Awesome article about driving innovation

Awesome article about driving innovation: RT @harvardbiz: When Success is Born Out of Serendipity http://t.co/w2cWX54w

Codeacademy.com

We read about these awesome guys in Vanity Fair. They’re revolutionizing the way computer programming is taught. Check them out@http://ht.ly/eEgVO

Hiring Staff with the right “Fit”

Whenever we recruit staff, we’re reminded how great the Thomas International Assessments are for getting the “fit” right: http://ht.ly/eEhWp

How to get that First Interview for a Job in Public Accounting

We love this time of year.  Along with the beautiful, crisp fall weather, we also love visiting Universities and talking to young, enthusiastic students excited to get hired by a public accounting firm so they can start working towards their CA designations.

Unfortunately, the competition for good CA Firm jobs is fierce these days. Our Firm receives 50 – 100 applications for every position we’re looking to fill, whether it be for a co-op work term placement or a permanent entry-level staff accountant position.  

With so many application packages to comb through, firms have to aggressively screen applicants to decide who to interview. At our Firm, we scan covering letters and resumes for certain key pieces of information to help us decide who to interview.  We’re not alone – most firms look for the same things we do.

We’re sharing this with you today to help you stand out from the crowd when you apply to public accounting firms.

Keys to a great application package are:

1.    Let us know why you’ve decided to pursue your CA designation.

We really do want to know. If your parents are both CA’s, and you want to follow in their footsteps, we know that you’ll already have a pretty good idea about the demands of the career path you’ve chosen.

2.    Demonstrate that you have at least a basic understanding of the demands of the profession.

You’ll get a lot more out of your co-op work experience if you spend more than one work term at the same public accounting firm as you’ll be able to take on more challenging work as you get more experience. Most accounting firms aren’t looking for students for just a single work term because the initial learning curve in the CA profession is very steep – it benefits both sides if you stay with the same firm, if possible.

Be sure to mention in your cover letter what the timetable is for your remaining work terms.

3.    Mention in your cover letter if you have a valid driver’s license and access to a car.

This is a requirement for many public accounting jobs, including those with our Firm because even in this day and age; a lot of entry-level public accounting work is still completed at clients’ premises.

4.    Mention in your covering letter when you’re available to start work.

If you’re looking for a co-op placement, what work term are you looking for? If you’re applying for a full-time position, when do you expect to graduate and be able to start work? You would be amazed how many cover letters leave us guessing as to what the applicant is looking for. Guess how many of these get interviews? Not many.

5.    If you took accounting in high school, mention it in your covering letter.

This puts you at an advantage over other applicants who didn’t because it’s much harder to learn basic bookkeeping at the fast pace of a University introductory accounting course. Basic bookkeeping knowledge is still one of the fundamental building blocks of our profession.

6.    If you’re tech-savvy, make sure your application package shows it.

We understand that you likely won’t have experience with industry specific software (such as CaseWare and Taxprep) and we don’t hold that against you.  That said, we are looking for people who have already grasped the fundamentals of operating paperlessly in today’s digital world.

At an introductory level this means you need to have strong skills with MS Office and Adobe Acrobat. You can’t be a dinosaur when it comes to technology these days and have a chance of success in public accounting.

7.    Be sure to include your most recent transcript.

Marks aren’t everything, but they are a strong indication of whether you’ll be able to meet the rigorous demands of the profession.

We wish you all the best in your careers in public accounting. Getting your first job in the profession is definitely one of the hardest steps along the way. By making sure your application addresses the above points, you’ll definitely make it easier for public accounting firms to choose you for an interview, which should definitely help you land that coveted first public accounting job.

Welcome Pierre Turgeon

This month we’re pleased to announce that Pierre Turgeon, CA CFP has  joined the tax group of MacGillivray’s Brampton practice. As a seasoned tax advisor with over 25 years of experience advising clients on Canadian tax matters, Pierre is a perfect fit for and a welcome addition to our Firm.

You can obtain the benefit of  Pierre’s expertise by contacting him in our office at 905-696-0707.

Major system upgrade completed

This past week we moved our MacGillivray servers to Connected Technologies’ hosted Cloud solution! Thanks to William Shilson and his team for their hard work in making the transition a success. We’re loving the kick ass power of the new configuration!

Nexgen CCH Client Portal

Hi Everyone, I got back from the CCH User conference last week and wanted to drop you a quick note about the exciting new software coming down the pipe from CCH.

Readers of this blog know that at MacGillivray we have a great interest in  using technology to make our business more efficient and to make our interactions with our clients as seamless as possible. Our client portal is an integral part of our strategy in this regard and at the user conference we saw the next generation of CCH products being released in the next year.

We saw CCH Portal (known as ProSystem fx Portal in the U.S) and CCH Workstream (known as Prosystem fx Workstream in th U.S.) and they are amazing. The nexgen portal software has addressed ALL the issues we have with the existing interface. We’ll have an improved login mechanism, the ability to handle corporate groups of multiple companies under a single login. As well, it now supports other browsers in addition to Internet Explorer.

I understand the SaaS versions are being released in the US now with non-Saas versions and access in Canada coming in 2o10. I encourage you to check out these products – we’re going to roll them out as soon as we can lay our hands on them!

3 is the New 2….When it comes to Monitors anyway…

Hi all – It’s time for a “tech update” about what’s new in the office.

We ordered awesome new desktops for Jamie, George and Linda. George will be joining the world of desktop-computer users – it’s new for him, but necessary since he started working in tax.

Linda and Jamie need new desktops too – their current machines contain faulty capacitors that are effectively ticking timebombs. It’s only a matter of time until they fail, and in doing so join my and Brian’s old machines on the scrap heap.

This time around – its Windows Vista of course, 4 gig of ram,  and beefed up video cards to support multiple monitors. When the machines arrive, we’re going to reshuffle things so that Jamie, George and Brian each end up with 3 monitors. Having spent two years developing our paperless best practices, it’s clear that 3 is the new 2 when it comes to monitors.

Me? I’m going to be testing the cutting edge theory “4 is the new 3”.  😉

We’ve installed and configured the latest version of CCH Scan (Thanks George!) This version has the new autoflow technology we saw in the training course last week. This technology is going to revolutionize the way we prepare personal tax returns – You’ll see how at our next training session.

Merry Christmas Everyone

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for reading this blog and following the ongoing developments within our Firm. Its been a very interesting year with many positive changes put in place and many more still to come.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to everyone . I’m looking for to spending time with my family – I hope all you get to do the same.

Welcome Back – Kyle Kroeker!

Kyle has Arrived - Two Thumbs Up

We’d like to take the opportunity to welcome Kyle Kroeker back to the Brampton office family. Kyle just graduated from Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo and started with us full time yesterday. He’s well known to us – he spent two co-op terms with us and we’re glad he decided to join us after graduating. He’s a very funny guy who’s known especially for putting Frank’s Hot Sauce on pretty much anything and everything he eats.

If you haven’t met Kyle already, take a good look at his picture – there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to get to meet him over the coming busy season.