an accountant. The board's enforcement chief, Greg Newington, even prefers notice. The board, however, ignored its own advice and approved draft legislation to eliminate prior notice, even though a key section of the bill was left blank at the time.

The piece continues in that vein. In fairness to the columnist, I should add that he does give ample space to the other side, quoting lengthy and convincing rebuttals from representatives of the accounting profession.

Proposal would relax rules on CPAs [OCRegister.com]

Demand Rising from N.Y. Non-Profits

Large not-for-profit associations and philanthropic organizations pick the Big Apple as a key spot to locate. For area CPAs with the right credentials, the nonprofit sector holds good, though specialized, opportunities.

Read the full story.

Uncovering Your Resume's Hidden Surprises

If a manager searches the Web about that hobby of yours, do you know what they'll find? Are you sure?

Read on.

Mergers and Promotions

Cohen & Company moves into Columbus, StoneTurn Group hires and promotes, and Goldstein Schechter Price Lucas Horwitz merges with Koch Reiss. Here's our roundup.

The Great Bay State Telecommute

With something like eight inches of snow falling on Massachusetts yesterday, it seemed like the region's workers embarked on a wide telecommuting experiment, says the Boston Globe.

If nothing else, yesterday's modest storm proved to be a one-day experiment in the effectiveness of the home office, especially among those not used to it. All across the region, many found a few surprising pitfalls entwined with the obvious perks.

On top of power failures breaking off their Internet connections, many found themselves immersed in unexpected workday dynamics - from dogs that needed walking to out-of-school children who needed entertaining. Maybe the most painful remark came from a spouse who said of her husband's unexpected presence: "When he's home, it throws a wrench into our schedule."

Many workers make it a telecommute [Boston Globe]

Auditors, Senior Accountants Lead Wish Lists

Even if everyone's looking for CPAs, some specialties are in more demand than others. Combine expertise in an area like internal auditing or hedge fund accounting with softer skills like communication, and you could be the object of affection for many a firm.

Read the full story.

Roundup: Mergers in East, Midwest

Small and mid-sized firms are merging in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Here's our roundup.

High-End Hiring

Here's an item: TheLadders, a Web site that focuses on jobs with salaries over $100,000, says hiring activity at the high end of the market is surging.

It’s interesting to note that although the top line jobs number only grew at a modest rate of 18,000 jobs in December, service-sector employment rose 93,000 and business and professional services companies' payrolls gained 43,000. This is an extremely positive signal because hiring patterns at the high end of the market are often a better leading indicator of companies’ future growth prospects, than trailing employment roll data.

Among the firms doing a lot of high-end hiring, says the report: PricewaterhouseCoopers and JPMorgan Chase.

Here's a press release.

Midsize Firms Act to Retain Young Accountants

To keep junior staffers from bolting, midsized accounting firms are moving to provide more feedback from managers, formal input into firm decisions, departmental and individual employee work schedules calibrated to minimize the 24/7 syndrome, and mentoring programs.

Read the full story.

How to Economize on Audit Fees

What happens when you stop using a Big Four firm for your audit work? You save a bunch of money, figures telecommunications systems company Catapult Communications. By switching from Deloitte & Touche to Los Angeles-based Stonefield Josephson, Catapult estimates it will save between 43 and 49 percent off the $985,000 it expected Deloitte to charge this year. (Last year, the company paid nearly $1.1 million in audit fees.)

Catapult Ditches Deloitte [WebCPA]

New Skills Required for CFOs

If you have designs on a chief financial officer's office in California or other points west, you'd be wise to strengthen your communication and other "softer" skills. The region's employers are more likely to hire executives who know how to present information clearly and work well with others. In other words, financial skills aren't enough any more.

Read the full story.

Working in Your Sleep

When companies can’t find enough accountants, those already on the payroll have to pick up the slack and that can lead to some very lengthy hours.

Almost every accounting candidate coming to see Kent Burns, an account executive with MRINetwork (MRI), Indianapolis, is asking about work-life balance. “They’re asking, 'How many hours are they really working people over there?'” he reports adding that candidates in their 20s and 30s are more sensitive to that than candidates in their 40s.

That anecdote is backed up by an MRI survey of 500 people that found people working in the evening, on weekends and during their commute – leading me to wonder if really great multi-taskers will now be able to shave their faces, read a report and drive themselves to work at the same time.

The poll revealed 65 percent of the participants frequently work after hours, 19 percent sometimes do, 9 percent occasionally stay late and 5 percent never do.

A whopping 70 percent said their company doesn’t do a good job of allowing them to balance their work life with their personal life.

So how does that play out in the real world? And what does Burns tell people who worry their next job will require even more hours than the one they’re leaving because it required too many hours?

In some cases he says: “This is an industry leading company, and they didn’t get this way by sending everyone home at 5 p.m. Do you want to work at that level, learn a lot, advance and make a lot of money?”

