My future career goal is to become a Certified Public Accountant. To help me to better understand the exact day to day life as a Certified Public Accountant, I decided to interview one. I interviewed Michael DiNoto, a Senior Associate in KPMG’s Metro Audit Practice. KPMG is a big accounting company and one of the Big Four auditors. I thought I could get some real insight into what I may be doing in the future by interviewing Michael DiNoto. First I thought it would be helpful to find out some background information about him. I asked him where he went to college and what his major was. He had went to Baruch and obviously his major was Accounting. He has received a BS in Accounting and MS in Taxation from Baruch. He has been licensed as a CPA in NY. I had also asked him what influenced his decision to go to Baruch and become a CPA. He told me he knew he wanted to go into business at a young age, and that in his junior year of high school he decided to become an accountant. While he was researching business schools with a good reputation for Accounting majors, he found Baruch. He thought there was no better option because it is perfect for him major, has a reasonable tuition, and would be a great way to get used to the city by the time he got a job there. One of the most interesting things he told me was the amazing internship he had gotten through Baruch. I always though internships offered little to no salary but he informed me that his internship with KPMG paid him over $50,000 a year. He also told me that his mother was an Accountant as well but she retired quite some time ago. Michael said she was a big influence in his decision to become an Accountant. I asked him what he did day-to-day as a CPA. He told me that he usually goes to the client site with a team from his firm, and brings his laptop. Then he usually stays there for a week sometimes longer and goes through all of their financial statement accounts and performs testing to make sure their financial statement accounts are correct. Then he and his team have meetings with different departments and with the controller or chief financial officer to understand their business better and to get all of the supporting documentation they need from them. I asked if there are any major perks of being a CPA and he said the best part is being able to travel. Being a CPA, he’s traveled for work many times. But he also gets 5weeks vacation every year and this allows him to travel wherever he wants to as well. He says that being a CPA is very stressful at times, but he does not regret his job choice and feels very lucky to be working for such a great company as KPMG. I found this interview to be very helpful and gave me great insight into my future career choice.
