Accounting

How Accounting Really Works

1. What influenced you to enrol in your degree? (2 paras max)

Expected answer:
Ever since I was a young child, I have always been fascinated by the world of accounting. At the age of five, I started learning maths at school, and I yearned to calculate my parents' tax returns. Naturally, my mind has always been on accounting, and as a consequence, I chose it for VCE. After achieving a respectable study score of 37 for the subject, I decided to take it further and study it at university, so that I may come out to be an accountant and achieve my life long dream.

Real answer:
Quite frankly, I couldn't give a toss about accounting. It's one of those professions that don't really do anything, and I don't really want to end up doing maths all day. One of the reasons that I chose it was because my parents always told me that I had to have a decent profession, not something pissy like being a civil engineer. Well, the decent professions were doctor, lawyer and accountant. Since I only got an ENTER of 91, I had no choice but to pick accounting. Oh yeah, one of my friends told me that accounting had lots of good looking girls as well, so I thought I might as well do it and have a wank.

2. Please list your extracurricular activities and any work experience you have been involved in to date.

Expected answer:
I am involved in the local basketball and tennis clubs, as well as the university chess club. I am also involved in assisting my father in preparing his accounting statements. Any other free time I have left is devoted to helping out charities.

Real answer:
In the summer break, I worked at Macca's for a few days before I realised that it was a crap job and gave up. Other than that, I've done a bit of work for my uncle's take away shop, which was pretty boring as well. The only club I'm involved with at uni is the beer club.

3. Briefly outline how these experiences and activities listed above would help you in a CA Achiever work placement. (2 paras max)

Expected answer:
The clubs that I have been in all require teamwork to some extent. I know that the workplace requires plenty of teamwork, and my experience in this will help. Regarding my aid in my father's accounting statements, the experience gained there is quite obvious. As for the charities, my work there shows that I am willing to sacrifice my time to make other people's lives easier.

Real answer:
Well, now that I've seen how s*** it is to work at Macca's and take away shops, I know that I wouldn't mind sitting in an office doing boring maths all day. The beer club will prepare me for the Friday night ritual of going out for a drink with the rest of the guys.

4. Think of a situation where you have been involved with a team. Briefly describe how the team worked and how you contributed. (3 paras max)

Expected answer:
As mentioned in the above answer, I have worked as a team in both of the sports clubs I go to. I will pick the basketball club as my example, since more teamwork is involved there. As sports teams go, teamwork is obviously required to win. While individual brilliance can play a big role, it is more important and much easier to work as a team, by passing to each other. I never really got to play, so my role was to sit on the bench and shout out encouragement to those who did get to play.

Real answer:
I haven't really worked in a team, so I hope this will do. Pretty much every weekend, my friends and I go and play some CS (Counter Strike, if you don't know what CS stands for). If you've played it, you'll know what the teamwork there involves. Basically, the terrorists have to fight the other guys and try to win. I was always one of the terrorists, so I had to make sure that my teammates could go and plant the bomb by making sure that none of the counter-terrorists could stop them. This generally involved having different people camping in strategic locations so that we could kill whoever came. Does this count?

5. What has been your toughest challenge to date in your life? How did you overcome it? (4 paras max)

Expected answer:
When I was preparing for my university exams, I was struck down with disease (the cold, to be exact). Obviously, this was greatly detrimental to my studies, as snot kept dripping down onto my practice exams. I had a difficult time with this, since I have always taken my studies very seriously, and the cold was proving to be a great problem. In the end, I decided to go to the doctor to get some medicine, wasting almost 40 minutes of my precious studying time. Luckily, I was cured for the exam.

Real answer:
I can't really think of anything really tough, but this would probably be the closest. In 2000, my favourite football team, the Demons, made it to the grand final, only to be beaten by Essendon. I was feeling really sad, because I had really wanted to be suppporting a team that was the Premiers, but Melbourne didn't win. I overcame this by starting to support Essendon.

6. Briefly describe what would you bring to the organisation if you won a CA Achiever placement. (2 paras max)

Expected answer:
As anyone who knows me can tell you, I am a very dedicated and hardworking person. I learn things very quickly, and I work well both individually and as part of a team. I am able to maintain my attitude all of the time, so even if presented with a difficult calculation involving more than just addition and subtraction, I would be able to come through and find the result. I will prove an excellent addition to the team, as I will be able to blend in easily and adapt to the conditions of any challenge.

Real answer:
I'm not sure what you mean by that question, so I'll give it a guess. Seeing as I've got to do maths, I'll bring a pen (maybe two pens), a calculator, and some paper. I don't really want to spend much money, so I'll bring my own lunch as well. On Fridays, I will bring some VB for everyone to drink.

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