Ich möchte in München arbeiten

FALL/WINTER
2012-2013
Ich möchte in München arbeiten
Inside this
issue:
AICPA Legacy
Scholarship
2
Pura Vida
3
Future Leaders
4
Andy Suddarth sports the
traditional lederhosen
while attending a beerfest with his co-interns.
When asked what he will miss most
about JMU, without hesitation, the
laconic Andrew “Andy” Suddarth (BBA
‘11, Master of Accounting ‘12), replies
“E-hall.” “I hate cooking and [e-hall] is
awesome,” he explains. A quick assessment of the tall, lean young man’s
active schedule (which has included
five years as a mid-fielder on the highly competitive men’s club soccer
team, the second thing he will most
miss about JMU) and one easily understands why the refueling compo-
nent of his college experience was paramount. Nevertheless, Andy’s college career clearly involved much more than
chow, replete with distinctive and rather
enviable experiences.
Some might view Andy’s matriculation at
the beloved bluestone campus as destiny. According to Andy, it was simply because JMU “picked me.” In spite of his
parent’s best efforts, Andy asserts that “I
was not a good student in high school,”
effecting a higher rejection rate from his
dream schools than he had anticipated.
Applying to JMU was an afterthought,
inspired by his high school guidance
counselor’s suggestion that JMU might
be a good fit to his interest in studying
business. Since he is the son of a marketing professional, Andy had pictured
himself pursuing a career in business,
with a plan to major in marketing or international business. As a bright-eyed
freshman, he was completely unfamiliar
with accounting as a major.
Knowing a little about Andy’s family is
important to understanding his unique
collegiate experiences. His father, a West
Point graduate, was stationed in Germany during his military serContinued on page 5
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Winning the AICPA Legacy Scholarship
Each spring, the AICPA offers scholarships to aspiring CPAs. According to the AICPA scholarship website:
“The recipients are not only academic all-stars at their schools, but many of them also enjoy being active
on campus and within their community. In an effort to provide scholarship recipients with additional opportunities to experience giving back as well as develop their leadership skills, the AICPA developed the
Legacy Scholars Program.” Each recipient is required to perform eight hours of community service each
semester, with the focus of the service chosen by the student.
Mayra Perez, MSA 2012, received the scholarship for her final year of study at JMU. Following is Mayra’s
account of her service project:
As a recipient of the AICPA minority accounting students scholarship, I had to do a service project for the
fall and spring semester that consisted of at least 8 hours of "accounting related" service. We were given the option of either doing a presentation, job shadowing a certified public accountant or participating in some community service
event that was accounting related. Since I'd had an internship the summer before I got the scholarship, I decided that I wanted my project to include all the
advice, tips, and information that I'd obtained during my internship. I decided to
create a blog mainly because I wanted my project to be a little creative and I
wanted it to be something that my peers could relate to. I knew my internship
alone wasn't going to be enough to create a blog,
so I decided to incorporate tips such as how to
interview or where to begin looking for internMayra Perez
I decided to create a
ships. I even interviewed a fellow accounting student, Dennis Romero, that had done his internship abroad. I posted my
blog mainly because I
wanted my project to be blog on twitter/facebook and got really great feedback. So for my spring
project, I decided to continue with the blog idea, and basically talk about
a little creative and I
what was going on in my life as an accounting student. The second part of
wanted it to be
my blog is about how I'm preparing to take the CPA exam and the troubles
something that my peers that come with it.
could relate to.
I have actually gotten some messages from other younger accounting students from JMU asking me for advice on how to interview and what the
CPA exam is like as well as how I got my internship. This was my main goal
when I decided to create the blog and why I plan on continuing it. I really just want to reach out to people
(mainly other accounting students) and offer any advice that I have. Once I'm done taking the CPA exam,
I plan on updating my blog and talking a little about my experiences with the exam and what sites, study
material and other things that I found were helpful. I also plan on blogging more about what my first
year at a big accounting firm is like and the perks/drawbacks that come from working at a big public accounting firm. ~ Mayra Perez
Check out Mayra’s blog at: http://cpastudentguide.weebly.com/index.html
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Pura Vida
by Diane Riordan
When Dr. Copley asked me to
write about my trip to Costa Rica,
I was happy to have the opportunity. In fact, I suspect that he
gave me the writing assignment
in part to curtail my impulse to
talk at length about the trip!
