What I found most interesting about this class was the informational interview. This was really most useful for me since I now have an idea of how I’ll spend my working days. Before this interview my idea was really blurry of what accountants do.  Nobody in my family has ever done anything related to this and I never learned about it in high school. Needless to say the topic was and still is new to me. Doing this interview helped me make sense of a lot of things I learn in class and out of text books or power points. From here, I will start to focus on things that I now know I should. A lot of these things go along with some of my readings from this class. These are things like my people skills and how important team skills are. I will practice these skills and take advantage every time I find myself working in a group. As a shy person I didn’t always excel in this area. After using everything from WRI 207 I can feel more knowledgeable and confident. These things will allow me to do better in these types of situations.

Prior to my interview, I felt pretty nervous. There is something about talking to people over the phone that gives me a kind of anxiety. I am also very soft spoken so I knew I would have to really speak up for this call. Despite all of my worries beforehand I was surprisingly comfortable after hearing the friendly voice on the other end of the line. The voice was Ron Koster, a good friend of my grandmothers. I have personally never met Ron so the mutual friendship didn’t make me feel much better at first. Going into the interview I was not too sure of the day to day routine of an accountant. I assumed that the job was more of an independent one. One where you may sit in your cubical unbothered by anyone else for hours. After talking to Ron I learned that in the office it is more of a team environment. when it comes to accounting, everything is information based so they must collaborate and make decisions collectively. As a team they complete projects and put together financial reports. One of my questions was about what the office was like physically rather than just the people there. He told me the office is often a comfortable place filled with computers and such. One thing he told me that I did not expect to learn was that certain types of accountants called auditors may travel various locations to perform their duties. Ron was able to elaborate off of my question to provide me with more relevant information. Giving him the freedom to talk allowed me to learn things I wouldn’t have if he would’ve only answered my predetermined questions. What I am trying to say is, I think to conduct a good informational interview sometimes we should ask less specific questions. Doing so will allow the person to give you some of their most useful knowledge on the topic that you might not have thought to ask about. I found this interview to be overall very useful. The answers Ron gave me are not ones I could find online or in the classroom which makes this special to me.

Something that I have always been interested in is the game of football. I have played football since I was a young child. Not only did I enjoy playing the game, but I loved being on a team and building bonds with my “brothers”. In football it’s just not a one-person game. You need everyone on your team, to help you get the win. I can relate the game of football to my soon to be career in accounting. In accounting you need to work together with your co-workers, but not only your co-workers you also have to work together with your clients. If it wasn’t for your clients, your job in accounting wouldn’t be successful, just like in football if it wasn’t for my teammates I wouldn’t be where I am today. I have always strived to be successful. I have pushed myself to be the best on the field and worked very hard. In my career I am always going to push myself to the highest standard and work very hard so I can get the result that I want, and that is being very successful. I spent a lot of my free time working hard and practicing for football, this is what made me stand out. While being an account I will be sure to spend time practicing so I can be the best accountant. I want to be known; I want people to want to come to me so I can help them. Respecting my coaches was also a big that that was important to me. Even when I didn’t agree with them at times, I knew I still had to respect them. I can take this with me into my field. If I am not the boss, I know I have to respect my bosses. If I don’t agree with them, I know it is important to speak my opinion, but I will always respect them, my reputation is very important to me.

One of my key takeaways from the article Personal Branding 101, is when the article stated “Many people think that personal branding is just for celebrities such as Paris Hilton or Britney Spears, yet each and every one of us is a brand. Personal branding, by definition, is the process by which we market ourselves to others. As a brand, we can leverage the same strategies that make these celebrities or corporate brands appeal to others. We can build brand equality just like them.” When I think of personal branding, I just think of all the high-end brands, and people making a lot of money. I have learned that each and every one of us is a brand. I am going to be working with a lot of people throughout my accounting career, and I am a brand of myself that I need to portray to people. 

This article had a lot of great information. I never knew “Telepressure” existed. Somethings I have taken away from this article that will help me in my field of accounting is to take charge of when you check your email instead of relying on notifications. Turn off both sound and visual notifications on your devices so you can stop responding to every ding. I will be sure to have a specific time of day when I check my email. I will try to stick to this time, I will let my clients know that I routinely check my email at a certain time of day so they can look for a response from me. This article brightened my knowledge about how important responding, sending and receiving emails are so crucial in the work field. 

