Discipline Investigation Assignment

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The biggest challenge in audit and other accounting is dealing face-to-face with other people from different departments to obtain information. For example, Ms. Brubeck was always in the frontline of representing her company. She had to talk with strangers (e.g., CEOs, clients, or clerks) every day to complete her end-year financial reports and had to double check with stock and inventory teams at the end of the year. Sometimes, to make sure procedures for year-end inventory were done correctly, she had to supervise others by herself and recount each section separately before moving to the next procedure. She said, "Auditor is not a hard job, but it is time-consuming work. You need to be calm and be confident in yourself if you want to be an auditor."

To understand more about what an audit is, I researched outside sources to improve my knowledge about this field. First, an auditor's primary responsibility is to express an independent opinion about the financial statements of a company. Auditors don't have any authority to change the source documents or transactions. However, auditors can give suggestions to management based on what they found ("What an Auditor Does and Doesn't Do"). Second, working environment for auditors is very stressful due to the high level of accuracy and timeliness. People need to think carefully before they become auditors. Auditors need to work a long time in front of computers, which may cause negative health effects such as heart disease, vision problems, or diabetes.

(http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/much-sitting-linked-heart-disease-diabetes-premature-death-201501227618)

Communication Skills

People may have wrong ideas about audits. First, it is not a type of work that allows you to sit in the corner of the room and work out a problem by yourself. In fact, according to Ms. Brubeck, you must go outside and talk to clients and customers. Second, being good at reading and writing is not quite enough. You have to be able to express your own opinion. Typically, Ms. Brubeck has experienced many situations where accounting students are nervous and unconfident during an interview. Employers understand that students, who got an invitation from them, must all have the same qualification (e.g., education, experience, certification, etc.) prior sending them the interview. A student’s personality - a unique style for each person, is what the interviewers want to know and look for. However, students usually don't express their personalities, so they usually lose their chances to impress the interviewers.

As I mentioned earlier, moving to a higher position required Ms. Brubeck to bring new clients to the company. In order to do that, she must tell the clients what they want to hear and need, and she felt completely uncomfortable with that. For example, to have new clients, she must understand what her competitors offered and the differences between her company and the competitors. She then prepared and had in-depth conversations to gain an understanding of what the clients needed and offered them the same services at a competitive price.

According to Investopedia, accounting is not just simply a bunch of numbers. Nowadays, accounting requires a lot of communication skills, especially working as a team. You need to be able to communicate with clients to discuss their financial statements, different kinds of taxes, and accounting issues. The ability to communicate with others is not just an essential element but also the key to moving up the ladder in the accounting career.

Conclusion

I, like many others, used to think that maintaining a high GPA would be a good strategy, and I should do that no matter what. After interviewing Ms. Brubeck, I was surprised by how hard it is to achieve my goal. Unlike native English speakers who can speak their mother language fluently, my English speaking is very limited (slow speed and wrong tone). I feel desperate about this issue. By choosing accounting as my major, I thought all I needed to do was deal with a bunch of numbers and calculate cash flow; however, I was wrong. Everything related to business means dealing with people. Another surprise for me was how much data auditors have to check before giving their final decision. If something goes wrong (e.g., missing money), they have to go back where the data came from and then compare it to other data.

Through the discipline investigation essay, I learned and understood deeply that building a social network and getting an internship are very important to build my resume for the future. Those places would provide good chances to practice and improve my language and accounting skills.

Works Cited

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2016-17 Edition, Accountants and Auditors, n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2016. http://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/accountants-and-auditors.htm>

Struyk, Tara. "A Look at Accounting Careers | Investopedia." Investopedia.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2016. http://www.investopedia.com/articles/financialcareers/11/accounting-information-systems-careers.asp>

"Too much sitting linked to heart disease, diabetes, premature death" Health.harvard.edu. Ed. Julie Corliss. N.p., 22 Jan. 2015. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.

"What an Auditor Does and Doesn’t Do." Grfcpa.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2016. http://www.grfcpa.com/resources/publications/auditor-responsibilities/>