Choosing a career in public accounting is a pivotal decision for young members of the profession, but it's only the beginning of a series of important choices, and one of the most important of those — whether to start their career in tax or audit — is often initially overlooked or rushed, according to Jessica Gooch, a tax shareholder at Dallas-based Huselton, Morgan and Maultsby.
Gooch has therefore put that decision at the forefront of HM&M's Student Leadership Program, which she spearheaded and leads.
"It's a big deal for students to make the decision about majoring and deciding they want to be in accounting," Gooch said. "And they are needing to choose whether they want to be on a tax or an audit track really early on. They don't really know enough to know what they should choose. Also, in the internship process they start working on that, and are recruited for that earlier and earlier, so that's another time to make the decision, with tax and audit the two main choices for internship programs. They don't know what to choose, and don't have the practical experience to know how."
In HM&M's Student Leadership Program, participants don't yet make that choice, but are given a taste of practical experience and education on both options to help inform that decision for future accounting internships or jobs. On day one of the program, in fact, students take a quiz that "gives them an idea if they are more likely to like tax or audit better, or maybe they land in a gray area," Gooch explained. "We start off with that in the very beginning, on the first day. It's a fun thing to do, and the kids really enjoy that, and we enjoy seeing how they test out on it."
Positive feedback loop
This kicks off the beginning of the two-and-a-half-day program, which is designed to give college students interested in the profession a chance to receive more education, mentorship, and a taste of office life as an accountant. Now in its fifth year, the annual event includes sessions on networking and professionalism, a CPA exam roundtable, reverse interviews with multiple staff members, resume and interview coaching, job shadowing, and volunteering opportunities.
Gooch, who has been with the firm for over 17 years, was looking for a project after she became a shareholder in 2018, and began developing the program.
"It was born out of necessity, and a desire to promote the accounting profession, and specifically the public accounting profession, since we are in a spot of more people leaving the profession than entering the profession," she shared. "We need more students to be choosing accounting, and particularly public accounting. We came up with this as a way to outreach to students, younger students … It's a way to bring them in, help mentor them, let them see what public accounting is about and break down the stigma surrounding the profession that they may have come across."
Participants are all young students who HM&M largely finds through their recruitment relationships with local colleges or through word of mouth.
And referrals have surged thanks to positive feedback from all five classes of participants (of generally six to eight people each year), according to Gooch.
"They are usually so grateful and thankful — they come here and have no idea who we are, and two and a half days later, they are leaving and giving us hugs, wanting to connect and stay in touch," she said. "It's really awesome. Most of them we've been able to stay in touch with and they've stayed on the accounting track, in public accounting. Some of them here with us, some with other firms, and that's OK too. We are more focused on the big picture of the profession, not just having to be here at HM&M. We love what we do, and that other students get to the point where they love it too."
Three or four past participants now work at the firm, where they can experience the other side of the program. Gooch reports that the feedback from that side of the table is just as positive.
"Honestly, a lot of staff and people that work here at the firm that participate and help put [the program] on, they love it as much as the students. It's great to see a lot of the younger staff taking on leadership positions, mentoring these kids when they are here and after they've gone. Everybody loves doing it."
Input from all angles
Gooch said that HM&M staff also enjoyed helping create the program, which has improved since 2018 and benefits from the ideas of younger employees who are fresh out of school.
"They had thoughts and input, what they wished they knew at that time, and we used that input to put it together," Gooch said. "It evolved; some things we thought were a good idea the first year dropped off or changed, and we made some things longer or shorter, based on the feedback from the students."
Gooch also relied on her peers in establishing the program, and advises any firms looking to develop their own to do the same.
"Back in 2018, putting it together, I tracked down a few firms doing something similar and contacted folks there," she said. "I also talked to college campuses where we recruit and have decent relationships with people that work there, in the career services department, a lot of times those people have a good feel for it … . Once we did that and got started on the preliminary idea for what we might want to do, we put together a committee of maybe six people at various levels and sides of the practice, particularly ones somewhat involved in recruiting."
One of the major goals that came from that research and brainstorming was to give students a practical education and experience in accounting — and help clear the confusion that can come from early interest in the profession.
"Maybe they've not had a lot of classes yet, or they base [their decision of tax versus audit] on the professors they like and not what the discipline is about," Gooch explained. "What we provide for students coming into the program, is really giving them a good feel for working at a public accounting firm — what kind of people work here, what tax is really like, what audit is really like, so hopefully they're better equipped to make the decisions they have to make. And hopefully it helps solidify their decision to major in accounting."