In other cases, he can honestly say a company is sensitive to work/life issues and you can expect to work 40 to 50 hours a week.

In the big scheme of things, it could be worse. We haven’t heard of any accounting firms asking employees to work in their sleep -- something the 2nd Annual Staples National Small-Business Survey says small-business owners are doing.

“More small-business owners and managers are working harder than ever to make their business dream come true…even while they sleep,” proclaims a press release sent out by the company over Business Wire last week.

Half of small-business professionals surveyed said they dream about work and nearly 70 percent of those dreamers wake up and put their work dream ideas into action. Sounds good to me. I think I’ll go sew some pockets in my pajamas to hold all the money I’m going to be making while I’m sleeping.

The Year of the....

If you believe what you read in the papers, 2008 is going to - in a word - suck. The news coming from Wall Street seems to be consistently downbeat lately, economic indicators are starting to depress people, and I always get a funny little knot in my stomach when people start anticipating the Fed chairman's next speech.

But, if you believe what you read on JobsintheMoney, maybe things aren't going to be so grim. When we asked in our last poll what kind of year 2006 will be, users came back with a split decision: Thirty two percent said we're in store for a better 12 months than most expect, while 31 percent said it will be dismal.

Sixteen percent said 2008 will be a good time to look for a new job, which was a stronger showing than the 10 percent who look on it as a good time to seek a new career.

What's your outlook? Post your comment and let us know. And, be sure to look at the latest poll, which wonders whether you expect your firm to merge this year.

Taxes in Spanish?

Liberty Tax Service is offering scholarships to the Interpreter Training Institute for bilingual employees who agree to work the full tax season at one of the preparer's offices. The firm freely admits (in a press release) "the hourly rate may not be what other companies pay but the educational perk truly can't be beaten."

Dona Dezube, who pointed this out to me, wondered in an e-mail:

Okay, so they're not the top of the accounting food chain, but apparently tax preparers need to speak Spanish. Can it be long until accountants need the same skills?

It's a good question, especially for CPAs in the West and Southwest. And, Dona adds, weekly Spanish classes at your local community college probably aren't particularly expensive.

More on Deloitte

Some interesting comments came in overnight to Myra Thomas's interview with Anne C. Weisberg, a director specializing in talent diversity at Deloitte Services LP. They talked about Deloitte's rollout of a "Mass Career Customization program" and the impact the firm hopes it will have on retention and employees satisfaction. One comment begins:

I work for Deloitte Consulting, and the consultant in me says "show me the data". While this is a summary article, I rather doubt that the airy-fairy "career customization" discussed here results in markedly improved employee satisfaction. The service professionals in Deloitte's practice groups aren't concerned with trying to make their 40 hours a week as pleasant as possible, they're interested in working as hard and as long as necessary to deliver the best client service (and thus help their own careers). A good line of communication from HR, in that line of thinking, would be whatever impacts the client-service employees the LEAST, takes as little of their time as possible away from working and sleeping.

Check it all out, and add your own thoughts here.

Merger, Mergers

We've introduced a mergers roundup on JobsintheMoney, to help you keep track of who's joining whom - or who's buying whom - around the country. Check the first edition here, and be sure to send us any talk you hear of possible hook ups. (If you can call them that.)

Balance at Deloitte

We talked with Deloitte Services' Anne C. Weisberg, a director specializing in talent diversity, about the firm's experience in keeping up with the changing workforce. Read the conversation here.

Follow Ups Are Key

Conventional wisdom says you should always follow up with prospective employers after you've sent them a resume or met them for an interview. But many candidates find such tactics fruitless: Either they receive no response from their actual contact, or find no way to reach a live human being. We asked Dawn Fay, a New York vice president for recruiter Robert Half International, how best to proceed.

Read the conversation here.

Juggling Work and Hunting

If you're one of those people who is always in the office, you have to come up with ways to get away for the occasional job interview - without calling in sick when you're not, for example. Here's a great little piece from The Wall Street Journal about looking for a new job while being responsible to your old one.

The Trick to Finding A New Job Without Losing the Old One [WSJ]

You Can Drown in Water That's 1 Inch Deep, on Average

Employee confidence looks to end 2007 at a record low among both accounting and finance workers and the overall U.S. population, according to one widely followed monthly survey. But connoisseurs of rear-view-mirror driving can take comfort from this: averaged throughout the first 11 months of 2007, the monthly Hudson Employment Index slightly exceeded the monthly average for 2006.

Read the full story.

More Risk Opportunities for N.Y. Area CPAs

Management accountants in the New York metropolitan area are finding increasing opportunities in the burgeoning field of enterprise risk management. But the jobs require the right combination of technical, financial, industry, and managerial savvy.

Read the full story.

See Your Future Job at GigZig

Today, you’re a lowly accounting assistant earning $32,000, what will you be in five years? Chances are you’ll be a staff accountant earning $41,557, according to a fun new tool called GigZig launched by PayScale.