15 email etiquette rules every professional should know is another great article about sending and receiving emails. Emails can be very important at times and some people might not take them seriously. Some of my key takeaways from this article are the it is very important to include a clear, direct subject line. Sometimes we just type something quick, but we need to include the clear subject because some might just delete the email. It is important to use a professional email. Don’t use your high school email or something crazy that you made up. Something I never thought about is thinking twice before sending reply all. When I respond to my emails I normally, don’t really think much before replying. By thinking about replying to all, you need to think about if everyone receiving the email should be receiving it. The email etiquette for job seekers is very important. You want to keep your emails as short and to the point as possible. We think long emails are good, but when trying to find a job you want to keep them very short. I will also be sure to use both first and last name when sending an email to my clients. 4 times you should absolutely not send that email was another great article that can help me in my field when emailing my clients. I will not send an email if my response is very long. I will be sure to re-read my emails back to myself before sending them to my clients. I will be sure to have clear response. A clear response is very important when working with all clients. No one wants to read an email and be uncertain. Something that struck me was to make sure my response involves going above and beyond my duties. If I can’t do something my client needs, I will go above and beyond to refer her to someone who might be able to meet his or her needs. This could come back and help me in the future and have a good reputation behind my name. 

Social media is very popular in today’s world. Almost everyone is on social media or knows someone on social media. I personally have always been very careful about what I post on social media. When looking for a job if you have created a twitter to connect with professionals, it is very important that you are always updating your account. You want to be able to build an audience if you have a twitter account or business page. Building audience goes back to engaging with other users on twitter, and it’s important to show recruiters and hiring managers that you are capable of growing an audience. I have also taken away that it is very important to not bash your current or past employers. You want to have a good reputation, don’t misrepresent yourself. Always be positive!! 

Lastly, I have also gathered information from the article 9 Tips for Building Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn in 2019. Something to think about is to not assume that your connections see all your posts. Be sure people are seeing what you are posting, that means posting at a good time. I will be sure to create engaging content that will draw to my client’s attention. Posting regularly is also something that will help me gain my followers attention. I always knew it was good to connect with people. You want to connect on a personal level, but always be sure to keep it professional. These articles have helped me gain so much professional knowledge that will help me in the accounting field. 

The first Career Development Center event I attended was GoinGlobal. This event talked about studying abroad and also in the U.S. I find studying abroad to be very interesting, but not something I think I could do. I enjoy being here in PA, with my family as well as my friends. If I were to study abroad, I don’t think I could do it for more than two weeks. The people that gave us information knew a lot about what they were talking about and gave us some awesome things to look at for more information. I find it so interesting that you can study in another country and receive the same education that you would be receiving here in the US. After attending this event, I look forward to attending more held by the Career Development Center.          

   Informational Interviews are interviews that you conduct when you are trying to get information about a job. You want to find people of interest. While conducting these interviews, you want to dress appropriate and act as if it was an interview. Being prepared is very important. If the person can only give you 20 minutes you want to take those 20 minutes. Write down the questions you want to ask and practice them, so you are successful. Something that surprised me is that it is okay to take notes during these interviews. Something I never thought about is also writing down an outline as soon as the interview is done. This can be very helpful for you to remember what you talked about in the interview, as well as if this is a job you really enjoy you have the information written down. The most important part, which I have never truly thought about Is really taking the time to think. People are thirsty for jobs and apply to anything and sometimes take jobs they don’t really enjoy. You need to think about the job you are going to take, and you really need to think about if you see yourself in this workplace. I look forward to conducting an information interview

The first article I have read is “6 Things You Must Do to Get Your First Job”. I found this article to be full of very helpful information for myself. The first thing the article talked about was to create a LinkedIn profile. This is something I have created for one of my other college classes that will help me. I never knew how important a LinkedIn could be until after I have created one. Many people find jobs, and even internships using a LinkedIn account. The second thing the article stated was to Establish a presence on WordPress or through your own blog. This is something a future employer could look at and really get to know you. This information relates to me because this is something, I never thought about creating, and this could possibly help be receive my first job. The third thing listed is to get an internship as early as possible. I am currently in the process of looking for a good internship. I want to work with people who are very good at what they do so I can learn new things, that could help me in my future career.  The fourth thing listed is get creative about finding a mentor. This relates to me because I need to find someone who is doing exactly what I want to do. As the article stated, “You’ve got to find someone who is doing what you want to do”. If I find this person that will be my mentor this could help me greatly.  The fifth thing the author wrote about was telling us to use our school’s career services office. Honestly this relates to me because I would truly never think about going here. I am focused on so many other things that this is something that has never even crossed my mind. The last tip was to join a professional development or industry-specific group. I am not a part of any of these things on the Kutztown Campus. This has truly opened my eyes and made me think about some things I need to do to get my first job. By doing these things in the article, I think that I can be, and also hope to be very successful one day.  

