Informational Interview
After I graduate from The Ohio State University, I hope to be hired by an accounting
firm. Certified Public Accountant Justine Cannatti works in the tax department of Schneider
Downs & Co., Inc. Seeing as I have an interest in tax, Cannatti is an ideal person with whom to
discuss my future job. Accountants who work at Schneider Downs tend to work either in tax or
audit, which is typical for most accounting firms. Schneider Downs is a smaller firm with around
375 employees and 38 shareholders. Even though it is smaller, it still competes with the larger
firms. It is ranked 10th in Columbus and is the top 55th firm in the United States. The firm
operates out of a cubicle set up, but there is a relaxed atmosphere. Employees joke around
together as they participate in fun, office-wide programs, such as their recent heath initiative or
their annual summer company picnic. Even outside of work, employees regularly hang out,
making the office a more enjoyable space in which to work during the long hours.
Justine shared the story of how she became an accountant. Unlike me, she did not have
any friends or family working in accounting, so she did not know much about it. It was “by
chance,” as she put it, that she took an accounting class in her Youngstown, Ohio high school.
After taking the course, she realized that she had a deep interest in accounting. Upon entering
college, Cannatti felt confident that she wanted to pursue a career in accounting. Describing her
college experience, she said, “I ended up going to Arizona State, to start. I was there and didn’t
know enough about it. So I ended up there for just one semester. I had always wanted to go to
OSU, and my best friend from high school was going there, so I ended up transferring. I finished
my four and a half years at OSU with my undergrad in business with accounting as the
specialization. Then to get my extra credit hours I just took classes that interested me.”
Jobs in accounting are in demand by a vast array of industries. There are two general
types of public accounting: public accounting for firms and public accounting for corporate
companies. Schneider and Downs is an example of a firm and L Brands would be a corporate
example. “Well in public accounting for firms, versus a CPA for corporate, you are just the back
office support, but in public accounting you are client facing. The majority of the company is our
accountants working for the company, and then we have the back office support like HR or
business administration. That’s what is different about it; you are not supporting your company.
Your job is for your clients,” describes Justine. Within any type of public accounting there are
many branches. “There are so many different areas in accounting as a whole. In public
accounting there is mostly audit and tax. If you are working for a company, you could be the
controller, payables, assets, payroll, international, or state. There is a lot of flexibility underneath
the ‘umbrella,’” said Justine Cannatti. The plethora of opportunities and possibilities in the
career field of accounting makes it an exciting and diverse career field.
Before I am able to pursue this career, I need a skill set and good education. In order to
become a Certified Public Accountant, I need to pass the CPA exam. Luckily, most firms and
companies compensate or pay their interns to take the exam if they have been offered a full time
position. At the very least, one needs to obtain a Bachelor’s Degree in Business with a
specialization in accounting in order to pursue a career in the field; however, earning a Masters
Degree in Accounting can set one apart from his or her peers. Leadership, analytical thinking,
problem solving, and communication are all vital skills when it comes to public accounting.
Good time management is another essential skill. “You can be working on a number of different
clients at the same time. So you are trying to, you know, balance that and get everything done,”
said Justine regarding tax season. She also mentioned, “if you are audit, then you are going to
different clients a lot of the time and only focusing on the one client at a time usually.
Bilingualism is a trait that has been becoming more desirable in recent years as businesses
expand their global reach. All these kills are developed with schooling and experience.
Internships are an effective and extremely common way to get into the accounting field.
Schneider Downs does internships year round in addition to a summer leadership program. Many
of their internships lead to full time position offers. Justine described the typical path in a CPA
firm as, “Typically in public you start off as an intern or entry level staff. Then every few years
there’s opportunities to advance; its pretty typical. There’s always a lot of opportunities to move
up. In public accounting there is so much turnover that there’s always opportunities. There’s
associate staff, senior staff, manager, senor manager and partner. I know with some companies
they only allow a certain amount of partners in the firm. So sometimes once you get to that level,
people move between firms. But when you have that much experience, there’s always
somewhere to go.” The more time I spend at a firm, the more experience and knowledge I will
acquire as I work there everyday. The field of accounting has a deluge of paths within the
different departments, so there is always opportunity to learn and grow within just one firm or
company. There is not only a wide variety of opportunities within the accounting field, but also
there are copious amounts of positions that need to be filled. This is not a new field, but it is
certainly not going to be replaced or diminished. “There are always jobs in accounting,
especially when you are in public. I get calls all the time like, ‘Hey do you want this job?’ or,
‘Do you want to talk about this job?’ Whereas a lot of my friends who are in different fields are
like, ‘I don’t even know how to go about finding a new job.’ Everyone always says, ‘This
technology is going to make accountants obsolete,’ but there is always going to be jobs,” said
Justine. The stability of the job market for this career field is one of the many reasons I am
interested in accounting.
“One of the biggest things that makes the job is the culture, not just what you are doing,”
(Justine Cannatti). Many people say o do what makes you happy, which is important, but I think
that what she said about the culture making or breaking the job is equally important. “We all get
along really well, and we all kind of goof off with one another. It is very casual when you are not
interacting with clients. We just got balance balls chairs in the office, so that was one of our
initiatives to like be healthier. We all get along really well and I don’t feel uncomfortable around
any single person. When you are there all day every day, you don’t want to feel like you are
stuck in your cube and you can’t talk to anyone. That is one of the reasons why I am there.”
Schneider Downs is a professional firm, but it still maintains a close-knit community feeling.
The employees volunteer together and play together in coed sport teams. This is the type of
workplace I would like to be apart of. “A lot of the people I work with, I see outside of work too,
by choice.” This is a place where employees can do their jobs and forge lasting, meaningful
relationships at the same time.
After this interview I am more than excited to jump into the accounting career field.
There are drawbacks to every job, but Justine showed me the many ways accounting makes up
for them. Justine spoke so passionately about what she did and seemed so genuinely happy with
her job. Seeing the way, she talked about it, I knew that this could be the right career for me too.