Put in your job today and GigZig shows you what people with your job are typically doing five years later. It also shows you what different proportions of them were doing five years ago (which is amusing but not really relevant because who cares what everyone with your position was doing five years ago).

You can also use GigZig to play some “What If” games. Suppose you’re a staff accountant now (median salary $41,557). If you earn your CPA, your salary will rocket to $58,118 and five years from now, you’re most likely to be a controller ($76,481) or a CFO ($120,150). Skip the CPA and you’re most likely to be a senior accountant ($54,819) or an accounting manager ($56,920).

When you tire of looking at accounting positions, you can start checking up on your siblings career choices so you have something to chat about next week at holiday gatherings.

I don’t think I’ll tell my little sister that despite her brilliant performance as “Woman eating BLT and onion rings in the diner” (scheduled to air on General Hospital the day after Christmas!!) five years from now, she’s just as likely to be a teacher, an office admin, a receptionist or a customer service representative as she is to still be an actress.

If I did that, she might, in turn, point out that GigZig is unable to determine the future for bloggers.

Introverted? Consider Accounting and Auditing...

Opportunities for accountants and auditors are expected to grow more than 22 percent between now and 2014, which may be good news for people who want to strike a balance between working with others and working alone.

The economy's shift toward service industries is making it more difficult for people who prefer to work by themselves to find jobs that suit them, says Laurence Shatkin, Ph.D., who co-authored the book 200 Best Jobs for Introverts. "Chances to work alone will become more scarce," he says. "Even jobs in manufacturing are increasingly being done by teams of workers."

Nearly a quarter of the U.S. population are considered introverts, whom Shatkin describes as people who often "prefer to work alone, in the quiet, and free of distractions." He and his co-authors - the editors of the career-publishing firm JIST - based their rankings for the book on a measure of how much interaction is required for each job.

However, Lynne Goldman, a Pennsylvania-based organizational psychologist who specializes in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, thinks the book's selection process may have been a bit extreme. (Myers-Briggs, test that identifies certain psychological differences and preferences, is used by many businesses.) "Introverts can be extroverted very well, it just depletes their energy faster than it does for extroverts, who get charged by interacting with people and things," she says. "So introverts would prefer jobs that have a greater balance between quiet work and interaction. They are fine working on teams, as long as the extroverts give them a few moments to collect their thoughts, and contribute."

Besides accountants and auditors, the top jobs for introverts include personal financial advisors - which comes as something of a surprise, given the contact the job requires with clients; real estate appraisers and assessors; and actuaries.

It's About My Career, Stupid

The class of 2008's business majors seemed more focused on where their careers might take them rather than how much they'll receive in their first pay packet. A survey of 2,400 college students by KPMG found the top consideration for 57 percent of job-seeking accounting students is career opportunities.

Dona DeZube writes:

A scant 12 percent of the students said salary and benefits packages would be their primary consideration in selecting an employer. But that may be because the salaries offered students fall in a tight range.

And, some bits that we didn't make it into the story itself, but are still interesting:

About 22 percent said work-life balance was their primary consideration in selecting an employer. Despite the accounting scandals of recent years, only 9 percent picked "employer's reputation" as the primary consideration in their job search.

Other perks popular with the surveyed students:

• An active mentoring program: 23 percent;
• Availability of flexible work schedules 32 percent;
• Support of employee volunteerism/philanthropy;
• Ability to travel/relocate internationally 17 percent and
• Generous benefit package 24 percent.

Read the full story.

Branch to Lead Deloitte's Atlanta Practice

Some details about the new head of Deloitte's Atlanta/Birmingham practice, J. Bradford Branch. He's succeeding Guy Budinscak, who's been named vice chairman and senior advisory partner.

A 30-year veteran of Deloitte, Branch was the regional managing director for Deloitte Consulting in the Southeast region and managing director of Deloitte Consulting's Atlanta office.

Since joining the firm in Atlanta in 1978, Branch worked with clients in the telecommunications and utility industries, and helped create the firm's telecommunications and media practice. In 1998 he became the European practice director for Deloitte Consulting's telecommunications and media practice. By 2000, he was the its s global practice director. He returned to the U.S. in 2004 to take up his posts in Atlanta.

He received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina, and his MBA from UNC's Keenan-Flagler Business School. He's involved with several community organizations in Atlanta, including the Woodruff Arts Center and the High Museum of Art. He's also a Teaching Fellow on strategy, economy and public policy matters at the London Business School.

Ramey Heads PKF Texas Internal Audit Group

Dan Ramey joined Houston's Pannell Kerr Forster of Texas, aka PKF Texas, as a director and head of the internal audit group. Previously, he was worked on SOX 404 compliance projects in a number of industries and undertaken enterprise risk assessments, internal control reviews, fraud investigations, and financial due diligence and integration work. He's a CPA, CIA, CITP, and CFE.

