Accounting Training and Internship Program in CPA Firm

blyaccount

I hope you are well.7 @( j) W' o# }7 {P" g7 f
My apologies for sending this email late, I have already gotten an offer from one of the big four accounting firm as an senior accountant and will start work on the 6th Jan. 7 f! d8 T# p" p. J/ R+ O! c& [. R
I would like to thank you all for your professional training which was useful to me in my job search.
! Y5 y& @8 }7 G8 f2 M+ J' j! E$ HI would also like to thank Jeff for the interview session he had during the intensive training. It was very useful and it helped boost my confidence and Humam for always being there to answer question and help me solve problems.
+ n( P6 a$ h3 q! K2 f3 ^Please see below some questions I summarized from my interview as follow:
( p. C* P* C" u* B: f: d# l1.  Introduce your self
}# ^9 x* X/ N* Y( B, N- R2.  Introduce your study experience
- i{' ?$ _. H& u# B1 ?. E3. Why choose this company and not the other big 4’s
* i% i. i. {" q' I0 d3 f4.  Give a scenario when you have shown leadership1 y; E! }6 z& l% C
5.  How would you deal with conflict in the work place
1 A; n2 N( |2 w3 G$ H6.  describe a situation where you went above and beyond( \2 g) ?6 U" o2 X
7.  Tell me about the situation you met the strict deadline.1 Z; t( l8 U4 o! _* ]8 |% K* {
8.  give a scenario where you found a issues with client internal control6 X+ I' S4 h. ^6 ~
9.  How do you inform clients of internal control issues and successful responses
( q7 L& }9 `5 ?+ i6 C- u10. If you find some weakness in internal control, how can you deal with this?5 J0 o" G$ [5 E+ ~$ u
I really hope the afore mentioned interview questions can help others in their interview.Thanks again for all of your help.
( h8 U! Q' s& n7 o. `( I+ MMerry Christmas to you all!
3 v, |& z6 n, Z# ]: uKind regards- h, L' k# _. o0 t9 g4 ], J* R
Azuka
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blyaccount

Hi Coco,
# E5 l1 Q1 u4 r: _* b9 r* e9 M- AThis is to update you on the progress of my job application for the graduate position in DC**. K** E** called me yesterday and let me know that I got the job!! The job is starting on 2*th Jan next year and the position I am going to take is Financial Analyst. I am very happy with the result and I want to say a big THANK YOU to you for being a great reference for me. I believe your positive comments and your confidence in me had played an important part in helping me to secure this job. The internship with Bly Accounting does give me a lot of exposure to various aspects of accounting and helps me to prepare job interviews. Having secured a job through your reference based on my performance during the internship, I see this program as really helpful and would like to recommend it to other people.+ T! H, Z* s, [/ H; |/ j# T6 }

/ b0 I. h; h% l2 V- VAgain I appreciate what you have done for me. I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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2 f+ B5 }6 o- E- B, I* gKind regards,9 V" O; N, X) a8 f5 V" c
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Andy Z**5 g3 E4 I$ O& U

blyaccount

Dear Yolanda,
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As you are aware I was successful in obtaining a graduate position at a top Australian manufacturing company before the Christmas break. My position deals directly with managing the company’s expenses (Expense Reporting Co-op). I am extremely happy to have achieved this position and I hope this email can inform and help other interns who are looking to secure a grad position.
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" j+ r5 i5 d7 U% JThe grad program for my company consisted of three main stages: a phone interview, assessment centre and face to face interview.# x- q4 b- y1 V0 G) nL$ H: d3 p; F
$ f) G+ @2 o% }1 D7 g" UIn the phone interview they asked general questions about my university studies and they also wanted to find out what I knew about the company. Speaking about my university studies was fairly straightforward but when it came to speaking about the company my advice to interns is that before a phone interview they should make sure they have done some research on the company. From this research interns should be prepared to talk about their general understanding of what the company does, the company’s clients, the company’s vision and values ect. (candidates may also be required to demonstrate what they know about the company in the face to face interview).
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The next stage was the assessment centre where all remaining candidates met at the office and were put into small groups for an activity that was assessed. The activity was not accounting related and just involved your general knowledge (e.g. giving a response to a hypothetical scenario). While it is important to try and obtain an end result that best meets the task requirements, I felt what was more important to the assessors was the way you interact with your group members, alongside your contributions to the task. I find this stage could be quite challenging if you do not have much experience working with people you have never met before. Therefore in this stage I feel teamwork and leadership skills are the most important.9 ~|8 ~+ Q9 e3 E1 d/ t
My advice for this stage is to always try and contribute something to your group, monitor the time (you have a limited amount of time so the assessors can see how you work under pressure) and to listen to and acknowledge your team members’ suggestions. Assessors will not like it if you do not speak much but at the same time the assessors will not like it if you are too bossy/controlling. Therefore I recommend interns should try to best maintain a balance of not being too quiet but also not being too dominant. & e8 b- P( OB5 X

