Off the Ledger
Your days as a college student are almost numbered. The working world is calling. As you get ready to embark on your career, you have to be thinking, “What am I going to do when I graduate?” “Is a job in public accounting right for me?”
Where do you want to go?
You have so many options. Big firm or small? How do you decide? Where can you go to get the real, honest look at a career in public accounting? What is it REALLY like to be an intern? What will my life be like as a staff accountant?
See your future...
At Porter Keadle Moore, LLP (PKM) we’re here to help. We’ve created this blog site just for you! To help you find answers to these and other questions about working in a public accounting firm. Real interns and brand new staff accountants chronicle their experiences with our firm. Read what they have to say. Ask questions, share your opinions and we’ll respond.
Not Sure If Accounting Is Right For You? Try A Summer Class!
Shannon Lambe- Marketing Assistant
Summer is finally here. You’re finished with your exams and all of your friends are debating which beach they want to go to for the summer. Obviously while they are weighing the pros and cons of Panama City against South Padre Island you are trying to decide if a career in Public Accounting may be right for you. You are great at math and have an awkwardly strong passion for numbers, but for some reason have just never thought of trying a class in Accounting. There is no better way to get a taste of a subject than by taking an introductory level course during the summer. Summer courses are great for a ton of reasons:
First of all, the classes are going to be small. Summer courses will have varying class size depending on which school you attend. In some cases, classes can have as few as five students in them! This can see overwhelming at first, but in reality works to your benefit. You will inevitably receive special attention from the professor and they will be better able to hone in on the areas you want to have covered. Also, this is a great chance for you to bond with your classmates. Small classes enable you to develop stronger relationships with your peers, who will in turn be more inclined to work with you or help you study when you’re in the weeds.
Summer courses only last a relatively short period of time. An entire semester worth of material is covered in as little as 6-8 weeks. This is the perfect opportunity to try out a class you are not one hundred percent sure about. It will give you enough time to become acquainted with the material, yet at the same time, if you end up hating it, you only have to deal with it for a couple of months. Seems like a win-win situation to me.
OK, we all know that summer is supposed to be a time to relax and have fun, but think about it this way—you may miss out on one or two concerts, baseball games, or trips to the lake in the summer but you definitely won’t miss out on everything. By taking classes during the summer session, you have the potential to significantly lighten your course load in the fall. It is often a much smarter decision to spread out your courses. This way you are able to really focus your attention on the classes that you are taking, and have a better chance of doing well. So, even though taking classes in the summer time may feel like a drag, it will pay off when you aren’t missing a single football game in the fall or pulling all nighters trying to study for all of your classes at once.
So, whether it is to get a feel for a class you never thought of taking or to lighten up your normal class schedule, taking a summer class is always a good thing to consider. If nothing else, it can even help you save money and graduate early, so you can get a head start on your possible career as a CPA!
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