Unexpectedly impressed
I'm taking a postgrad accounting unit called Practice Management this semester, since it's one of the prerequisites for getting a license to operate as the principal of an accounting firm. That isn't something I think I want to do, but you're supposed to have this license even to work for yourself as a sole practitioner, which I've been doing on a limited but growing basis for some time now!
I've only read the first module so far, but I've been really impressed. It takes a very practical approach and states right up front that a key part of the course is to help you assess whether you should go into this line of work at all. In my experience that isn't explicitly discussed in very many courses. My sister did two or three years of an anaesthetics specialty before deciding it didn't suit her personality (she's now a psychiatrist!), and I wonder whether a lot of time and effort could have been saved if her first anaesthetics subject had an opening module like this one.
Some of it made me laugh out loud with recognition: "Lodgement deadlines on the one hand, and late or incomplete information being supplied by clients on the other, will squeeze your time and patience! You will need to be able to tolerate this."
It explicitly talks about making sure you have enough emotional and personal support, and ways of repaying that support, not something I expected to read about in an accounting subject. Many of you have provided that support by listening to me complain about the above problem!
I gave it even more bonus points when it went on to talk about the importance of physical fitness in being able to cope with the workload. Didn't expect to read that either.
Plus, it even gets a good grade for gender-neutral language. In a quote from 1972, it inserts a [sic] after "he": "An opportunity cost is the loss of revenue one suffers by foregoing some other opportunity in favour of what he [sic] is actually doing." And in a section about hiring part-timers, it suggests targeting "men or women" involved in child-rearing and home duties!
I've been putting off doing this course for a long time, but it's all good so far!
I've only read the first module so far, but I've been really impressed. It takes a very practical approach and states right up front that a key part of the course is to help you assess whether you should go into this line of work at all. In my experience that isn't explicitly discussed in very many courses. My sister did two or three years of an anaesthetics specialty before deciding it didn't suit her personality (she's now a psychiatrist!), and I wonder whether a lot of time and effort could have been saved if her first anaesthetics subject had an opening module like this one.
Some of it made me laugh out loud with recognition: "Lodgement deadlines on the one hand, and late or incomplete information being supplied by clients on the other, will squeeze your time and patience! You will need to be able to tolerate this."
It explicitly talks about making sure you have enough emotional and personal support, and ways of repaying that support, not something I expected to read about in an accounting subject. Many of you have provided that support by listening to me complain about the above problem!
I gave it even more bonus points when it went on to talk about the importance of physical fitness in being able to cope with the workload. Didn't expect to read that either.
Plus, it even gets a good grade for gender-neutral language. In a quote from 1972, it inserts a [sic] after "he": "An opportunity cost is the loss of revenue one suffers by foregoing some other opportunity in favour of what he [sic] is actually doing." And in a section about hiring part-timers, it suggests targeting "men or women" involved in child-rearing and home duties!
I've been putting off doing this course for a long time, but it's all good so far!