- }& Q" Z7 i6 C8 D- uIn the face to face interview stage the interview started off asking about myself and my experiences, my most favourite and least favourite job and my most favourite and least favourite university subject. Then they went into behavioural interview questions that included a time where I showed attention to detail and a time where I had to learn on the fly. When answering the behavioural questions my advice is to use the STAR method taught in university, and in Jeff’s interview guidance session. Many examples of behavioural questions can be found on the internet which I used to practice but I do not recommend memorising answers. I find it is better to be familiar with the many experiences you have had at your work, university and extracurricular activities so you can aim to apply these to any questions. This is a technique Jeff covered and I found Jeff’s interview guidance session to be very helpful in preparation for this stage. If interns are struggling to come up with experiences I find that there are a lot of situations from the internship at Bly that can be used to respond to the questions. ! @& I* x: X, ]6 X- i; D; U
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In my interview there were also no technical questions and I feel being a graduate position the interview panel did not expect candidates to have a great deal of experience in the accounting field. The interview panel seemed to be impressed that I took the initiative to build on my accounting skills by taking on an internship at Bly Accounting while studying and they were also impressed by my extracurricular activities, involvement in sport and volunteer work I have done. Therefore when applying for a grad position my advice is that if you have had other experiences that may not be accounting related, but involve certain skills such as team work, problem solving and leadership, it is beneficial to include these experiences in your resume and application. ! Y; V; \6 ^( @2 ]. o

) H) n! U0 }* m" rI wish all my fellow interns the very best in their job hunting. All of the interns I have had the privilege to meet were extremely friendly and supportive. It is great to see Bly Accounting has such a positive work environment. Many thanks to Yolanda for all the fantastic work put into Bly and for her support and assistance. Also many thanks to Jeff, Amy, Scarlet, Lien and Humam for all their help, especially Lien. 9 B9 k6 ah) g2 k

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blyaccount

Hi Yolanda / Jeff,
4 b8 g' w0 |+ O1 f6 P) wPlease be informed that I have successfully secure an offer from ****** for an Senior Auditor role. I would like to express my sincere appreciation for all the assistance given to me during the Internship program. Special thanks to Jeff for your positive feedback during the reference check. 4 w7 A. u5 S8 J8 o# _
As requested, please find below some of my relevant interview questions:2 e* Z) A$ `$ o1 {L+ ^
1.  What can you offer to the firm
* R0 V: T. a6 R5 V, ]8 i2. What are the challenges you face in your previous job and how do you solve it! M$ j3 V1 u& h# ~: x) E7 K4 k0 s
3.  How do you deal with difficult clients" z9 m' s/ L! ]( Hk
4.  Describe the process involved in audit planning
, R$ x3 d4 {- `T" X2 c7 h/ Y5. How do you manage multiple datelines
% l( x# s. _% f0 }* u( h6.  What is your definition of success0 B% y% s6 G5 w' Q1 s
7.  What makes a good team player) ^8 x& M; \6 r
8.  How do you manage disagreements with your superiors
( D) u" {( G, g$ H' O9.  What do you do outside of work
: @1 ?j! _2 n$ u) f, {) a8 ]5 C10. How do you manage stress$ n; l. p9 g4 r) Q+ _! h

/ |4 d4 _/ h! x/ I6 ]9 ^. f3 wI wish the Firm and the team all the best in your future endeavors.! U, Q& [$ M6 }
Merry Christmas and happy holidays.
7 J6 w# s- x. u: p$ x% C9 ~9 `Best regards,( r! d3 N3 B. J& k8 ~, @
Aaron ***7 p! L/ [r) R. J% a

blyaccount

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Dear Yolanda,9 S' W! I2 f+ a( Ws: a1 V' v
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During the interview, the interviewer asked me the following questions: (I cannot remember the original words, but I tried to pick up the main points and the procedures)
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- \+ y* s* e' v& j; {% c( r, a1.  What’s your accounting backgrounds/qualifications/ what can you do?1 ^: j, t2 d! T8 v6 e( Y% `
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( G0 D" w! [3 q; p* s& TI told him that I worked in Platinum Accounting, and showed him my resume and cover letter.E% t' ]/ R: N) q" H: d1 G2 B1 V
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( p5 ?2 d7 `8 E) n1 g9 K2.  He went through my resume roughly, and pointed on my cover letter and asked me what are those points
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From what I can remember, this is the biggest part.
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6 R" }$ Z1 C( u" y1 v$ uCoz in my reference letter, it is mentioned
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AP/AR, Bank reconciliation, FAR, Monthly repayment adjustments, Accruals, Cost center reporting
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- G+ }9 x; _: }/ _. S9 lP/L, General ledger reconciliation, BAS and GST' i0 {8 A% z0 l. }! N
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7 v6 t% S! S" C$ g6 v+ N! ^AP,AR are fairly easy, and general ledger reconciliation are things like bank reconciliation. FAR I did try to explain it in a more detailed way, because seems like they have very litter fixed assets. In addition, he focused on cost center more, because he said he never heard about that before.
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" [, w8 R) }3 ^I answered accordingly.7 _. P1 b( z0 RJ" p3 n: R
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3.  He asked me on experiences in Platinum, what kind of businesses do we do, what jobs do we do
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I said we deal with clients data, such as in internship 3, clients only have data entry in Spreedsheet, we need to enter them into MYOB.# Y: `- |" W5 D9 ^) ]
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' W2 o" D6 MM# t4.  He said his accountant will do BAS for his business, and the main software he used was Excel, later on, he wants to switch to Xero.
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I said I had experiences in using Xero and Sassu (in internship 6)
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5.  He also asked me what’s my religion
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. a) x+ k. d, q! T: `5 Z6.  He also asked me what questions do I have.
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) j7 S2 N2 j, Rg% CI asked that, did he keep business/personal records separately= loan from/to director
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And I also suggested that small business can lodge BAS in quarterly basis, but make payment annually.! r& E2 R1 y7 C
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As it is a small business (he only has one employee, but many contractors), he did not give me a really formalinterview I think. It was more like an introduction about his business and some chit-chat as well.% e8 n' W. M, [$ Ff( o1 B
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, b* C/ E" j* j6 R/ T# r7 P1 D' m: YHope this helps.
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