New Requirements Move Forward in Pa.

Pennsylvania's Senate has approved a bill raising the education requirements for accountants who want to become certified there. The bill, which now goes to the commonwealth's House of Representatives, incorporates the national “substantial equivalency” provision, which allows CPAs to practice in other states without having to apply for additional licenses. The Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants points out that the requirement means CPA candidates would have to complete at least 150 semester hours of post-secondary education before receiving their certification, beginning in 2012. Currently, 48 of the 55 licensing jurisdictions have this requirement.

Senate Unanimously Approves PICPA’s CPA Law Bill [PICPA]
(And if you really want to read the bill, click here.)

Job Detective

Sometimes, a little change in perspective can make a world of difference.

A release from career book publishers JIST suggests you think of yourself as a job detective and search out clues about exactly what a company needs.

Investigate everything, says Jim Bright, Ph.D. and Joanne Earl, Ph.D., psychologists and authors of Amazing Resumes. "Learn more about companies that interest you. Gather annual reports, company brochures, trade magazines and industry directories. Use this information to develop a strategy for approaching the employer and to be well-equipped when entering the company’s hiring system," the release suggests (read the whole thing here.) Once you've got that information, you use it to form the answer to the single most important question in job searching: What's in it for Them - or as JIST refers to it: WIIFT? A great interview is one where you can discuss the ways you're going to solve a company's challenges.

JIST has published many great career books - Resume Magic, Cover Letter Magic, The Quick Resume & Cover Letter Book - but my personal favorite title in the JIST line is Jist's Putting the Bars Behind You: Instructor's Resource Manual.

Needed: Job Detective [JIST]

How Promoting Women Pays Off

Talk as they might about retention and progressiveness, accounting firms in Britain aren't doing a particularly good job at promoting women. "(T)here are as many women as men within accountancy, but few attain partnership status. And within the Big Four, female partnership appointments have dropped by a third in the past year," writes Paul Bibby in Accountancy Age.

That's too bad, because having more diversity in the management and executive ranks seems to have a positive impact on company performance, he says.

New research from strategy consulting firm McKinsey has found a direct link between company results and women at the top, and has unearthed evidence of better than average financial performance by European companies with the highest proportion of women in influential leadership roles.

Across the pond, US research body Catalyst has found that Fortune 500 companies with the highest proportion of female directors are more profitable and efficient than those with the lowest.

His conclusion:

Accountancy firms may have done much to promote the ethos of diversity and equal opportunities. However, if this is not translated into more female partners, the annual haemorrhage of newly qualified accountants to other sectors is likely to increase.

Those firms that provide the support and opportunity for women to effectively climb the partnership ladder will be the ones that will ultimately win the war for talent.

Moving forward: women on top [Accountancy Age]

Two Words, Ben. Just Two Words: "Hedge Funds."

Battling a well-publicized talent shortage, both corporate America and the Big Four are touting career opportunities for young accountants. Now, the hedge fund industry is trawling for accountants too, and the pay is better - a lot better.

Read the full story.

Another Wrinkle for Smaller Companies

It's no surprise that CFOs at small public companies - the ones who come under the microscope of Sarbanes-Oxley this weekend - are sweating under the glass. They've had to struggle with changing guidance, high bills from outside auditors, and a dearth of candidates for the jobs they need filled in order for their accounting departments to keep pace with truckloads of new work that comes along with compliance. Not only that, some CFOs are worrying about the impact the increased overhead will have on their competitiveness.

John Fodera, a partner at New York-based accounting firm Eisner, seems unmoved by that last argument. He told Financial Week:

that Section 404 is pushing public companies to place the proper level of resources - manpower in this case - into their accounting departments to deal with such issues as transparency and tax compliance. “Over the years,” he argued, “accounting departments have been a bit leaner than they have needed to be.”

But Christian Dufresne, CFO and treasurer of Spire Corp., a $20 million electronics maker, notes that finding candidates who understand auditing and can set up proper controls is a challenge unto itself:

“It’s hard enough to find one guy, and I have to have a couple,” Mr. Dufresne lamented. “Adding two or three people is a drag on cash flow, and it makes your business less profitable.”

Like other companies, Spire has centralized its business operations as it prepares to operate under SOX 404, which among other things requires company executives to certify the internal controls in place to ensure their financial reporting is accurate.

That centralization can't be helping CFOs in their quest to find accountants to join their companies. It's removing some of the flexibility they might have had when they could post professionals at different locations. It's not a huge deal, but it's one of those details that makes a tough challenge tougher.

SarbOx writ small: Newbies struggle [Financial Week]

Staying Afloat While Switching Careers

Guidance with career transitions is a staple of the career advice business. For many switchers, however, one of the highest hurdles has nothing to do with jobs or skills; it is simply how to survive – as in, meet your essential living expenses - while going through the transition.

