Tuesday Jan 7 2014

The Becker folks that offer a CPA Review course also offer scholarships. Learn more at this link on how to apply.

Tuesday Jan 7 2014

Here is a list of 15 disappearing jobs. The thing that jumps out at me from a list like this is that most of these are clerk type jobs which have about a three month learning curve. My students are aare that I emphasize obtainging specific certificaitons in field. More and more this is what is necessary to show that in fact you possess information and skills that make you a good hire. 

I would add auto sales to this list. With more information on the internet I suspect most people in dealerships are merely price shopping, they know what they want. Ditto for retail clerks, most people are show rooming and buying on Amazon. 

While we are at it, how about starting a list of robots that one encounters every day?  As Congress has turned employees into liabilities, the move to replace human beings with machines has intensified. The idea of drone delivery may be a bit far out but not long ago the idea of specialized next day Fed Ex delivery was dismissed as well. 

Eveyr where I look from garage door openers to self serve gas pumps to tablet ordering systems for restaurants, simplistic jobs are being replaced. Plan on attaining a skill set that cannot be replaced by a machine. 

Monday Jan 6 2014

WSJ and Barron’s Student Offers

Students may purchase WSJ and/or Barron’s subscriptions at the bookstore or online:

www.wsj.com/studentoffer (The Journal 15-week offer)

www.wsj.com/impress (The Journal 1 and 2-year offers)

www.barrons.com/studentoffer (Barron's 15-week and 1-year offers)

 

Reminder: The old forms passed around in class and faxed in are no longer available.

 

Each subscription includes home delivery (6-days/week for WSJ and 1-day/week for Barron’s), full access to wsj.com or barrons.com, and free apps for mobile phones and tablets. 

 

New Year's Day January 1, 2014

I am revising the syllabus for ACCT 53089 Ethics for Spring 2014. Last spring I began by offering the class a choice of viewing either Casablance or On the Waterfront. Both are absolute classics and are on many Best of All Time Lists of Films. Back then the thing about the film was the dialog, always interesting and making a point. As Stephen King observes, having your character talk tells the reader or viewer more than you can say about the character. 

I have a long list of movies with ethical themes from The Posse to Other People's Money. But I was seeking something more modern. So I watched 

Glengarry Glenn Ross –  Ensemble cast in 24 hours of a real estate company forcing salesmen to Always Be Closing ABC, a modern classic and an update on Death of a Salesman

Barbarians at the Gate – the RJR Nabisco take over, this one did a great job of explaining how a leveraged buy out works

Margin Call – Kevin Spacey stars in 24 hours of who an investment bank, clearly Goldman in 2007, unloads its risky subprime mortgages on other banks, rewards for those that sell their quota

Arbitrage – Richard Gere stars a  hedge fund manager and genuine cad who manages to get his mistress killed when he falls asleep, trouble develops when he leaves the scene of the accident

The Company Men –  an update on The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, a best selling novel of the 1950s made into a movie with Gregory Peck, both films highlight whether one's loyalty is to the company or perhaps a higher set of values, Company Men includes Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee JOnes, Chris Cooper, and Kevin Costner. 

But the thing that struck me about all these was the change in dialog over 50 years. The use of four letter words not just at the start of the movie but all the way to the end was startling. So far my instinct is to re offer Casablanca and Company Men. Company Men demonstrates what happens to those the company casts aside its otherwise loyal employees. And as a former bankruptcy trustee myself, it demonstartes the stages I witnessed in those headed to Chapter 7, Denial, Fear, Acceptance. 

I also happened to watch The Way Out with Ed Harris. This is one of those 'oh you think you had a bad day' movies. The true story follows several escapees from a WW II Russian gulag who walk all the way to India from Siberia, yes really. If you have kids complaining about life at your house, try this one out on them. 

And the award for the trashiest language film of the Year goes to 

The Heat starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy. Billed as an hilarious comedy, Sandra is the FBI agent and Melissa is presumably the tough as nails though quite over weight local Boston PD Detective. They  manage to break every rule of police procedure I ever heard of while spewing more four letter invective than ever Martin Scorceses would consider appropriate. Bullock is getting good word for her role in Gravity, what brought this on?

At this point I am favoring Casablanca and Company Men for our first Ethics Class, Your thoughts?

 

 

New Year's Day January 1 2014

US students now have over a trillion dollars in college debt, more than the credit card debt in the USA. At the same time MOOC classes are offered for free. Now comes Codeacademy.  Headed by a Columbia junior drop out, the firm offers free coding classes for computer programming. The classes are designed by students themselves. As Zach Sims observes, students seeking vocational or associate degrees and avoiding debt may be on the right track. 

Clearly the future as Zach sees it, is to attain a skill set in programming at minimum cost. My students are aware that I constantly emphasize the importance of obtaining a certification. Now let's assume our student completes a low cost associate's degree in computer tech, then learns programming at codeacademy, then starts gathering various certifications. My bet is that he or she is quite employable. 

Again we are transitioning to new models and platforms. Years ago it was not necessary to obtain a college degree to become a CPA or an architect. One simply had to pass the required exam. I suspect we are slowly headed back to that model. Too many colleges are pricing themselves out of the picture.