I want to share some news with those of you still
read this long-neglected blog: I got a job.
After I finish my Master of Professional Accountancy at UC Davis this
June, I’ll be working full time for the California State Auditor in Sacramento. I received the job offer and accepted it back
in February; I meant to share this sooner but was deeply involved in my classes
until I finished finals last week.
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| UC Davis Sunset |
When I took my first accounting course over two years
ago, this isn’t where I imagined I’d end up.
I became interested in accounting through agriculture. At first I knew little about what a CPA does
and whether or not that’s what I wanted to become. I figured I could take a couple more accounting
classes and find a job at some farm business in the area, where hopefully I’d
get a little hands-on accounting experience.
At the beginning of 2012 I realized I needed to
leave the farm. I’d had enough of leaky
rice irrigation waders and yield monitor maps so decided to commit to accounting
and become a CPA. I looked around for
graduate programs to meet California’s new CPA requirements, found the new Masters
in Professional Accountancy at UC Davis and applied.
One afternoon in early May, Professor Snyder called
me to share the good news that I had been accepted to the graduate program at
UC Davis. I was so excited that
afterwards while loading an ATV into the back of my work truck, I revved it up too
much and slammed it very hard against the toolbox in the front of the bed. After that the toolbox would sometimes pop
open while driving those bumpy farm roads in South Sutter.
In an attempt to bridge my interest in farming and
accounting, I wanted to specialize in agricultural accounting when I first
started graduate school. Since the job
search began immediately, I sent out my resume to a few firms that served
clients in food and ag. One firm in Fresno
offered me an interview. It seemed like a great place to work, since their
clients included nearly every kind of agricultural operation from cotton gins
to cheese making plants to citrus packing and almond hulling.
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| Almonds, Yolo County, March 2013 |
After my interview in Fresno, I realized that despite
my interest in farming, the firm wasn’t the right fit for me. I will say that Fresno may get a bad rap but
they have excellent carne asada tacos,
Armenian bakeries and Mexican ice cream (chongos!). After I returned to Sacramento after the three
hour drive up the San Joaquin Valley, I began to let go of this idea of agricultural
accounting (I held onto the food memories of Fresno a bit more). I didn’t feel like repeating the Fresno experience
in other agribusiness hotspots like Bakersfield, Salinas, Visalia or elsewhere,
regardless of the cuisines those locals may offer.
Other factors in my job search became more important
to consider as Fall Quarter progressed. I
felt less and less inclined to relocate somewhere new and start from scratch at
the beginning of my new career. Being
near classmates and not having to sever the ties I’ve made in the Sacramento-Davis-South
Sutter area mattered more than wheat cooperative taxation in rural Eastern
Washington. I knew I had to cast a wider
net locally so I could stay closer to home.
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| American River, Sacramento, Fall 2012 |
When I first considered becoming a CPA I imagined
myself preparing taxes at a smaller accounting firm. However, as time progressed I realized audit
is where it’s at in the accounting world.
Auditors work in teams, they get to travel sometimes and they are like
detectives, unearthing the mysteries of an entity’s finances and controls. In addition, they don’t have to deal much
with that labyrinth of the tax code that is ruled over by our favorite
government agency, the IRS.
When a recruiter from the California State Auditor presented
to our audit class in November, I got excited.
The public service element of the work connects with my experience teaching
in low-income schools in the Bay Area. The
type and variety of assignments at the State Auditor promise endless learning
and the work-life balance seemed much more balanced. When I interviewed at the State Auditor’s
office on Capitol Mall in Sacramento, I something about the place just felt right in a way that other accounting
offices I’d visited hadn’t.
Though I am excited about my career and am glad I
decided to pursue a master’s in accounting at UC Davis, being a full time student
isn’t without its struggles. This
quarter in Intermediate Accounting we read a 1500 page textbook: I nearly
drowned in the ‘Dollar Value LIFO Pool’ and got very lost in the ‘Corridor’ of
Pension Accounting. Grad school is
rewarding, but it packs a punch.
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| Oak Collection, UC Davis Arboretum, March 2013 |
I survived this odyssey into the depths of GAAP,
itemized deductions and variance analysis thanks to a few things. One of these is that I started doing Latin dance
after the New Year: I immersed myself in it and took classes at the rec center
and at a small studio in town. I also
joined the student salsa club, where we have been practicing a really fun choreographed
routine to the Bachata song “No Vuelva”
in a chemistry lecture hall. In
addition, I spend nearly every Tuesday night attempting to Salsa, Bachata,
Merengue and sometimes Cumbia and Kizomba on the dance floor at the Davis Grad,
which is conveniently located across the street from my apartment.
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| EC Garden, UC Davis |
Also within a short walk of my apartment is the
Experimental College Community Garden. I
used to take walks here, because it is such a beautiful spot. The possibility of having a garden there this
season became more real after I had accepted the position at the State Auditor. My employment last season kept me too busy
during April and May, and after I started summer school classes in June, it was
too late to plant. This year I have my
own plot and I’ve been spending much of my spring break in the garden. It feels great to have my digging fork in my
hands again, turning over the rich, loose soil and contemplating the summer
harvest.
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| My plot, EC Garden |
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