Department Program Courses Registration Resources Careers The Ledger |
by
Margaret Ruggieri
April 17, 2002
|
On April 17, 2002, the Providence College
Accountancy Department sponsored a panel presentation, Beyond
the Big 5: Career Options
in Accounting. The
panel consisted of area business professionals, several of whom are
Providence College alumni, who all have an accounting background. The
theme of the evening was that a background in accounting is very
marketable and allows for many career options. The panelists included:
To a group of approximately 50 students, each
panelist spoke about:
Starting a Career in Accounting Most of the panelists began their career working
for one of the Big 5 accounting firms and
felt that the experience was invaluable and suggested that starting with
a Big 5 firm is probably the best way to
start a career in accounting. Patricia Cerilli, who began her career with
Deloitte, Haskins, and Sells (now Deloitte,
Touche, & Tohmatsu) suggested that students simply treat their
experience with a Big 5 accounting firm
as a “continuation of their schooling” and approach their first few
years in a Big 5 firm with optimism and a
willingness to get involved. Dennis Carvalho added that his experience with
PriceWaterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers)
allowed him to meet so many different people.
According to Carvalho, taking advantage of this opportunity to
network with other professionals and clients was a great stepping-stone
for his career. While at Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers)
in Hartford, Connecticut, Chris Feisthamel was exposed to many different
industries, including newspapers and manufacturing.
Chris reiterated Dennis and Patricia’s comments by stating that
his experience with the Big 5 was great
training because it allowed him to really develop his people skills What Next? Starting with a Big 5
accounting firm is a great way to start a career, but for a variety of
reasons, most people do not remain with a Big
5 accounting firm for the remainder of their career. Why? At
least two reasons why some leave Big 5
firms is because they more control over their destiny and/or because
they are looking to expand their horizons beyond the financial aspect.
After the Big 5, Dennis worked in
a variety of functional areas including internal auditing and consulting
for a turnaround business. He
even started his own jewelry business for a couple of years. This desire for more control over her life is what eventually led
Patricia Cerilli to join her current CPA firm (Mullen,
Scorpio & Cerilli). Being
a partner of a small CPA firm has many advantages, according to
Patricia. She gets to spend
more time with her family and she can be more involved in helping her
non-profit clients reach their goals, and this makes her career
rewarding to her. Something Different One under-considered option is a career in law
enforcement with the FBI. After graduating from Bentley
College in 1988, Joe Consoli started with the IRS
and worked there until he was 23—the minimum age requirement for the FBI.
Joe said that he didn’t want a desk job and that’s what made
him consider the FBI. Russell Griffiths began his career with
Westinghouse in Washington, D.C., but became disillusioned with business
in general. Wanting to make
a career change, he attended a career fair and learned about the FBI.
Russell started with the FBI in
1991 and was promptly moved from Washington, D.C. to Boston where he was
put into the drug task force. Both Russell and Joe agree that the work they
perform for the FBI is widely diverse.
They spend a lot of time on white-collar crime, but it would not
be unusual for them to be switched to organized crime, bank robberies,
kidnapping cases, or even counter-terrorism—especially after the
September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
According to Joe, most new FBI
hires start with a fairly easy task such as performing background checks
on individuals and should, at times, expect long work hours. The FBI
application process is rigorous. As
mentioned earlier, applicants must be 23 years old and have 3 years of
work experience. However,
applicants with accounting experience are only required to be 23 years
old. In response to a
question from a student, Russell mentions that the FBI
receives approximately 70,000 applications per year and only about 900
applicants are hired after the extensive application process that
includes polygraph (i.e., lie-detector) tests, background checks, and 16
weeks of training in Quantico, Virginia.
Russell strongly emphasized honesty and integrity as two crucial
qualities that the FBI must see in an
applicant. General Advice Some of the general advice offered to the students
included: being a leader,
asking for more responsibility, being optimistic, demonstrating a
willingness to learn, keeping an open mind about your career, being open
to moving outside of the financial area, being a volunteer and team
player at work. Bob McDonald stressed that students should really
look to a career that they will truly enjoy doing.
He followed up this advice with a story of how his son started
his career with Fidelity
Investments and eventually got a job with the New
England Patriots. His
son will even receive a Super Bowl
ring for his work with the Patriots! |
