The World of Human Capital

Head over to our Jobs page to review the details.

Take a look at our Jobs page for more details.

Take a look at our Jobs page for more details.

The folks over at Going Concern had a nice short summary of a few ways the CPA exam will change in 2011:

Changes to Content Specification Outlines – First and most significantly, the CSOs will undergo a huge overhaul. IFRS will be added – initially – to FAR and eventually international accounting standards and demonstration of an understanding of how they work will play a larger role in examination questions. Keep in mind that IFRS testing will be gradual and likely focus on the differences between IFRS and US GAAP initially until the AICPA BoE feels comfortable with candidate performance and the SEC’s procrastination on IFRS adoption. IFRS will also be tested in AUD and BEC (XBRL for one, which they have already been pre-testing for several windows) but expect a skiddish stance from the BoE in the beginning.

Audit loses 30 minutes to BEC – The reasoning behind this to allow candidates more time in BEC for written communications, which will be removed from FAR, AUD, and REG (where they currently are). Don’t bother trying to avoid written communication altogether by taking BEC this year and the other three next year, it’s an easy 10 points as long as you can write a standard business letter. You do not even have to be correct when you answer the question, you need only stay on topic and use good grammar.

International CPA exam testing is coming – Thirdly, the AICPA, NASBA and Prometric are working together to make international CPA exam testing a reality. Chances are if and when Prometric begins administering the CPA exam offshore, testing will be limited to a handful of countries (likely Japan, Dubai, and possibly India, where large numbers of Chartered Accountants tend to also seek the US CPA designation). We’ll see how this unfolds come 2011, as the AICPA would like to begin international testing with new CBT-e changes.

All in all, accounting is still accounting and the CPA exam will be exactly as it always has been: a test of your basic understanding of many broad topics that you may or may not ever encounter in your professional life. CBT-e will most likely be rolled out in pieces and subject to tweaks along the way.

Take a look at our Jobs page for more details.

Caleb over at Going Concern (a great blog for accountants) was kind enough to reach out to me and get my opinion on what jobs are hot, who is finding jobs, and what the market looks like.  Head on over to read the full article: The Job Outlook Is Good for Accountants…But More Competitive

The majority of people I speak with ask if they should include a cover letter when applying to a job.  My suggestion, don’t include a cover letter.

There are several reasons I believe that cover letters are a waste of time and are rarely ever read by HR or hiring managers.  Everyone has a busy schedule and never enough time in the day.  When companies are receiving hundreds of resumes a day for job openings, they don’t have time to read everyone’s cover letter.  They want to get to the resume and see what you can bring to the table.  So they get to the meat of the resume and want to see your professional experience, accomplishments, education background, and professional affiliations.  The WSJ published a story a few years discussing how long it takes a professional to review a resume and on average they spent 7 seconds.  That means you need your information to stand out, be easy to read/scan through, and to make an impact.  Once that time was up, they would then make a determination if they wanted to spend more time reading the resume or move onto the next one.

There are a few companies out there that will require a cover letter.  If you are stuck having to write one, please write a cover letter specific to the job you are applying for.  Make sure it isn’t referencing another job you applied for or talking in generalities.  Look at the job description and the bullet points under the job responsibilities and experience requirements.  Then sit down and formulate a plan to write out your cover letter addressing how you are qualified and summarizing why you can do the job.  Don’t specify a quantified salary requirement – say negotiable.

It is okay however, to write a few brief sentences in the body of the email introducing yourself and stating that you have attached your resume.  I am curious how many of you are including cover letters when you apply to a job?  Feel free to comment.

We are searching for a Revenue Accountant who can prepare revenue allocations, calculate gas imbalances, MMS reporting, and other ad-hoc projects.

Candidates should have previous revenue accounting experience from the oil and gas industry.

Over the past year I have had several clients and candidates note that the majority of the job boards contain confidential postings, most of which are by recruiters.  They have asked me for recommendations on where to look for jobs on the web and I think that Indeed is a great aggregator, but it will include all the recruiter postings from Monster and CareerBuilder.  So you will need to filter through what is relevant and what is not.

Another site I receive several inquiries about is The Ladders.  They advertise that the search results of their job board are only $100K+ and that all the jobs are pre-screened by their team.  I have not personally used The Ladders and I have never heard of anyone obtaining a new job through them.  So I decided to do some research on what others felt about their job board and resume review/writing service.  I was quite surprised to see that the majority of people out there are infuriated with this site.  If you Google rip-off and scam you will find several sites and comments discussing how inaccurate their job board is and how disappointing their resume service performs.  It appears that many of the jobs on the site are not over $100K and are a waste of time.

Here is one blog (with several comments) that talks about how terrible the job board really is.  And here is another blog that discusses the resume service (also with comments).

If you have any direct experience in using The Ladders services, please let me know.

Accounting Manager for international publicly traded exploration company. Responsibilities include financial management, accounting and administration for the Company’s offshore holdings, financing and exploration companies. Prepare month end consolidation and group reports on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis. Make recommendations and be pro active in assisting tax, legal, exploration and corporate development in current and future business while ensuring that the quality of accounting work is of a high standard. Preferred 5 +years, and CPA.