Month: November 2010

Job Search: Prestige and Compensation


It happens very rarely, but this time I am in absolute agreement with yet another installment from "You Are Better Than Your Job Search" – previously referenced book from The Ladders' CEO Marc Cenedella: Title vs. Salary.  And I strongly advise everyone to click on the link and read the excerpt very carefully.

It is true that a good title looks pretty on our resumes, but it cannot be at the center of your decision to accept a job offer.  If the title comes as a part of a good deal completed with new professional challenges and attractive compensation package, then great, you are doing the right thing by taking the job.  However, if its just a title and everything about the job makes you unhappy, depressed and economically strapped, there is no point in making such sacrifices. 

And you cannot fool anybody with that line on your resume either.  All experienced recruiters and the majority of hiring execs know that if you held the Controller position in a $10 million a year, known to nobody company, it means you had no staff, can claim no sophisticated accomplishments, nobody asked your strategic advice and your salary was around $80K.  At best, you were a glorified full-charge bookkeeper.

As the matter of fact, I frequently say that I don't care about my title.  As far as I am concerned, they can call me "hey you," or a "firefighter," or a "cleaning lady" on the organizational chart as long as I can continue impact the business in the most profound way, implement ideas of highest sophistication,  keep all functions in full control and receive compensation that reflects my influence on the company.

Another very valuable point concerning inflated titles brought up in the article/excerpt is the artificial promotion.  In the companies with flat management structure, people keep carrying out the same responsibilities year after year with minimal salary increases and title changes that reflect not a professional growth but rather simple seniority.  After 10 or 15 years with the same company a person who started as a catch-all office girl becomes the Controller.  And it is fine if she actually grew into the Controller's responsibilities together with the company's development (this is what I call an "in-the-chair" career ladder), but most of the time that is not the case.  Hence, taking the Controller's job replacing that person would not be a great professional achievement.  

Of course, when we are stuck in the rut of a long job search, we become desperate and dispirited.  Then even an inflated title may seem like a sweetener of whatever position we are ready to grab to "put the food on the table."  However, desperation is a poor adviser.  Please, think long and hard before you take that step.




Anyone Can Be in Accounting?


There were times not long ago when in order to "work in Accounting"  you had to have some formal knowledge of, at the very least, bookkeeping principles.  When one dealt with manual cash receipts and disbursements journals, subsidiary and general ledgers, payroll transaction recording, at minimum she or he had to understand the principles of double-bookkeeping. 

The technological advancements and computerization changed all that.  Now, anyone who knows some Excel, quick enough to grasp menu-driven applications and doesn't suck at basic math is good enough to work in Accounting.

Don't get me wrong, I am a technology freak.  Some people who know me long enough say that Technology is my middle name.  Moreover, we, accountants, were some of the early beneficiaries of the computer coding: the first business data analysis compiler was written in 1957.  Truth be told handling all those books manually was getting out of control.

However, hiding all the double entries behind the computer's screen, allowed for the situation we currently have, especially in small business environment: people without any accounting and/or finance foundation are allowed to mechanically perform important functions. 

Here is a true story shared with me by one of my correspondent.  Let's call her Lisa.  When she took a CFO position in a law firm that employed over 500 people, the composition of her "Accounting & Finance" department was as follows: AP Manager (no accounting degree, 20 years of strictly AP experience), PR Manager (BS in General Business, prior experience in HR & Benefits), Staff Accountant 1 (BA in Psychology who was a daughter of a partner's friend), Staff Accountant 2 (BA in Child Psychology who started as a part-time office clerk when she was in HS and just stayed on), Financial Analyst (BS in Business Administration with above average Excel). 

Is it surprising that the firm had a turnover of Controllers and CFOs at the rate of 4 per year in the past few years?  They had great ideas what the company's record-keeping, analytical and reporting functions should be, but no one to whom to delegate the actual implementation.  Is it surprising that the company never had audited financial statements?

At the first meeting with the Staff Accountant 2 (let's call her Sam), Lisa was told that Sam was "an accounting genius."  Sam said, that she was so good at it, she got everything in a split second.  A week later Lisa has discovered that all Bank Accounts in the Asset section of GL had reversed entries: receipts as credits and disbursements as debits.  In other words, it replicated the bank statements instead of reflecting the company's transactions.

You think this law firm's accounting staff is unique?  Nope, it happens everywhere.  Look at the people responsible for financial functions in this young and hip company Quirky.  I am sure these four women are bright and wonderful, but none of them have neither accounting nor serious financial background. 

If this problem has affected you as well, please, do not hesitate to email me and share.