Post Published: Oct 12
Firm Name: RKE LLP
Date: October 9, 2018
Professionals:
Andrew Stah – Tax senior
- 8 years with the company
- Started in DC area
- First setback: Finance Degree 2009
Juan – Tax associate
- CSUF alumni
Background:
- Founded 2006
- Torrance, CA
- Full service (60% tax)
- Nine Partners
- 50 Professional
Clients:
- Apparel
- MFG & Distribution
- Food and beverage
- Service Providers
- Revenues up to $300 million
- Privately held middle-market companies
o Some international
Winning formula:
- Service model
o Big firm technical knowledge
o Small firm service
- Training and retention
o Rotation
o Rotation for staff: start off in Tax and move over to Consulting and Assurance
o In-house CPE
o Low employee turnover
- Most trusted advisor
Overcoming setbacks:
- Recruiting
o Low GPA
- Have a story
o Lack of job/accounting experience
- “Accounting is a service industry.”
- It comes to customer service
- Soft skills – can you be personable and make complex situations easy to
understand.
o Not getting the interview
o Bad first impression
o Graduating soon with no job prospects
- On the job
o Bad Review
- Take something away from it and work on those areas
o Unchallenging work
- Get a deeper understanding
o Differing management styles
- Adapt your own work style with the managers style
o Varying personalities
- Keep an open mind
o Feeling unprepared
Skills:
- Communication
o Be able to say NO
o Letting everybody know what is going on in an effective manner
- Time management
- Learning to learn
o You’re not done once you graduate
o Know how you learn
o Embrace the continuous learning the better off you’ll be (learning curve)
Personal
- Loss of motivation
- Curve balls
- Missed Opportunities
o Luck = Opportunity + Preparedness
Closing Remarks
- Be proactive
- Learn and adjust
- Seek Opportunities
Requirements:
CPA eligible:
GPA Requirements: 3.0 GPA
Recruit Year Round
Reimbursement plans for graduate school – if it will help you grow within RKE