New York Times columnist Marci Alboher relays some helpful tips this week, through a Q&A interview with financial adviser and writer Jean Chatzky. Her advice is equally applicable to individuals aiming to launch their own business, or those planning a career shift.

In a nutshell, Chatzky recommends practicing frugal living long before leaving your current job (so the shock to your lifestyle won't be so great when you do), making a habit of saving, and keeping some form of health coverage to escape pauperization in case you're hospitalized while out of work. There are also tips about where and how to seek credit for a new venture.

Finding the Money to Move Out and Up [New York Times]

Grant Thornton Acquires Pa. Consulting Group

Three partners and 50 professionals from GR Consulting have joined Grant Thornton after the accounting firm purchased the consulting unit of Goldenberg Rosenthal. Managing Partner Mike Rose is among the movers. With the acquisition, Grant Thornton now has about 225 people in the Philadelphia region. (GR is based in suburban Jenkintown, Pa., though Rick Gebert, Grant Thornton's managing partner in Philadelphia, told the Philadelphia Business Journal his plan is to ultimately move the group into the city.

Gebert said the skill sets of the GR Consulting professionals will fit nicely with Grant Thornton's focus on clients with between $100 million and $2 billion in revenue, as well as add deeper representation of industries such as health care and financial services. He said the GR Consulting professionals have particularly deep skills in areas such as governance and risk management, internal audit, operations improvement and information technology.

As for Goldenberg Rosenthal itself, Managing Partner Jay Weinstein said because GR Consulting operated independently and with a different client base, its departure should have no impact on its former parent.

Grant Thornton buys Goldenberg Rosenthal's consulting group [Phila. Business Journal]

Big Four Diversity Programs: A Wrap-Up

The Big Four initiated diversity programs before much of the finance world. But just what do those efforts consist of today? In recent interviews, the firms offered up details of their current programs. Here's what we found.

Read the full story.

Reality Check, Anyone?

Well, you may not want to hear this, but some headhunters call accountants "potted plants." The reason: You don't switch jobs very often. In fact, there's a perception in many quarters that accountants tend to stay at the same place because however uncomfortable the frying pan is, it's just got to beat the fire.

So imagine our surprise when our poll asking "How much career risk are you comfortable with?” got these results:

• I would change jobs without looking back - 39%
• If I see a good job, I go for it - 43%
• I am often looking for another job - 11%
• I look at job ads, but am afraid of getting caught - 8%

Better than 80 percent would change jobs easily? Really? I'm feeling like I'm being tweaked. If so many people will jump, how come so few accountants seem to be jumping?

Healthy Salary Outlook in California

James Rubin says Robert Half Finance & Accounting's annual salary survey offers cautiously optimistic news about the job market for accountants in California. Over the next year, Half expects demand for many positions to remain strong and salaries to increase at a healthy rate. It holds true for other financial professionals, as well.

The recruiter predicts controller, senior finance analysts and account managers will be among the hottest jobs in Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, San Jose and Orange County. A controller can expect to earn 4 - 5 percent more next year than in 2007. "There has been an accounting shortage for these positions," says Brett Good, Half's district president for California and Arizona. "That remains a pressure point for skills sets in the marketplace."

The crisis in the sub-prime mortgage market may further boost demand both in California - and beyond - as governmental agencies consider regulations to prevent a re-occurrence. Good sees similarities to the aftermath of corporate scandals of five or six years ago that led to passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2001. "There are rumblings from a regulatory standpoint," he says.

As such, skilled controllers - who have initial oversight over auditing and similar functions - may play a particularly important role in upcoming months.

Focusing on 'Special Needs' Families

Some California accountants believe they don't have many options when it comes to what industries or areas they cover. But a few have broadened the playing field by creating practices around their own outside interests or causes.

Take Pasadena-based Regina Levy, who's made a business out of helping families with special needs children understand how they can secure treatment and what they can write off. In some cases, that's helped them save tens of thousands of dollars.

Read the full story.

Scholarships in Virginia

The Virginia Society of CPAs Educational Foundation is offering three new scholarships of $2,500 each for the 2008 - 2009 academic year. (These are in addition to the more than $25,000 in scholarships the foundation already awards.) Applications are due Jan. 10, 2008. Details are here.

Finance Staffers Glum, But CFOs Plan Hiring

Two surveys show different views of the job market: While accounting and finance staffers are increasingly nervous about it, CFOs plan to keep hiring.

Read the full story.

NABA Names Executive Director

The National Association of Black Accountants named Gregory Johnson, CPA, as its executive director.

He comes from Grant Thornton International, where he's been director of quality control since 2006. He's also worked at the AICPA as, among other things, manager of minority initiatives and director of CPA Examination Strategy.

National Association of Black Accountants, Inc. Names New Executive Director [NABA - PDF]

Positioning Your Online Self

Chris Russell talks about using Facebook in your job hunt. His main point:

Job hunting these days is all about being found online and creating a digital profile for employers to find you. Most companies are now researching candidates before and after the interview so it's in your best interest to give them something positive to read. With millions of you now on Facebook, its a good idea to refine your digital trial.

