Time: 10:00am-11:30am, May 22, Thursday
Venue: Room 501, Jiageng Building 2
Topic: Starting Your Career in Auditing
As a fresh university graduate, few careers will offer as rich of an experience as can be obtained from working in the assurance industry. Whether with the Big Four, a regional firm or a local CPA, each will provide valuable learning opportunities which will set the tone of your professional career. This type of initial work experience, combined with a CPA license, will result in virtually guaranteed employment for life.
Landing your first position in assurance is a highly competitive ordeal however, and a methodical approach is required. Prior to graduating, a student needs to build their own personal brand, market that brand and effectively use their brand to obtain an interview. Once in the front door, one needs to sell or pitch their brand to the firm's young associates, HR and partners. Neither branding or the sales pitch are something that should be taken lightly, and soon to be graduates must develop and polish these over time.
This seminar will first discuss how students should frame their brand, will go onto note steps they will need to take towards obtaining their first position with an accounting firm and finally will look the basics of sitting for and passing the U.S. CPA exam. It will be a highly interactive two way conversation and attendees are encouraged to bring a draft copy of their CV, to be used for discussion purposes.
Speaker: Raymond Reed Baker, CPA, MBA, PhD
Ray has a deep interest in corporate governance, as both an academic and practitioner. He began his career in the assurance practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers and then moved on from the firm to advise over one hundred organizations on governance, accounting or internal control related matters. His clients have included a range of organizations operating in the United States, China and Europe, with a more recent focus on Sarbanes Oxley advisory services for public companies listed on the NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX and OTC capital markets.
In addition to his work as a practitioner, Ray has done in depth academic research in the area of corporate governance and internal controls, as well as university lecturing on auditing and accounting. He has an MBA and PhD in Accounting, from the University of Hong Kong, along with a Bachelors Degree in Accounting, from The Pennsylvania State University. Ray is also an actively licensed Certified Public Accountant.