Writer's Memo - Summative Essay

Learning About Your Field

             It has not been long since I chose a field that I want to continue learning about. The only reasons for choosing to become an accountant were stable and high wage, and its prestige. However, as I started the Disciplinary Literacies Digital Portfolio, I learned that there is still a lot to learn about accounting. As I researched and blogged about the field, one fact that I learned about accounting is that it requires high level of ethics.

             Integrity is one of the most important and basic ethics of accounting. Of course, there is almost no job that requires people to be dishonest. However, the consequence of being dishonest in the accounting field is severe. For example, Arthur Anderson, a firm that was once a member of the Big 5, was convicted of allowing the Enron Corporation to shred documents that were related to the corporation’s accounting. As a result, Arthur Anderson, a “prestigious Chicago auditing firm” ("The Fall of Andersen"), lost its reputation and bankrupted within several months. Even a huge firm like Arthur Andersen failed to rise again after being involved in a scandal. I learned how significant integrity on the job is, and how I need to be honest in order to keep myself in a desired position. Also, a senior member of MSU Accounting Club for Asians (MACA) said in her presentation about internships that interviewers of corporations look closely at the candidate’s confidence since candidates who are honest should be confident with their answers.

             Another ethic of accounting is responsibility. Accountants have to be responsible for their works which means that they should not overwhelm themselves. According to “eNotes”, “[a]ccounting professionals should only undertake tasks that they can complete with professional competence, and they must carry out their responsibilities with sufficient care and diligence” ("Ethics in Accounting"). Accountants’ work can cause huge impacts in economics of not only the country, but also the world if done wrong. If a company’s financial statement has higher profit than the actual profit due to a mistake or dishonesty of accountants, people who believed the financial statement and invested in that company can lose their money. I could see how accounting professionals are responsible for their work when I heard from Scott Bronson, an accounting professor at Michigan State University. He told me that he goes through 8 steps to write one paper. Since I am a spontaneous writer, who plans as I write, I might not be good material for accounting yet. However, after I came to the university, my writing style has changed. I do not procrastinate when writing a paper and proofread it at least twice before handing in. The high responsibility in accountant’s tasks gives the job high authority, and that is why a lot of people want to become accountants.

             The obligations of accountants are not appeals to pathos, but only appeals to ethos. Even though many corporations do not like accountants since they do not have flexibility and are not helpful for corporations’ profits, without accountants, businesses will not be healthy, and companies will not be able “to make sound business decisions” ("Why Do We Need Accounting?").

Learning about my Research/Writing

             Until I came to Michigan State University, I was having hard time choosing between marketing and accounting, and I had almost decided to go into marketing since it had more diverse paths that I can take. However, after coming to the university and thinking about which field more suits my personality, I decided to become an accounting major. Thus, it has not been long since I decided to take this path of life, which gave me very little time to get to know what accounting is all about. As a result, by recording what I learned about my field in my blog, I gained better sense of my field. In the beginning, I was thinking of becoming an accountant of a corporation or a company, but as I started researching about my field, I decided to become an auditor.

             When I became a part of the MSU Accounting Club for Asians, I was surprised that actually almost all of the members wanted to be employed by auditing firms. There were about five regular meetings with topics that are helpful for accounting majors. The topics were about accounting courses at MSU, and about internship at auditing firms. However, there was no topic about accounting at corporations.

             The reason why I decided to work for audit firms is that accountants who work for corporations do not have that much authority. According to the article, “Starbucks, Amazon and Google accused of being 'immoral'" (Ebrahimi), accountants were criticized for letting these huge companies to cheat on paying taxes. Even though their actions were not illegal, they were a violation of ethics. I realized that some of accountants who work for companies other than audit firms can violate the code of ethics if they are ordered by their superiors. However, auditors could remain objective since, if they do not, they will lose their title as an auditor.

             This blogging experience gave me a goal. One senior in MACA suggested that I prepare and try for a leadership program because I am young and have more time than other members. After learning about the existence and advantage of leadership programs offered by Big 4 audit firms, I decided to prepare myself for the leadership programs. I am going to start on writing a resume and keep my GPA high, so that I can be a capable candidate.

