What aspiring professionals don’t understand about the accounting world

James Parkin is the Executive in Residence at Oregon State University, a part-time role where he advises faculty and students on the connection between the classroom and the accounting profession, including the opportunities for accounting majors. Jim draws on his 35-year career at Deloitte to help prepare the next generation of CPAs to be successful. He enjoys giving back to his alma mater, students, and his community. Jim and his two brothers were first generation university students "because their parents insisted on it." He agreed to share a little about his recent experiences in the classroom.

What has been the most surprising thing from your time in the classroom?
When I graduated, I knew so little about the profession and the opportunities it provided me. Going into my career blindly clearly didn't hurt me (some might say that my naivete helped), but I could have evaluated opportunities so much better if I was further down the learning curve. I'm surprised at how little that has changed with students today. They still have a lot to understand and learn about the opportunities the accounting profession can provide and the doors it can open for someone who is proactive and eager to learn. That is exactly what I am trying to do in my classroom in helping students "navigate the profession".

What is striking about today's students?
Students are really eager to absorb all the information they can and learn from folks in industry. They are sponges, asking good questions and working to get more information from me about what I've done and what they could do. They've been extremely polite and it's really been a pleasure to be in the classroom setting with them.

What will help the profession promote itself to future CPAs?
The profession really needs to better discuss the doors that can be opened by beginning a career in accounting. This won't necessarily be self-serving to the firm’s interest, as many of those opportunities may be outside public accounting! However, the profession would benefit to explain the breadth of what the firms do beyond accounting and tax, but more importantly how that foundation of accounting and tax develops the skills to bring value to clients. It's good that the profession has upped the game on their HR programs and really catching up to the times to help employees' well-being, but well-being programs are not the end game. Unfortunately, that is what many recruiters are pushing. The students need to know more about what a CPA does, the career opportunities that come with that designation, and professional opportunities as a CPA.

What do today's firms need to understand when recruiting?
Two things that I would mention. First is a repeat in that the recruiting process needs to help educate the students about the profession, opportunities in the profession, and recruit them into the profession. Talk about the career opportunities they may have and the experiences they can get when beginning a career in accounting or tax. The second thing involves the recruiting process itself. The "continuous recruiting," which may be beneficial to the firms, is putting excessive pressure on the students. They are getting offers presented to them with very short turnaround for acceptance. They are getting offers as sophomores who are midway through the introductory series of accounting and don't fully understand even whether accounting is the right major or not. With these pressures, the firms are going to be disappointed when students don't accept the full-time offer after the internship or depart very quickly after starting their career.  Use the students' freshmen and sophomore years to help them better understand their career alternatives, the alternative firms, and what professional opportunities could be for them. Begin recruiting students into a firm starting in their junior year and work collaboratively among the firms to coordinate recruiting season and acceptance deadlines.

What would you say to today's accounting faculty?
There are some really terrific faculty at Oregon State University who are eager to increase the number of accounting majors and influence the students in a positive way. I would encourage the faculty today to seek out alumni and friends to guest lecture and speak in their classroom settings. More than half of my classes have guest speakers from industry, and I have no problem getting volunteers. The students benefit so much from the speakers, and it connects the academic studies of the textbook to the realities of what we do in the profession.

Interested in sharing awareness of accounting careers by speaking to a college or high school classroom? Contact OSCPA Events & Engagement Specialist Megan Drennan at profdev@orcpa.org.