vault names top 50 best accounting firms for cpa careers

top 5: deloitte, pwc, rothstein kass, marcum, and dixon hughes.

this year, vault said, firm culture, as opposed to prestige, emerged as the most important determining factor. in fact, 36% of all accounting professionals surveyed said firm culture was most important, while only 11% cited prestige as most important. the other top factors cited by survey respondents were: lifestyle/work-balance (14%), location (13%), compensation (5%) and training opportunities (also 5%).

read more →

three ms of success for cpa firms

what rita keller teaches us from southwest airlines’ legendary founder.

by rick telberg

it’s been a rollercoaster ride in the past few years, with firms at first drowning in work, followed by a crippling staff shortage, then a market crash and belt-tightening, then re-expansion with a broadly profitable busy season. so a few weeks of peace and quiet this summer could seem appealing to staff and management alike.

but management guru rita keller is here to tell you that you can’t afford much rest. “there’s work to do,” she says about cleaning up rusty and outmoded cpa firm management practices. keller has a message for firms to focus on marketing, mentoring and managing — the three ms.

read more →

cpa mentoring: you can munch, but it’s more than lunch

eight structured steps that cpa firms can use to develop and nurture talent.

unfortunately, even the best-intentioned mentoring initiatives can easily fizzle in the early stages, before delivering value to the participants and the organization at large, according to molly sargent of norwalk, conn.-based professional impressions consulting.

sargent

molly has trained and coached thousands of financial professionals and client-facing executives in professional image, presentation skills, business etiquette and sales effectiveness. since 1985, she has helped major accounting firms and fortune 500 companies, including aetna, american express, at&t, citibank, goldman sachs, jpmorgan, key bank, mastercard, pricewaterhousecoopers and prudential achieve breakthrough results.

with so much to gain, how can your firm initiate mentoring in a way that is successful and sustainable?

read more →