             The blogging experience, also, gave me chances to have a talk with a current accounting professor vis-à-vis. He taught me new term, “Journal.” When he was answering to what he normally writes, he said that he writes research papers, memos, letters, and journals. Then he asked me if I know what journal is, and I could not answer. He told me that it is a record of transactions, also called, “account.”  According to Professor Bronson, he realized that he has natural talent in accounting which made me wondering. Since I was 20 minutes late to the interview with him, I could not ask personal questions such as how he knew that he had natural talent. If I do well in accounting classes, does that mean that I have “natural talent” in accounting? Or if I enjoy the classes and learning about accounting, does that mean that I have “natural talent”? Also, what actually is “natural talent” in accounting? I want to know when and how a person can realize his/her giftedness in this field. I believe more experience and learning will give me solution to these questions.

Work Cited

"Why Do We Need Accounting?" Why Important to Business, Study, Financial, Managerial, Basics. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Sept. 2012. <http://www.moneyinstructor.com/art/needaccounting.asp>.

"The Fall of Andersen." Chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune, 1 Sept. 2002. Web. 03 Nov. 2012. <http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-0209010315sep01,0,538751.story>.

"Ethics in Accounting." Enotes.com. Enotes.com, n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2012. <http://www.enotes.com/ethics-accounting-reference/ethics-accounting>.

Ebrahimi, Helia. "Starbucks, Amazon and Google Accused of Being 'immoral'" The Telegraph. N.p., 12 Nov. 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/tax/9673358/Starbucks-Amazon-and-Google-accused-of-being-immoral.html>.

Open Blog - PhD In Accounting

Today, I read an article from "The Globe and Mail" titled, "Not Enough Accounting PhDs?" The article was published on June 15, 2012. Until now I did not think that I need to have PhD degree in order to become an accountant. Actually there is no need to have PhD degree in order to work at Big 4. People need at least 150 credits in order to be eligible to work at an audit firm (120 college credit + 30 graduate school credit). However, after reading this article, I changed my mind little bit.
The article was about how accountants are in demand, but the PhD-trained professors are actually in need, too. Due to high demand of accountants, more and more students are jumping into accounting major. However, most of them become accountants and stop their academic careers. However, if there is no one  who is getting PhD degree, there will not be enough professor to teach students who are heading into the profession. I learned that if I receive PhD degree, I can be a person who is necessary in this society.
When I talked with Professor Bronson, he told me that PhD can be a huge advantage for people who are trying to become accountants such as getting opportunity to do research. As a result, when I visit Canada during Winter break, I am going to talk seriously with my parents about getting PhD degree.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/business-education/not-enough-accounting-phds/article4267472/

Open Post - Starbucks, Amazon and Google accused of being 'immoral'

On November 12, 2012, I found a news article posted in "The Telegraph" titled, "Starbucks, Amazon and Google accused of being 'immoral'." I suddenly became interested in the article since Starbucks, Amazon and Google are quite huge companies and the problem they were facing was tax avoidance (Tax is a property of accountants).
The article was about Starbucks, Amazon, and Google were "practicing tax avoidance on an industrial scale". Firstly, Starbucks was criticized for paying small amount of tax despite the huge revenue. Starbucks refuted by saying that even thought they made high revenue, due to high royalties and other payments to offshore companies, they had no profit. Then Amazon was criticized for the same problem. "Despite having its warehouses in the Uk and employing 15,000 people, Amazon drives all of its sales through Luxembourg." Since Luxembourg has low income tax rate, Amazon drove all of its revenues to Luxembourg. Finally, Google, also, paid only 0.4% of its earning. Lord Myners, the former City minister, scolded accountants for letting all these to happen. However, the actions of these companies are not illegal. It is just immoral, which means that accountants could not just stop them.
After reading this article, I learned that huge companies like Google and Starbucks try to cheat in paying taxes. Since I want to become an accountant, I became worried that even though accountant is honest, if its client is not honest, it can cause problems to accountants.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/tax/9673358/Starbucks-Amazon-and-Google-accused-of-being-immoral.html

