Accountant

Tiffany Shaw
English 1001
Ms. Michel
15 October 2007
Accountant

As I walked through the door of the high rise building the American Tower in downtown; the environment immediately seemed welcoming. People smiled at me, and asked if I needed anything, even though I could tell they were really busy running back and forth from each others offices trying to complete the work they had for that week. The interior of the building was decorated with bright color’s, with beautiful picture’s hanging from the wall, and artificial flower’s surrounding the visitor area. The noise in this building was nothing like other ones I had been in before. It was not filled with silence, but filled with lots of chatter and laughter. Everyone in the building seemed to be enjoying themselves. Another thing that made this building so unique was it was more modern then most buildings that have the old look and it was very spacious. As I sat in the visitors chairs I heard the receptionist say the name Mrs. Digilormo and I knew then that she was the one who I would be doing my student interview on. When I turned around in my chair to see what she looked like there was this lady with short brown hair to her shoulders, a skinny body frame, and blue eyes. She was wearing nice black pants, black high heel shoes, and a white shirt. I could tell by her attire she was a very professional person, because everything seemed so neat and went together perfectly. As I made my way toward the receptionist counter where Mrs. Digilormo was standing, the receptionist said, “Mrs. Digilormo there is the young lady you have been waiting to see to interview you.” She turned around and said, “Hello Tiffany it is nice to meet you. Why don’t we go to my office to talk.” Her office was really nice, and I could tell that she was a very organized person. Everything was neatly organized on her desk; she had pictures of her children on her desk with a beautiful view of the city from her window. Her office had an aroma of fresh clean linen from the candle that she had lit, making her office very relaxing and comforting.
Mrs. Digilormo explained to me that she was born and raised in Shreveport, LA and has a degree in the bachelor of business administration, and majored in accounting from Northwestern University in Natchitoches, LA. I asked, “Why did you choose to major in accounting?” She then explained “I have always loved working with numbers and spreadsheets.” She told me that basically an accountant reconcile bank accounts, collect receivable, cut checks for payables, maintain fixed asset records, handle payrolls, and prepare monthly financial statements. “Wow, that’s a lot of work for a person to do,” I said. She laughed and explained to me that sometimes it can be tough, but that once you do it for a while that you get use to it and can get it done fairly quickly. Mrs. Digilormo also said, “We need accountants in this world because they help to maintain financial records determine profitability of a company, and help people manage their money. I know that sometimes people do not think about being an accountant because it is not an easy major, but the truth is that if you work hard you can do it.”
Mrs. Digilormo has an extensive work experience. Her first real job as an accountant was working for Tango as a public accountant. She said that she really did not enjoy the job she had for that company because of the demanding hours, but she knew with determination and hard work that she could move on to a better job with better opportunity’s. After the Tango Company job she began working for the Campbell Company as a private accountant which is still the job that she has today. “I came about getting the Campbell job because a former employee had given notice, and informed the company she knew someone who would be perfect as her replacement, so you could say that I lucked out and that they found me,” said Mrs. Digilormo. She said that most people hate there job but that she loves hers mostly because of the atmosphere, and the people who she works with. What also makes her job great is that her task can be done at her own pace with only a few deadlines she must meet.
Mrs. Digilormo job starts out at 8 a.m. every day. When she first arrives in her office she gets on her laptop computer, and checks her email to see if there is anything new that she needs to do for that day. In the morning part of the day she prepares the monthly financial statement for that month. “That is the probably the hardest task of my job because I have to make sure that all of the numbers on the statements are precisely correct”, said Mrs. Digilormo. Once she has done that, from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm she goes, and has lunch with her co-workers. The afternoon part is usually when Mrs. Digilormo will open the mail, answer the phones to answer clients’ questions, and file documents. Mrs. Digilormo day usually ends at 5:00 pm unless she has extra work to do in the office to meet a deadline. Outside of the office, Mrs. Digilormo enjoys spending time with her children and husband on the weekend since she only works Monday through Friday. She is like any other person and enjoys doing the normal things like cooking dinner for her family, going on vacations, and watching her children play soccer. She explained “I am the same person in the office as I am out of the office.” To me that meant that she is still a nice and wonderful person outside of the office like she is inside the office.
Since I knew that Mrs. Digilormo was living in Louisiana when Katrina had struck I decided to ask her if she had been affected or had anything to do with her job been affected. She explained to me that Katrina had not affected her personally, but that many companies in the Louisiana community had lost money because of hurricane Katrina. “I could not see anywhere in our financial reports after hurricane Katrina where it had affected the company that I work for majorly except for a little, and that is only because so many people were hurting financially,” said Mrs. Digilormo.
When it was my time to leave, I turned to Mrs. Digilormo and I said, “What advice can you give to inspiring students who are thinking about being an accountant?” “Public accounting requires lots of overtime, but is a great experience to make lots of contacts that can help you later in finding a better job. I would suggest you start in public accounting if you do not have children, and then move to corporate accounting, such as a factory or hospital, where the work house are more traditional and overtime is minimal. You might even get lucky as I did and work as a private accountant for a wealthy individual that can include more flexibility than the public or corporate world,” said Mrs. Digilormo.
After getting to know Mrs. Digilormo, she taught me that being organized, experience, and hard work can help to pay off to get a great job. I always thought that lots of business people who had really good jobs were always snobby, but I learned from Mrs. Digilormo that it pays off to be nice no matter if you are at work or out of your work environment and what it really takes to become an accountant. I have also realized that it is not worth staying at a job that you do not enjoy because better things are out in the world with great opportunities.