NAME: Andrew Golobic

SCHOOL: U of T, Mississauga

COMPANY: Deloitte

AGE: 23

DESIGNATION: Working towards his CA 

Why did you choose the CA designation?

Specifically, it's been around the longest and is kind of a legacy designation, and essentially has a broad audience – there are lots of members and there're lots of opportunities with that designation. A lot of people might think it’s just auditing and tax but the CA designation can get you different job opportunities across different industries. It has, I think, the widest appeal of the three main accounting designations. So for me, for future career opportunities, I think that was one of the main reasons I chose it.

Why do you think the accounting profession is important?

Without us there’d be a lack of regulation. If a company never had an auditor, for example, they might be able to get away with certain things. Essentially, audit is a form of detective and preventative control in regulating business, especially in my business of financial institutions. Without auditors there to verify things and make sure companies are following the rules and regulations, it's more likely that things will go wrong. A lot of companies will be making sure they are in line with those rules and standards themselves, but it’s always great to have that independent view on clients and their operations.  

Going through the interview process, what would you recommend?

One is to have background information on a company. I know it’s a pretty popular interview question, but they want to know: have you done your research? The second is having a relationship with the potential interviewers. At Deloitte, before we do our interview process for the summer students or the full-time interview spots, we actually do a pre-interview night to get the students relaxed. We might ask them some mock questions, and it`s a chance to get to meet the people who will be interviewing you. Attending one if you ever got the opportunity to have an interview is very, very important. I got interviewed by a manager and a senior manager and I knew them because I had gone to the pre-interview nights. 

What did you do to set yourself apart from your peers to get where you are?

Beyond excellent the grades, it’s what else do you bring to the table? For me, it was having those extra-curriculars. I was part of the U of T soccer team, basically showing that I could work on a team, that I could lead a group, I could have high standards of ethics and integrity – especially being a teaching assistant, marking tests and watching for people cheating. They really picked apart my resume and asked me questions based on my limited job history, and they really picked apart that teaching assistant position. “What if one of your students was caught cheating,” kind of thing. It’s not just about marks. We’ve turned down people who have almost perfect GPAs. We want someone who has the personality, who has high integrity, who has these tangible skills beyond the accounting realm.

What misconceptions about accounting did you have as a student prior to beginning your career?

Sometimes I guess busy seasons can be long and tiring. I heard stories when I was in university that a typical chartered account or auditor tends to work crazy hours and I didn’t know it was totally going to be like that when I joined. Of course accountants work hard, but some parts of the year are crunch time. I’ve pulled some crazy nights from one in the morning to two, three, and four in the morning, so it ranges from industry to industry and specifically, the timing of the year. I don’t know if a lot of students are privy to that information -- but I don’t want to scare anyone away!