However, writing this article is
proving to be quite a difficult assignment because of the volume
of information I believe I need to
share to put the trip into perspective for our readers. If you
find the next few paragraphs too
tedious to read, please know that
my trip to Costa Rica was a success due to the generosity of a
large number of people.
in the Faculty Development program at the University of South
Carolina. My teacher, Dr. Timothy Doupnik, had completed a
project with Dr. Stephen Salter
that involved surveying managers
of accounting firms across the
globe on the details of accounting practice.
Their research, which was a topic of discussion during our class, confirmed prior accounting classification schemes predicting certain
similarities or groupings between
accounting standard frameworks.
What is relevant here is that, in
their “nine-cluster” grouping,
Costa Rica stood alone. Costa
My interest in Costa Rica (the Rica did not group with other
“rich coast”) began more than a countries—not even the other
decade ago while I was a student Latin American countries in the
Dr. Riordan takes a break from
research to visit Parque Nacional
Volcan Poas.
study. Approximately 50 countries assigned to clusters of similar accounting practice, and little
Costa Rica required one of the
nine “groupings” all for itself.
One evening while still attending
this course, I began outlining
some articles that I had brought
along from JMU to prepare for a
graduate seminar that I would
teach when I returned to Harrisonburg in a few weeks. In one
of the articles there are four
quadrants depicting more than
fifty countries grouped according
to national cultural rankings
drawn from the famous Hofstede
organizational studies. Four
quadrants in an exhibit and one
quadrant with only one country
Continued on page 7
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Future Leaders of the Profession
Each year the Virginia Society of CPAs conducts a two-day, all-expenses-paid leadership program (The Leaders’ Institute) for Junior and Senior accounting majors. Program participants have the opportunity to interact with potential
employers, young CPAs and other academically gifted accounting students. Three JMU students, Samantha Burch,
Drew Askew, and Tom Jamison, were chosen to participate in the 2012 Institute, held at Virginia Tech.
Samantha graciously agreed to share her experiences as a participant, which follow:
During the summer I attended The Leaders’ Institute, a program for the top rising junior accounting majors in
Virginia, hosted at Virginia Tech by Baker Tilly. Throughout the program, I had the opportunity to hear several professionals speak about various topics, such as “Maintaining Your Personal Brand” and “Leadership Core Competencies”. I
also attended a networking dinner and an etiquette luncheon. There were two panels: one addressed the CPA exam
and the other talked about how to make the school to work transition. All the speakers and panels were very informative and answered questions that I hadn’t realized I needed to ask.
As always, there were plenty of opportunities to network with fellow students and professionals. Firms of all
sizes were represented during “Meet the Firms” night. It was very beneficial to walk around to different tables to get
a sense of what size firm I might want to explore. There were small firms with only one office, like Wall, Einhorn and
Chernitzer. Large firms like KPMG were also present. This event was probably the most beneficial because I was able
to get a sense of each firm’s philosophy and begin thinking of what kind of firm I may want to intern with. With such
diversity represented, I realized that the firms weren’t only interviewing me, but that I should ask critical questions to
see if a particular firm was a good fit for me as well.
My favorite part of the weekend was a presentation titled “How to Interview Your Future Employer”. This was
given by Heather Sunderlin, the director of employee services at Wall, Einhorn and Chernitzer. She helped me compile
a list of important questions that I should ask both during the interviewing process and after I gain employment. She
also gave me an insight about what she looks for when she is conducting an interview. She addressed less frequently
covered topics such as how to proceed if two firms want to hire you, and how to politely decline an offer. She genuinely seemed interested in helping me get the most out of my decisions on a personal level. She spoke at length about
incentives and benefits, and how best to pursue the ones that I want.
The weekend was really about getting a chance to test my networking and professional skills in an environment where I could get honest feedback and criticism. We were put into groups and each group had a team leader
who was newer to a firm, not necessarily a partner or manager. This made the environment a safe one for asking
questions that we wouldn’t feel comfortable addressing with a partner, and
receiving candid answers from people
in positions that we expect to hold in
just a few short years. I was able to get
an inside look into the accounting profession, which could be helpful to
someone in deciding if accounting is
for him/her. I would absolutely recommend the program to every rising junior with a declared major in accounting.
From left to right:
Tom Jamison, Samantha Burch, JMU Accounting Professor Molly Brown and Andrew
Askew at the VSCPA Leaders’ Institute.
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Page 1
vice. While there, he met his future wife, a
German national employed by the US military.