He gets into the importance of participating in appropriate interest groups and using add-ons that can help in your search. And, of course, there's the importance of good networking - which in the online world means having the right "friends."

Facebook, it turns out, has a bunch of networks that show up when you search on "accounting" or "CPAs," though I haven't gone through all of them. On LinkedIn, which doesn't have networks beyond your own, plenty of accountants are around if you search on those keywords. MySpace says it has 622 members of its accounting network.

Of course, you should bear in mind people you might want to work for may well look at your online profile. Proceed accordingly.

Tips to job hunt with Facebook [Secrets of the Job Hunt]

N.Y. Area Litigation Experts in Demand

Area CPAs acting as litigation experts are enjoying prosperity as New York and New Jersey accounting firms and corporations lean more heavily on their specialized skills.

Considering the increasing regulation and financial responsibilities corporations and accounting firms face, it isn't any wonder having legal expertise can pay off for CPAs. Between the number of banks, investment companies and CPA firms in the New York and New Jersey region, the growing litigiousness of business, and the shakeups underway in the financial industry, the area's litigation specialists are under considerable demand.

Read the full story.

Which Way Does YOUR Head Tilt?

Tonya Reiman has written a book about body language, and she says simple things can say alot about you. "Most people are completely unaware of what their bodies are telling others and how it ends up influencing their careers and love lives," she told the Boston Globe.

Reiman said some of the worst body language flaws in the corporate arena are easily fixed: Getting into others' personal space, slumping onto a chair instead of sitting up straight, not enough or too much eye contact, looking angry, adjusting clothes during the interview, or, perhaps, a woman adjusting her panty hose.

And what about that head tilt?

"If you are going for a job in accounting, law, medicine, or another field bound by a strict code of ethics, tilt your head to the right," she said. "Trying to become America's Next Top Model? Tilt to the left."

Gesture your way up the corporate ladder [Boston Globe]

Lingerie After Accounting

The winner of the Drapers Award for best lingerie retailer in the United Kingdom is Boudiche, an Edinburgh business opened by two former accountants, Clare Thommen and Fiona McLean.

Clare, 29, and Fiona, 32, were having an after-work drink which led to a discussion about their dreams. They then hatched a plan to leave their jobs and created Boudiche.

Clare said: "We worked together as finance managers and one day after work, while having a drink, we joked about what we'd be doing in five years.

"We both said we'd like to have our own business and we had the same dream of running a lingerie boutique. It seemed like fate."

The next day the pair met to draw up a business plan and after winning financial help, they opened the doors of Boudiche 10 months later.

Scots Girls Who Are Queens Of The Undieworld [Daily Record]

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Get Me a Job

Fiddler on the Roof had Yenta, the matchmaker. The corporate world has recruiters. Same principle, slightly different parameters. But if you want to find a job you love, developing a relationship with a recruiter, says Heidrick and Struggles' Michele Heid, "is a phenomenal idea."

Read the full story.

Retention and You

There's an interesting exchange about employee retention on The Wall Street Journal's Small Business area. Mark Wilson, president and chief executive of telemarketing company Ryla Teleservices and Tom Gimbel, CEO of recruiting firm the LaSalle Network, were guest moderators of a reader forum about ways small companies keep their employees.

Yes, I know telemarketing and recruiting don't have tons to do with accounting (though LaSalle does have an accounting and finance practice). But I do think this discussion has more to do with human nature than any one professional field. The biggest takeaway is something I've heard about a lot: People are more inclined to stick around when they feel like they're an integral part of the company. To a lot of people, that kind of vibe is more important than money.

It also puts people in a good bargaining position if want something to change, but aren't sure switching jobs is going to address their feelings. I've felt that way, liking where I work but bothered by some dynamic or another. I've found managers - at least good ones - tend to be open to conversations about changing the way I work, or modifying my responsibilities, especially when I steer the talk along the path of improving performance and satisfaction. When you're not asking for more money, it's easier to position the discussion as being between two professionals seeking a better way to reach their mutual goals.

So, read this. There's some good ideas in here.

Readers, Experts Talk About Employee Retention [WSJ - $]

Is this Job Offer for Real?

JITM director Evan Lesser provides these tips on making sure the job offers coming into your inbox are legitimate:

• Fake job offers often contain poorly written text, unrealistic salaries, and almost always ask you to respond to a free, public email account like Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, or Hotmail.
• Fake job offers often ask for unnecessary personal data like contact information, social security number, phone number, passwords, bank accounts, etc.
• Fake job offers often contain attached files, some of which can be dangerous to open.
• Fake job offers often "spoof" or pretend they are coming from Web sites like JobsintheMoney or other job boards when in fact they are not. When employers contact you, the reply-to address will never be from JobsintheMoney or a free e-mail account, but rather directly from that employer's own work e-mail account.

