COMM107-1501

Informational Interview Journal Entry
For the interview assignment, I interviewed Ms. Julie Nguyen, senior internal auditor at Watkins, Meegan LLC. I was not as nervous for this interview, because I met Julie few times before, during the career fairs at Smith Business School, and also prepared carefully all the questions to ask Julie. Overall, the interview went very well and Julie was a helpful person to talk to about physical therapy because she has had a lot of experience in the field.
The interview took place not in an office, but in Robert Smith Business School, where Julie also graduated, which made the interview feel relaxed and laid back. A lot of question I asked Julie were about the kinds of classes I would need to take and the academic plan to achieve 150 credits. Her responses mentioned Taxation, Business Law II, Governmental Accounting and Cost Accounting. Moreover, Julie also stressed the importance of networking, for which she was able to get her current job position.
Julie currently works more as a CPA where it is a one-to-one interaction with the client. I asked her if it were possible to work with other specialists as a team while working with the client and she said definitely. Because of a great amount of interactive work with the clients, Julie said communication is key to developing successful client relationships. The accountant must communicate the expectations of the services offered and how the results will be quantified. If you fail to do this, the client may not see your firm's value, choose not continue the relationship, and certainly won't refer additional work your way.
As the interview went on it became easier to talk with Julie because my questions all related to one another so the conversation flowed nicely. Furthermore, I also asked her some questions about as a whole as well as the accounting job outlook. Gladly, she shared her view that the future of accounting was bright and demand was especially high in the tax and health care areas. And when I explained my concerns regarding high-pressure working environment since the work that is produced by accountants needs to be accurate and reliable, Julie convinced me that the office atmosphere was very work orientated and always very positive and her manager was very supportive of the projects that she was doing and gave her any help possible.
To close the interview I asked Julie if she had any advice for student who wishes to become a CPA and she said a big problem is forgetting basic accounting. She laughed that many of her interns forgot many basic accounting skills because they had taken the course so long ago. While you may not be an expert in every area of accounting, especially if you are still a student, you should know the basic accounting, understand the primary financial statements, such as the income statement and balance sheet. Moreover, accounting students should join accounting student clubs or professional accounting organizations, which provide networking opportunity and resources for students to develop their skills. Once the interview was over I felt that it ran very smoothly and that I had learned a lot about the career field, which made me more certain this this is the career path that I want to take.