Although born in the United States, Andy’s
family spent some extended time in Germany
when he was quite young. Unbeknownst to
Andy at the time, he was becoming fluent in
two languages. His rudimentary knowledge of
the language established as a young child was
perfected under the influence of his mother and summer visits to Nuremberg to visit grandparents. Andy’s
mastery of the language proved influential in garnering
a unique internship after his first year, an unusual feat
in and of itself.
“whole company experience,” because he
worked in every phase of the business.
His first assignment was to shadow an engineer and observe the design and development
phase of the manufacturing process. Next he
was assigned to procurement where he performed various administrative tasks. Then he
landed on the factory floor where he got a
dose of the German exacting work ethic. His
job in that division was quality control, where
he was assigned the task of measuring tiny
component parts to ensure specifications were
met. A slight deviation from those standards
required Andy to recalibrate the equipment.
For six weeks following his freshman year Andy worked
as an intern for Telair International, a designer and
manufacturer of “on-board baggage and cargo handling
systems for both wide-body and narrow-body aircraft,”
serving more than 20 carriers worldwide including Airbus and Boeing. He describes the internship as a
After that, he worked in receiving. Then he
moved to assembly where he helped to combine some of the tiny parts that he had measured while on the manufacturing floor. He fin-
Andy visiting Schloss
Neuschwanstein in
southwest Bavaria.
Continued next page
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Continued from previous page
ished his experience working in the shipping
department.
Although Andy was clearly grateful for the
internship work experience, he was
equally appreciative of the cultural experience. During his stay he was housed
with a German family. After work each
day he joined in pick-up soccer games,
making many new friends in the process.
Some of those connections have become old
friends with whom he still regularly trades visits.
Andy’s interest in admission to the business school
necessitated his taking the introductory financial
accounting course his sophomore year. In so doing,
he discovered that he had a remarkable aptitude
for the subject. In fact, so outstanding was his performance in the class that it garnered him an invitation to the annual Evening of Excellence dinner,
where just such superior accomplishments are honored. During the event, students with outstanding
performance in the introductory accounting classes
are treated to a nice dinner and an opportunity to
mingle with accounting majors and accounting professionals. Andy was smitten. So positive was
Andy’s experience that, he decided to change his
major to accounting.
Andy continued to enjoy great success throughout
his accounting studies, landing a KPMG internship
after his senior year, a KPMG scholarship for post
graduate accounting studies, and a job at KPMG’s
Tyson office, which he started this past fall. Before
beginning that new job, Andy admitted to a little
apprehension. As a KPMG intern, he heard “war
stories” describing short nights and long weeks.
However, between the rigors of JMU’s accounting
program, and the self-discipline instilled by his father, Andy also acknowledges that he feels well
prepared. As to the JMU accounting program, he
believes that the greatest attributes are the dedicated faculty, the small class sizes and the fact that
the material was never easy. As to his father, “I was
messy and that didn’t fly with my Dad.” Andy’s
habit of leaving his stuff lying about the house was
curtailed when, after several ominous warnings
from his father, Andy found his shoes in the pond
behind their house; a valuable lesson that Andy
believes has served him well.
Ultimately Andy hopes to take advantage of his
dual-citizenship and dreams of one day living and
working in Germany. As a German citizen “I can
work anywhere in Europe without a visa,” he explains.
“I’d love to work in Munich!” (Ich möchte in München arbeiten)
~
As to the JMU accounting program, … the
greatest attributes are the
dedicated faculty, the
small class sizes and the
fact that the material was
never easy.
About the Author:
Susan Q. Ferguson is an instructor of accounting at James Madison
University. Ms. Ferguson received her undergraduate degree from
the College of William & Mary and a Masters degree in Taxation from
the University of Virginia.
PAGE 7
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occupying it—and that country is Costa Rica because it is the only nation in the study with both a
low tolerance for power distance and a preference
for collectivist behavior. At this point I was overwhelmed with a sense of discovery! I was “hooked” on Costa
Rica, and I have spent more than
a decade exploring the reasons
why Costa Rica is so unique.
certain tree and that tree no longer stands. And to
emphasize the dilemma one of our drivers pointed
out that a “meter” may not be a true measured meter. Being practical, I asked how the mail gets delivered. Motorcycles travel from the
firms to the post office. And I
guess, like the delivery of this
newsletter, email now solves the
problem of a missing tree.
With the help of Bill Harlow from
KPMG and Debbie Schleicher of
Grant Thornton, I was able to
visit their firms’ respective accounting practices in Costa Rica.