Open Post - Big 4

Until now, I talked a lot about Big 4 audit firms. However, I don't think that I have actually explained what Big 4 audit firms are. It is quite obvious, but while researching about them, I learned something new.
The Big 4 was radically Big 8 until 1989. The Big 8 firms were Arthur Anderson, Arthur Young & Co., Coopers & Lybrand, Ernst & Whinney, Deloitte Haskins & Sells, Peat Marwick Mitchell, Price Waterhouse, and Touche Ross.
In  1989, Ernst & Whinney merged with Arthur Young to form Ernst & Young, and Deloitte Haskins & Sells merged with Touche Ross to form Deloitte & Touche. As a result, Big 8 became Big 6.
In 1998, Big 6 became Big 5 when Price Waterhouse merged with Coopers & Lybrand to form PricewaterhouseCoopers.
These five firms were most prestigious firms in audit field. However in 2001, Arthur Andersen was involved in Enron scandal which was Arthur Andersen shredded Enron's documents related to audit. Due to obstruction of justice, Arthur Andersen lost its reputation and met its end.
After the collapse of Arthur Andersen, the four firms formed Big 4 and became the winners of fierce competitions of huge firms.
As a person who are hoping to join accounting field, I know how it feels honored to work in one of Big 4. Since working in one of those firms is dream of all accountants and auditors, my goal after getting my CPA degree is getting into one of Big 4.

Open Post - Internship

What is an internship?
According to Wikipedia, an internship is "a system of on-the-job training for white-collar and professional careers." Internship is typically done by college or university students. Some students do their internship after finishing or before becoming sophomores, but most do their internship when they reach junior year at college or university.

There was a regular meeting of MACA, the club that I am involved in, about internship. The graduate student in the club gave presentation to other members. The requirements for internship are well-written resume and application, decent GPA, well-prepared interview, work experience, and nice recommendations. Since a lot of members of MACA had experience of internship, they shared their experiences. A lot of them have worked in Big 4 audit firms and some of them have worked in other private companies.

After hearing and watching the presentation about internship, I was inspired. I learned that there are several ways to get internship and how it can be helpful for me to get full-time jobs. I decided to prepare for the internship processes. Firstly, I am going to try out for the leadership programs, and then try for the internship.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internship

Open Blog - Accounting Software

Until now, I thought that accounting activities such as writing balance sheets are done on paper since that was what I learned from accounting book. I studied how to write balance sheets by hand and thought that it is very hard and time consuming work. While searching for what to write for a open blog post, I found out that there is actually software program that helps accountants to do their tasks easily and efficiently.
According to Wikipedia, "Accounting software is application software that records and processes accounting transactions within functional modules such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, and trial balance. It functions as an accounting information system. "
I knew that since there has been a huge development in technology for last few decades, newer ways for accountants to finish their tasks have been invented, but I did not know there is something called, "accounting software." Learning about recent technology of my field was very helpful, but I think I need to get more adapted to technology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_software

Open Post - Leadership Program

I did not know about leadership program offered by Big 4 audit firms until few weeks ago. When MACA, the club that I am involved in, had a regular meeting. A school senior told me that since I am young, I can try out for the leadership program next year instead of just waiting for a chance for internship. Leadership Program is a few day program in summer. Its purpose is to select top candidates for the firm's future employees and help them to get to know the firm better.

Since leadership program is like a step before the internship, the senior told me that if I get into a leadership program, I will have no problem getting an internship at that firm. Later, it would be easier to be a full-time employee.

I think learning about and having a goal in the field is great. After hearing this golden information from a senior, I set my goal. I decided to apply for all leadership programs offered in Big 4 audit firms. I am going to keep my grade up and get some working experiences, so that I am a competitive candidate. I, also, started working on my resume. I hope I get in to one of the leadership programs by the end of sophomore year.