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Job Title: CPA
Type of Company: Local accounting firm with three partners and five employees in Racine, WI providing tax and accounting services and estate planning. We also became stockbrokers in 1999 to provide investment services to our tax clients.
Education: BA, Accounting, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Previous Experience: I worked for an accountant during tax season while in college. After graduation, I worked for five years for the largest local accounting firm, then moved to Sheboygan to a different company where I worked for seven years. I eventually moved back to Racine and bought into the accounting practice where I've now been a partner for the past two decades.
Job Tasks: I am a partner and a stockbroker at a local accounting firm. Tax season begins on the first of February and runs through April 15 and during that stretch I work every day, including Sundays, 12-15 hours a day. This past year, to give you an idea, I prepared about 1,200 personal tax returns.
A typical day starts at 6:00am, with appointments every hour from 8:00am to 5:00pm, but I remain in the office 'til about 10:00pm. In addition to preparing personal returns, I do estate, corporate and partnership tax returns and provide investment services, buying and selling securities for my clients. On April 16, tax season ends and my work schedule gets more relaxed. From May 1 through the end of the year we work four and a half days a week and I get to play some golf, go to Northern WI every other weekend and enjoy the summer weather. We have corporate clients whose tax years end at different times, so there is always some accounting work to do, in addition to the tax and financial counseling we provide to individual clients.
Job Tips:
1.) Try to get a job interning for an accounting firm during tax season. We typically hire college/high school kids to work at the front desk, answer the phone, schedule appointments, meet with clients as they drop off/pickup there tax info and scan documents.
2.) Take a class to learn Excel, Quickbooks or Peachtree. We use all three of those programs a lot.
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