Thanks, Evan.

What's Your Responsibility Quotient?

Sometimes, decisions about who you will and won’t work for help you sort out just how strongly you feel about an issue. I’m not a big fan of the war on terror and would have preferred that we spend those billions on universal pre-school for American children. Yet when an editor offered me a very profitable assignment writing a feature for one of Halliburton’s in-house magazines, I snapped the assignment right up. I could have sent the fee over to the Fresh Air Fund for children, but I used it to pay my health insurance tab instead.

If you’ve never run across a similar scenario, give it time. It’s the nature of life that if you’re a public accountant vehemently against abortion, your firm will land the audit work for the National Abortion Rights Action League and give the assignment to your team. When that happens, will you suck it up and do the audit, or beg off the assignment?

Do you consider corporate social responsibility when you job hunt? Check a company’s carbon footprint or charitable donations? Is it enough to know that your employer would give you two weeks off every spring so you can travel with your church to support an orphanage in Kenya, or do you actively look for a company that provides relief to African orphans?

Two recent surveys got me thinking about all this: The first, from KPMG, asked college students what their primary consideration was in choosing an employer and 57.4 percent said career opportunities. A scant 9 percent rated employer’s reputation as their top consideration.

The second survey, from Robert Half Management Resources, asked chief financial officers to rank the importance of corporate social responsibility programs. About 30 percent said they were “very important,” 25 percent said they were “not at all important,” and the rest were somewhere in the middle.

Can we conclude that most companies don’t care much about charity or volunteerism and that applicants don’t really care, as long as the job they’re offered has solid growth potential?

I suspect that for most of us, finding a socially responsible employer, or the decision to stay with an employer that moves in a direction we don’t like, is similar to choosing between a hybrid and a regular car. If the price is right, we’ll go with the hybrid, but if the price difference is large enough, fiscal consideration will outweigh good intentions every time.

Just who would you work for? It’s easy to say you’d hit the Add sender to blocked senders list if the Devil emailed after seeing your resume at JobsintheMoney, but it’s not always that obvious - or that easy.

Ethics Trouble Ahead

According to Sox First, a survey by the Ethics Resource Center found ethical misconduct has risen to the point of pre-Enron levels.

During the past 12 months, more than half the employees surveyed said they had seen ethical misconduct of some kind. And more than two in five didn't report what they had observed as one in eight experienced some sort of retaliation.

The findings are in the Ethics Resource Center's 2007 National Business Ethics Survey. Polling a total of 3452 employees in the business, government and non-profit sectors, the survey found that 23 per cent of employees observed conflicts of interest, 21 per cent witnessed abusive or intimidating behavior and 20 per cent witnessed lying.

Those aren't insignificant findings, and they make it more likely you'll bump up against some kind of ethical dilemma in the course of your work. Since being forewarned is being forearmed, you might want to take a look at this item by Dona DeZube about handling ethical questions when you're confronted with them.

Ethics danger signals [SOX First]
What to do With Ethical Questions [JITM]

It's Not About Balance - It's About Reality

Notoriously long hours, detail-oriented work, and considerable face time are parts and parcels of the CPA's working life. For accounting firms, changing this kind of culture may be even more important than money in the quest for new hires.

Given the stereotype of the overworked number-cruncher, it's no surprise posts for CPAs are wanting for candidates. Even without the pressured working conditions, other, often more lucrative opportunities are luring accountants away from the CPA fold. According to the 2007 CPA Examination Summit white paper from the National Association of Black Accountants, the wider financial world is drawing more young people of all backgrounds out of accounting. Better salary offers play a part, as does the perception getting the MBA is easier than earning CPA licensure.

Read the full story.

Audit Opportunities Expand As Private Companies 'Go Bright'

Sarbanes-Oxley is creating jobs for internal control and audit professionals within companies not formally subject to the five-year-old law.

Initially, SOX drove many public companies to "go dark" - buy up nearly all their shares in order to exempt themselves from the law's costly requirements. Now, accounting and finance experts are noting the opposite phenomenon: A significant minority of non-public companies are voluntarily choosing to comply with key provisions of SOX - a trend that could be called "going bright."

Read the full story.

Online Interviewing Help

If you keep thinking you're doing something wrong in your job search, here's an interesting site: NextJob101. Basically, it's a series of video tutorials in interviewing skills, a blog, and a forum, all created by recruiter Vicki Herrod. It costs $30 for a three-month membership, which doesn't strike me as unreasonable if you're looking for ways to polish your performance.

Here's a press release.

'Responsibility' Reporting Poised to Widen?

Corporations and investors are increasingly adopting environmental, social and governance measures of performance, alongside the usual financial ones. That means expanded career opportunities for internal auditors, management consultants and other professionals who can apply a new generation of non-financial reporting tools. The activities of finance departments and external auditors will be affected as well. But it's going to happen slowly.

