Second Career Secrets Profile #1: Financial Reporting Manager

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(For an introduction to Careers in Profile, read more here.)
1. My name is: Wendy C.

2. I am a/an: Financial Reporting Manager for an oil and gas E&P company

3. Most people in this job have:
-an undergrad degree in Accounting
-a graduate degree in Accounting (either Masters in Accounting or an MBA)
-specialized training/certification as a Certified Public Accountant
-training provided by the employer: you must have 40 hours of continuing education each year to keep a CPA license, which is usually provided at the expense of the employer

4. I think the three most useful personal skills I bring to this job that help me do it are:
1) Willingness to work in an environment that is always changing – the Standards Board and Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) are constantly issuing new accounting rules
2) Attention to detail, as you are dealing with numbers that will be reported to the public
3) Dedication, as most jobs in SEC reporting are demanding of your time

5. Please rate your income level in this job when you first started in this profession (pick one):

a) still living with mom and dad and can’t pay rent
b) living with mom and dad but paying rent
c) sharing a one-bedroom apartment with four other people
d) sharing a two-bedroom apartment with only one other person
e) renting my own apartment
f) scraped together a down payment and bought a starter starter house
g) renting a bigger house than I could buy
h) own a home with lots of closet space (or I could, if I didn’t live in this ridiculously overpriced city)
i) own my ideal home (even my pets have their own bedrooms)

6. Please rate your income on the same sophisticated scale after:
-five years in your profession: scraped together a down payment and bought a starter starter house
-ten years in your profession: own a home with lots of closet space (or I could, if I didn’t live in this ridiculously overpriced city)

7. Please indicate how much of your job involves grunt work and how much involves substantive work. Grunt work here is defined as things you are being seriously overpaid to do. Substantive work is defined as work you were really hired to do that involves thinking and (usually) writing of some kind.

my average day = 20% grunt work / 80%substantive work

8. Does the grunt work/substantive work ratio increase over time in the career? decrease? stay the same? I would say it may decrease some or stay the same – in financial reporting you will usually do some number crunching and report tie out no matter how high you get.

9. Do you know of instances of people starting this career as a second career? How did it go? I know of someone who started this career after having 3 children and being a stay at home mom and then another who worked in a machine shop. Both went back to school and started in the profession when they were around 30 years old. The first individual went to work at a public accounting firm for around 6 years and then to industry; 12 years later she is a director of financial reporting. The second individual went to industry, instead of a public accounting firm, and today, 22 years later, he is a corporate controller of a public company. The one potential drawback is the high number of young people who work for public accounting firms, as they recruit students right out of school. That might be intimidating for someone who is older and trying to enter the profession.

10. If you had it to do all over again, what would you do differently? Would you start in a different sub-field? Get a different undergraduate degree? I enjoy what I do and the experiences I have had. The only thing I might have done differently is relocated to another office/city/country within the public accounting firm I worked for to gain a different experience.

11. What demand will their be for your profession in ten years? As long as there is a stock exchange and demand for financial statements there will be a need for accountants with SEC experience.

12. Is there a clear hierarchy in your job or can people strike out on their own and expand/rise quickly? In public accounting there is a hierarchy, but the path is clear and most can obtain it if they stick it out. That is one of the great things about a public accounting firm – you know the hierarchy and you are expected to move up the ladder. In industry it depends on the company you work for and how they value financial reporting. Some companies see it as a jumping off point and will move you around/up, others will pigeonhole you where SEC is all you do.

13. How quickly do you assume large managerial duties in your job, if at all? Do you like this/not like it? In a pubic accounting firm, in about 2 to 3 years you are expected to lead an engagement and engagement team. This is one of the greatest benefits about public accounting – you are given a lot of responsibility very young in your career so you are able to prove your worth/ability faster. But you must also work really hard, which can be very demanding of your time. In industry it depends on the company and how many people are in the department.

14. Do you have to work for a large company is your profession? Can you work for smaller or medium-sized firms? Can you start your own? I work for a medium sized company, but also worked for a very large public accounting firm. Since SEC reporting is necessary for all companies who file with the SEC, the size of company you work for can be very small or very big. Same with public accounting firms – there are big ones and small ones. Also, from what I understand there are companies who specialize in SEC reporting.

15. What are the work hours – really? If they are seasonal or if they change over the course of the career, please explain that too. The hours between quarters aren’t bad – the hours at year end and each quarter can be really bad or okay – depending on the client/employer. There have been times when I worked over 80 hour weeks, but hopefully these are kept to a minimum. Industry usually has better hours than public accounting firms (who are known to have a 55 hour minimum work week during January and February).

16. What else do you want to tell people about this profession? The great thing about accounting is its not a degree, its a profession, and there will always be a need for accounting. It may not be the most glamorous of jobs, but it is something most companies need and pay pretty well for. Also, there is the possibility to make more money and climb the corporate ladder. You are only stuck as much as you want to be – job hopping, while not great – is always there as everyone needs accountants. And because SEC reporting is pretty specialized and not that many people want to do it, they are usually in demand.

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Many, many thanks to Wendy for being willing to be the first interviewee in the Careers in Profile series. If you would like to be interviewed for Careers in Profile, let me know! Or, you can go ahead and fill out your answers to the questions and email them to me at taichinh at mac dot com or drop them in the comments.