Career Options
Uncommon stocks |
|
Jobboom Publishing |
Jocelyn Perreault, CMA, associate,
McCarthy Tétrault’s Bankruptcy and Restructuring Group
Photo : Marie-Claude Hamel
WHY PLAY BY OTHER PEOPLE’S RULES
Landry, Perrault and Delaney each prove that a career in the numbers field can be much more than a simple desk job. According to Landry, the SQ is now on the lookout for more accountants who specialize in areas such as taxation, forensics expertise and fraud investigation. “We’re hiring quite a lot of people with that kind of background: accountants with expertise in money laundering.
Bank securities departments are looking for people with backgrounds in both accounting and investigating, as are Revenue Canada and Hydro-Québec. There are many opportunities.” Landry, who has spoken at several CGA-Canada conferences about the unconventional options available to accountants, explains that when he seizes financial documents, he doesn’t even necessarily analyze them himself. “Our team of accounting specialists will do that.”
As Perreault points out, “Accounting is knowledge. It’s the language of business, and you have to know it before you can have a career in business. Someone who doesn’t have an accounting designation has to learn the rules one way or another.” Business opportunities are just the beginning, however. “I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all limit to be an accountant. A background in accounting will help you do whatever you want to do — it’s a way of thinking and working that will allow you to be good at anything.”
For her part, Delaney says that while Canadian CAs do not normally have the merchandising experience that is essential to her current work, their internships can open unexpected doors. “Your two years of internship expose you to all kinds of businesses and a lot of different ways of thinking, depending on the company you’re auditing. This lays a good foundation — even though, in my case, what I did back then is not directly related to what I do now. Indirectly, however, it has affected me.”
Perreault agrees that starting out at an accounting firm provides excellent training, even if it is not one’s dream job. “You benefit from the knowledge of the more experienced people there, and you meet many people in different industries. You may find an industry that interests you — there’s no one way to go about it.” He says the important thing is to enjoy what you do, first as a student and then throughout life. “What you do as a career is often where you spend the most time for many years. If you don’t enjoy it, you should do something else. It’s important to have fun in what you do and to enjoy the people you work with.”
Landry echoes the same advice. “You have to like your job. It’s good to wake up every day happy to go to work. Hold on to your dream. Be stubborn and stay focused on what you want to do. It was hard to get hired by a police organization, and I had to go through a lot of tests and long procedures, but it was worth it.”
Delaney advises students to set themselves up by studying hard and getting into a good firm, which will expose them to a range of clients in the field they want to end up in. “Don’t ever get disenchanted if you’re not passionate about your first job. Though there are more options for internships now, it’s still something you have to go through even if you don’t like it. It’s hard, the hours are long, but stick to it.” She adds that being honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses makes your work more fulfilling.
“Thomas Edison said that, regarding electricity, he never failed — he just found 10,000 ways that didn’t work,” concludes Perreault. “He also said, ‘I never had a day of work … It was all fun.’ He was able to make the second comment because of his attitude in the first.”
How many hours a week do you work?