Read the full story.

Then There's THIS Juggling Act...

I'm not sure whether to be amused, bemused, exasperated or glum about the comments to this post by Sara Schaefer Munoz on The Wall Street Journal's blog the Juggle.

OK Juggle readers, let’s hear it. How do you handle the competing demands of work, chores and children — and still make time for sex? Have you been successful in carving out time for yourselves as a couple, or is this something that has fallen by the wayside?

The comments range from the resigned to the pragmatic, with some cynicism thrown in. If you work long days (tax time's coming), you may want to read about a slice of juggling home and office that is more whispered about than actually discussed.

Juggling Career, Kids and a Sex Life [WSJ - $]

About Agencies

Chris Russell posts an e-mail complaining about agencies who list positions on job boards, and his reply. The exchange makes points about agencies that job-seekers don't always like to hear, including:

Don't apply for jobs for which you are not qualified. I realize there are some job seekers who are down on their luck right now. But the worst thing you can do is blame somebody else. Make your own luck. Do something unique to stand out. If there is a job you want, go get it. Prove to the company that you are the RIGHT person for the job.

I hate employment agencies [Secrets of the Job Hunt]

N.Y. Area Accountants Feel Wall Street's Pain

With record write-downs reported at large banks and investment firms, many of which are headquartered in the tri-state region, it's not surprising that hiring is slowing down. New York, New Jersey and Connecticut accountants needn't rush to these firms looking for a golden opportunity, at least not in the short-term.

Read the full story.

On the Road Again

A new Web site by the Texas Society of CPAs explores accounting careers. It's called Destination CPA, and it's snazzy - just as a site aimed at high school and college students should be. Fortunately, Willie Nelson wasn't invited along for the ride. With it, the Texans join the AICPA in talking to kids in their own language.

New student-focused web site provides info on becoming a CPA [AccountingWeb]

More Than Numbers

Joey A. Bermudez, chief executive of Chinatrust Commercial Bank, Philipines, gave a speech to a group of newly certified accountants in Manila recently. It's an interesting speech, observations that can be useful to the newly

Whatever occupation you get into, be not afraid to re-invent yourself. For many years, the accounting profession struggled to remake itself after waking up to the fact that the world had changed and that our long-held notions of fair reporting had to keep up with the evolving business realities. One does not need to be thrust into a life-threatening situation before re-inventing himself; he only needs to be excited by the new role that he will assume. The best financial controller who worked for me was not even a CPA. He was not even an accountant by profession. He was an engineer. But he totally transformed himself into a financial controller because he saw in that role a lot of thrills and joys that many who went to accounting school could not see.

Quo vadis, young CPA? [Inquirer.net]

One Part Inspiration and 9 Parts Silk Screen

Okay, this is absolutely off-topic, because I just don't see accountants getting hired this way. But sometimes you come across something that can only be called "pluck."

Straight up, no bones about it, no way to dispute it, if they can read People WILL Read What's On Your Shirt!

Put something about yourself on your shirt and not only will they read it they will strain to see it. They will position themselves for a better look. Stand in line at a fast food joint and at any given moment someone will be checking it out. I'm telling you people can't help it.

With a brief description of your skills and what you're looking for (a cover letter basically) on your shirt you will be getting interviewed constantly in the minds of people who read it! If they happen to know of something that might be a match it will occur to them to say something!

Damn I Need A Job

More on Video Resumes

Louise Fletcher at Blue Sky Resumes writes about her experience creating a multimedia resume template for use with some of her clients. It sounds cool - except no one wanted it. Of video resumes she says:

They are simply a slower and more inconvenient way of screening candidates - and unless you're talented on camera (which is irrelevant for 99.9999% of all jobs) you might damage your chances of getting the job.

Video Resumes Are Not the Answer [Blue Sky Resumes]

Getting Credit When Credit is Due

You're doing all the work and someone else is taking all the credit. It's not only unfair, but it may affect your career. Handling the situation requires tact, diplomacy and a plan.

Read the Full Story.

How Clothes Make the Accountant

In California, most accounting firms favor business casual attire. Staples of twentieth century office life - like ties and jackets for men or hosiery for women – are largely passe. So, what do the well-dressed accountants wear? Pay attention if you want to look the part.

You think this stuff doesn't matter? Read the story here.

It Just Looks Like I'm Late...

I'm a big fan of being on time. It amazes me how often people show up late for meetings - even if they've only got to walk down the hall. Of course, if it's your boss showing up late - well, he's the boss. But if you're the one who's late, you're probably mistaken to think "just a few minutes doesn't matter," or "we always start our meetings late anyway." I've never known anyone who looks bad by being on time.

This article in The Wall Street Journal looks at people who are habitually late, though it doesn't offer many tips on how to change. But the comments that go along with the story make for interesting reading.

I'm Not Really Late, I'm Just Indulging In Magical Thinking [WSJ - $]