My First Year as a Public Accountant

My Experience as a New Staff Accountant in Tax and Audit

It has officially been a year since I graduated from college and entered the world of public accounting, and I never would have imagined my career to start off this way.

I joined Meadows Urquhart in early January 2024 and jumped right into tax season with the firm. Not only have I had the opportunity to work with numerous managers, but I also gained exposure to many types of tax returns. During my first few months, I focused on learning the basics of public accounting, while simultaneously learning how to manage my time while applying critical thinking. I was able to ask all the questions along the way giving me a significant amount of learning opportunities. Even with the time sensitive pressure of filing returns before their deadlines, upper management still took the time to help develop my technical skills. Overall, I would say that I genuinely enjoyed my first busy season.

After the April 15^th deadline, my summer schedule was created and filled with many more unique opportunities. I had the opportunity to work on multiple review and audit engagements, as well as nonprofit tax returns. I particularly enjoyed being able to do both tax and assurance work for the same client, especially when I was able to go visit on site to the client’s offices. Being able to communicate with the client directly and visually see how the firm is helping develop different businesses and nonprofits within the local Richmond community was incredibly rewarding.

The year ended with a series of employee training sessions and client planning for the 2024 tax year. These trainings were extremely beneficial for me to attend,  as they involved developing both my technical and soft skills.  I have already applied these newly learned skills through communicating with clients and taking on more complex tax returns.

Key Takeaways from My First Year

Looking back, my first year as a staff accountant was a whirlwind of learning experiences. Some of my biggest takeaways include:

• Time management is crucial. Learning to balance multiple engagements and deadlines helped me become more efficient. But no one expects a new employee to already have this perfected.
• Asking questions is key. No one expects new staff to know everything. In fact, managers and reviewers would prefer to be asked questions about projects. It showed others that I was well prepared and willing to learn.
• Attention to detail matters. Whether preparing tax returns or auditing financial statements, accuracy is critical. This also applies to documentation and annotating throughout completing a project.
• Client communication is an important skill. Developing professional relationships with clients and coworkers is just as important as technical knowledge. Meadows Urquhart held multiple training sessions to help develop my soft skills as well as gave me the opportunity to communicate with clients directly.

Overall, I am incredibly grateful for the experiences and opportunities and am happy with the profession I chose to pursue. For anyone considering a similar path, my advice is to embrace the challenges, stay curious, and take advantage of every learning opportunity.