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Women Urged to Strive for More Leadership at Firms

This article has great tips for women rising in the professional world. 

Wal-Mart's Michael Fung: Why Internal Auditors Make Good CFOs

Before the Enron days, internal audit was not a glamorous job or considered essential to move ahead in the finance world.  It certainly gives you a great understanding of, and appreciation for, strong business processes as Wal-mart's CFO can attest.

Study Finds Discrimination at Accounting Firms

I just read this article on discrimination at accounting firms.  We certainly are not short on women or minorities in our firm.  Of the 12 of us, two are men.

It reminded me of when I first started public accounting with Athur Andersen in Phoenix, AZ.  As I recall, there were three Asians-- Alpana (an Indian), a Chinese, and me-- in the audit practice.  I think demographics plays a big role too.  I honestly can say I did not feel discriminated against.  I was promoted early to senior auditor.  I was promoted early to manager (thanks to my favorite manager, Kevin Kujawski, who pushed for me).

Imagine my surprise when I transferred to the Andersen Silicon Valley office in 2000 and walked into an office full of Asians. Granted, there weren't many Asian managers. 

Accounting Grads Flood the Job Market

I saw this article on Friday about the record number of students majoring in accounting.  This year's tally is the largest number of accounting graduates in the 36 years the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants has been tracking the data.

Card Me

I recently went to a sales training seminar and the speaker was talking about building strong relationships to close a sale.  As he was outlining this point, the lady sitting next to me (who I have never met and had not introduced herself to me before) nudged me.  I looked at her and she handed me her business card...she was handing out business cards to everyone sitting around her.

She really needed to listen to the 'building strong relationships' speech instead of passing her business cards around randomly.

Hereis some advice I read on a WIC discussion about best practices for business cards:

Sometimes you find people who are not really interested in talking with you and getting to know you at these networking events.  I think that something people should always practice two things:

1.  The art of listening – Don’t just talk about your own business.  Ask the other person about their business and engage in a conversation.

2.   Relationships – Don’t just take run around and grab as many business cards as you can in one evening.  Networking is about building relationships.

New graduates have plenty to learn about work etiquette

As I was writing the CPA riff, I came across this article which eloquently gives advice to young people starting their careers.