I found myself interviewing senior
partners in Costa Rica for the answers to the questions that I have explored in the library for a decade—a real life quest. My husband Michael came
along with me. In addition to serving as my bodyguard, Mike also critiqued the sequence of interview questions and kept the interviews on track. I
had a good excuse to bring Mike along to visit
KPMG because he had worked for the firm when it
was Peat, Marwick & Mitchell. So, with the help of
a lot of people, I set out to visit Costa Rica to gain a
first-hand understanding of the culture that initiated my interest and the nation’s transition to IFRS.
I was charmed by the phrase in
return email from Sr. Cotera at
Grant Thornton that “the firm will
receive you” when you visit Costa
Rica. What a pleasant turn of a
phrase—to be “received.” I initially
interpreted the phrase as a welcome; but after visiting, I think of the assurance as both a welcome
and a key to the physical location. Most locations—
homes, hotels, accounting offices-- in Costa Rica are
secured. You must be expected to achieve access.
I would be received at Grant Thornton any time on
the 20th. Any time! I could not elicit a specific time
to schedule my arrival through email. Could this
mean that I did not really have an appointment?
I was charmed by the
phrase in return email ...
that “the firm will receive
you” when you visit
Costa Rica. What a
pleasant turn of a
phrase—to be “received.”
I will assume that many of you may have visited
Costa Rica before I did—especially since tourism
and services are now the country’s largest sector of
employment. Many of you may know that they do
not have the traditional address system in Costa Rica. A phrase (a series of words) will depict location.
For example, Grant Thornton is located from La
Casa Italia 100 meters south. Michael and I spent a
lot of time in the company of drivers, and we were
told that some of the location markers are no longer
there. For example, a destination is a meter from a
I shouldn’t have worried. It was about a 45-minute
drive from our hotel (Marriott Airport) to the eastern side of San Jose . Kendall our driver had grown
up in downtown San Jose. Not only could he navigate the maze of city streets, but he planned the
route for us to see the sites. He took us through
historic San Jose where the locations in tour
books—The National Theatre and National Museum, for examples, came to life. One hundred meters from Casa Italia, we found the GT offices on the
second floor and-- as we had come to expect-locked tight.
We were on the calendar—
expected—our names written in a bound book that
serves as a registry. Our meeting took place in a
Continued next page
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Continued from previous
conference room overlooking a beautiful
interior courtyard in a very old part of the
city.
When asked, Sr. Cotera didn’t mind
searching his experience for examples of
collective behavior and low tolerances for
power distance. No problem. If he found
the question odd, he didn’t react that way. He
helped me to spell the Spanish words as he gave
examples. Sr. Cotera went on to share the history of
his firm, which turned out to be in part a history of
his family. He described accounting education in
Costa Rica and the nation’s experience with IFRS.
And, as the door was unlocked and we were escorted out of the office, he extended a genuine offer for
us not to hesitate to continue the questioning
through email.
KPMG is located in Escazu—again a 45-minute trip
from the hotel -- but in a different direction. Our
driver Abner also was committed to describing the
sites along the way. We passed the National Stock
Exchange, Bolsa Nacional de Valores, recently
moved from San Jose. Both the parking lot and lobby at KPMG--the Edificio KPMG—were secured. But
we had been assured in email that we would be
“received,” and the inquiries progressed smoothly.
We were issued a badge; we were greeted by employees with badges who then punched in codes to
floors and even rooms. Before too long we were
seated with Sr. Amen on the fifth floor overlooking
the developing area of Escazu. We were assured
that we need not rush through our questions. Time
was not a problem. The busy tax season had ended
the week before we arrived. We covered many
topics, including the history of democracy in Costa
Rica, the transition to IFRS, and the education of
accountants. Like Sr. Cotera, Sr. Amen’s father had
been a partner in the firm before him.
I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to
pursue my research questions and to be surrounded
by people who were so generous to me: my husband Michael, Dr. Paul Copley, Bill Harlow, Debbie
Schleicher, Sr. Amen and Sr. Cotera and others at
KPMG and GT. Pura Vida literally translated means
“Pure Life.” But the meaning can be much more
nebulous, more like, “This is a great life!” The
phrase is often used as a greeting in Costa Rica, especially as a good-bye. May you all be as fortunate
as I have been in my travels. Pura Vida.
~
Diane A. Riordan is the Grant Thornton Faculty Scholar and Professor of Accounting
at James Madison University where she teaches tax, international accounting, and principles of financial accounting. She holds a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech and has been a member of the JMU faculty for over twenty years.