Your Name (optional): Jeff M. Brown
Male/female: Male
City: Markham
State/Province: Ontario
Country: Canada
Industry: zzz
Job: Management Accountant
Company (Optional): zzz
Community Service Organization (Optional): TeachingKidsBusiness.com
Education:
University Degree, CMA (Certified Management Accountant – The Society of Management Accountants of Ontario) Ongoing reading and learning to further develop your skills and learn new skills.
Training/experience required (years, other jobs):
Experience is key. A management accountant studies business cases throughout the CMA program but, the on-the-job experiences is the greatest training. Develop a career plan to allow yourself to experience a variety of industries to help you broaden your perspective on advising on business issues and opportunities. There are also routine accounting responsibilities like the preparing of financial statements to show how the company is doing in terms of money.
Explain what you do:
As a management accountant you work on the operational side of the business. You work closer with other groups in the company; like sales, marketing, production, distribution and general accounting. In my roles as a management account, I initiated numerous projects to improve the operations of the company, to save the company money ,to organize people in the company differently, to change suppliers, to make purchases of equipment, to develop and implement systems and to change pricing of products.
Why should kids choose your career path?
I believe that any professional designation is an excellent foundation to start your career. It is very common to change careers as you discover what is best suited for you and find opportunities that are available.A management accounting career path can provide you with a good basic foundation in business which will allow to move into other careers in the future.If you dream of being an entrepreneur, you will find it to be very helpful to have a foundation in accounting.If you eventually go into sales or marketing you will find the ability to understand and manage the financial/accounting aspects of the business are important.
What would you recommend career wise and how should kids approach/develop their preparation for a working life?
I believe it is important for you to give a lot of though to what you want to do. Start now and ask questions, research a variety of jobs and most importantly understand your strengths & weaknesses, talents and passions.Try and gain as much experience as you can in areas that you think you are interested in, even if you don’t get paid. Experience is very, very, very important. Get experience in community involvement programs which will help you learn to take responsibility and work with people.Read some business books (just the soft covered ones) to start to understand the many things you be facing.Think of ways to do things better as you encounter daily things in life. You will quickly realize what interests you and which talents you have. (If you could do something better then someone that is getting paid to do something – then you could be doing it.)
Lessons learned:If you started all over again what would you do differently?
I would have moved out of accounting after advancements of about five years. Your personal growth curve (learning on the job) is so great during the first few years and not so great as you apply your skills more then you learn them. I would have changed careers and started another growth curve in an other area. The growth curve is often greater when you switch companies and learn another industry and/or another companies approach to business. I would have saved more money as I started to work because when you have savings you give yourself the opportunity to make more choices in the next steps in your career. Savings allows you to take courses, go back to school, buy some equipment to train yourself etc.
A favorite anecdote, phrase, or expression relating to business that inspires you:
You get out of something what you put into it! (If you put little into planning and developing your career you will get little from your career)
Other suggestions or relevant information you would communicate to kids regarding careers in general:
Start now!!!!!! Be a kid and enjoy these years but spend some of your time on thinking and preparing for the future. If you spend 5 hours a week watching TV. then take 1/2 of an hour and give it to your future. Homework is key to your educational success and is important for your future but it doesn’t really count as future development time. Don’t expect your “school education” to give you the necessary skills for a career. Take charge of your career preparation and work out a plan. Most schools don’t have the resources or expertise to give you the help you need. The internet is an excellent source of information that will help you.