The next article I have read is “10 Job Search Mistakes of New College Grads”. The information in this article relates to me, because I feel I would be a student to make some of these mistakes. I never knew a resume had to have such specific wording; this is something I personally need to work on. I was also informed about how often you should be checking for new job postings. Lastly, preparing for an interview even before you get a call is something I have also never thought about. Personally, I would have started to prepare for the interview when I knew I had one coming up. This article also gave me great information that will help me prepare in the best way possible when applying for a job.  

Yes, I am a junior and looking for a job is going to be here before I know it. Alison Green wrote a great article on 10 key Job Search Tips for New Graduates. Basically, everything in this article related to be, because they talked about all things I should be doing when looking for a job. I know how important it is to look for a job as soon as possible. I have heard that from multiple articles. Your resume is also something that is very important. I myself need to work on building a great resume to ensure my future employees that I am the right fit for a position. If I can’t find a job right away, I know it is important to not just apply for anything. I need to apply for a job I know I will be successful at, and also enjoy doing. If you don’t enjoy your job it could make you miserable and it might also not allow you to perform to the best of your ability at your workplace.  

Lastly, I have read 7 Ways to Become Your Boss’ Dream Employee. Everyone wants their boss to like them, because if not that would not be good. Personally, this relates to me because I am a quiet person. When I don’t know people, I tend to be shy, and also quiet. Something I have learned from this article is how important it is to get to know your manager. By getting to know your manager it helps to know the goals of that person, it also helps your manager get to know you. If your manager knows you well enough, they are capable of knowing your strengths and weaknesses. I know that being shy and quiet won’t help me become my Bosse’s dream employee. I need to work harder at talking to people and really being able to speak up about how I feel about something. This could help me tremendously in the world field. Do what you say; say what you do is very important. I hope one day I can build on all of the skills to be my bosses dream employee.  

As an aspiring accountant, I can look forward to a life of preparing and examining financial records. My weeks will consist of 40+ hours of work. The bonus time usually comes into play during tax season or the end of the budget year. The median pay for these jobs are around $70k. If I wish to get my CPA certification this number will increase. The future is bright for accountants as the employment level is supposed to increase by 6% over the next 10 years. As long as the economy is doing well the demand for accountants will follow as the two are closely related. Apparently there is not much on the job training or prior work experience necessary in most cases.

After listening to Kare Anderson I felt unsure what I should’ve taken away from her message. I decided to watch it again. The second time around it became more clear to me what her point was. Personally I felt she was implying that we stop trying to be so independent. People tend to want to do everything on their own and be like a one man army. Her point to me was instead to meet people who are proficient in different areas. By doing so and making relationships with these individuals you can create a kind of dream team. She said something that really stuck out to me about how everyone in the room is the best at a certain thing. Another thing she said was that if you are someone who feels like the smartest person in the room, then you’re in the wrong room. These two points were pretty eye opening and humbling. It helped me realize I should not try to master everything but instead I should look for people to acquaint myself with and take help from. By doing so we can accomplish more than we could alone also more efficiently. 

Prior to college, I had little to no experience with trade publications. It wasnt until I started using the internet to help with school work that i looked into it. Most of the time, I found myself looking up definitions and terms. Nine times out of ten, the first site to show up was Investopedia.com. They would have short articles and useful videos that helped me understand various business concepts. I never knew their were names for sites like this until learning about trade publications. I typed in accounting trade publications and saw a million different sites. Some were aimed towards achieving a goal or giving certain types of information. Others were a form of database filled with relevant information on accounting and finance subjects. They were often published by accounting organizations or societies.

The one site I found to be most appealing was cpajournal.com. It stuck out to me because it was easy to find everything they had to offer. On top of that, they have nice pictures to go with the articles. My favorite part of the cpajournal was the “Featured Articles” section. Here I came across multiple articles that all sounded equally interesting. I chose to read more about an article dealing with Artificial Intelegence doing auditing jobs.

After doing a little reading I was able to learn a lot about AI and their potential role in business. This information was very interesting but also valuable to me because it shows how demands for the auditing profession could be affected in the near future. AI will be able to offer new things to this field as well. For example, auditors will be able to improve fraud detection and code accounting entries with the help of this technology. Overall, AI will help make for better and more efficitent auditors.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

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