00:00:00:00 - 00:00:07:35 Unknown Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the accounting for California podcast. My name is David Hemphill, the information officer here at the California Board of Accountancy. 00:00:07:35 - 00:00:28:04 Unknown And here is on campus at California State University, East Bay. You can see the actual bay behind us. I believe we close up on that. Anyway, we have some accounting students and some CPA members here with us to have a little conversation about becoming a CPA. So I'd like to introduce you to our CPA, CDA, and CPA members. 00:00:28:04 - 00:00:51:05 Unknown We have Teresa Thompson, CPA. Glad you're here. We have Doug Aguilera, CPA, who's also the KBA Vice president. So we're so glad the two of you are here to share your expertise with us. And then we have actual students from CSU East Bay. We have Kenny Moran, Alejandro Carillo and Hector Loza. All right. All members of Theta Alpha Psi I believe. 00:00:51:10 - 00:01:13:35 Unknown Yes yes. All right. Yeah. Very good. So we're just going to have a little conversation. So I'm looking forward to this. So Kenneth take it away. Cool. So what why did you guys choose accounting as your like full time career. So that's a great starter question. I'll go first. Give it a little bit of background, turn it on over to Doug. 00:01:13:40 - 00:01:38:40 Unknown So I started an accounting right out of college, and I sort of fell into it a little bit. And as my major in college, I went in thinking, I want to do I wanted to do finance. I ended up taking a few accounting classes, and I actually really liked them. I thought that accounting fit my style of thinking a little bit better. 00:01:38:45 - 00:02:00:54 Unknown And then my junior year in school, I did all the on campus interviews. I went to all the career center events, I got an internship, and I ended up staying at that firm, and I had been there for 18 years since. And I would say I chose accounting initially because I thought it fit my style of thinking a little bit better. 00:02:00:54 - 00:02:22:16 Unknown And I really liked one of my accounting professors is really inspirational. Yeah. Like you, I fell into it. I, I don't know, I necessarily picked it as much as it picked me. In high school, I took a couple of accounting classes and they were really easy. And then for, when applying to college, I had to pick a major. 00:02:22:16 - 00:02:47:43 Unknown And so I thought I might as well be accounting and, and I did a couple of years of general education, and then I dropped out for several years, and I had to make a decision coming back about what degree I wanted and, and what I, I was, doing carpentry, and I wanted to become a general contractor, and I felt like I needed a business degree in order to do that, because a lot of general contractors fail. 00:02:47:48 - 00:03:11:39 Unknown And so as I was making this decision to come back, I was going to have to forfeit working. And so I wanted it to be a money degree. And so I picked accounting again. Okay, I'll, I'll stay with accounting. And then while I was, there at San Jose State, I went to these Alpha office meetings. I got to know a lot of the, the, the companies, the people who work there, the grads. 00:03:11:39 - 00:03:32:45 Unknown And I thought, oh, these these jobs sound really good. I'll do these for two years. And, I ended up staying in public accounting for 18 years and now practice on my own. But it it just was a path. It just seemed like a natural path. And looking back, oh, thank goodness. I love what I do. And and an accountant. 00:03:32:49 - 00:04:01:42 Unknown Yeah. That's great. Thank you for talking about your life as a student. What advice do you have to students right now who are thinking about pursuing accounting? Great question. So as a student, I would definitely say stay connected to the business clubs, stay connected to the career center and the accounting departments because they are great resources to help kind of guide you through the recruiting process and the interview process. 00:04:01:46 - 00:04:35:46 Unknown They can help answer some questions for you on differences between big firms and small firms, and where you might be a good fit. So use your on campus resources. They are there. They're super knowledgeable, in this experience, as you guys go through and make sort of your career determinations. Yeah, yeah, I agree completely. I found it so beneficial to talk to the alumni, to learn about what they did just on a day to day basis so that I could figure out what I might like to do. 00:04:35:46 - 00:05:04:30 Unknown And. And the ones that were at big firms, the ones that were a little firms, the ones that were working in public accounting and, each firm had a different personality about it. And so it was nice to gather all that information as I was trying to decide what to do in the future. And then what I didn't realize until after I graduated was how beneficial, how beneficial the, team projects were in my classes. 00:05:04:39 - 00:05:27:40 Unknown So, every so often there would be a, you know, team up with three other people to do a project. And I didn't realize how applicable that became, because there's scheduling and there's coordinate, there's coordinating, and then there's the realization, oh, one of the four of us isn't showing up on time and isn't doing their share of the work. 00:05:27:45 - 00:05:54:02 Unknown And, how do you adjust and adapt from that to still get your A or B or whatever, maybe from a C plus. And so there's other skills besides the, core accounting skills that you need. I totally agree. That's great. You guys are both licensed CPAs. What did that change for you? What kind of job opportunities that opened up getting that license? 00:05:54:07 - 00:06:22:51 Unknown Well, for me, it's credibility. So I act as an expert witness. And one of the things that carries the day is the fact that I'm a licensed CPA, always as, a witness, the other side is going to try to disqualify me. I don't know what I'm doing. Didn't look at everything. Not qualified, doesn't have the experience. But having a CPA license licensed CPA carries a lot of weight. 00:06:22:51 - 00:06:50:11 Unknown It's hard to overcome that credential in terms of, prestige and value. Yeah. It's sort of like the the baseline expectation when you're in the accounting field. It is you know, there is a degree of prestige with the CPA license. To Doug's point, you become more of a credible consultant, more of a credible technician. 00:06:50:16 - 00:07:18:01 Unknown But if you have longer term plans in the industry, it really is a baseline requirement. Once you have the CPA, just doors open, you can stay in the county, you can stay public, you can open up your own shop, you can go into finance. You don't even have to stay in the industry. You can go off and do economics or marketing, but you just become so much more of a desirable candidate. 00:07:18:06 - 00:07:39:59 Unknown Once you have that baseline credential. Yeah. It really so if you want to become the sales manager or the sales director at a company and and you have a CPA, that's very impressive. Yeah. Yeah it sounds like that CPAs where opens your next steps. It does. It can just open up a whole world of other opportunities that weren't even top of mind. 00:07:40:04 - 00:08:04:52 Unknown The education and knowledge behind it is really invaluable. So as CPAs we understand the numbers, but in order to understand the numbers, we have to understand the operations. And if you're the CEO, in order to understand the operations fully, you have to understand the numbers. And if you don't have that, all that experience and training that required is required. 00:08:05:01 - 00:08:34:41 Unknown As a CPA, you're at a disadvantage. So for you guys being licensed, being accountants, what is your day to day look like? And is there a typical day to day in your guys's respective fields? Yeah. Well, there's not a typical day to day, but maybe like a common day to day. I work for a big four accounting firm, so, you know, I'll often go into the office. 00:08:34:41 - 00:08:53:11 Unknown I work down in Los Angeles, so going to our downtown L.A. office, or we have an office in El Segundo. So, you know, when I'm in the office of yours, normally we all work an engagement team, so there's a lot of meetings and calls and, you know, ad hoc questions where I'm kind of bouncing around the office and just working with various members of my team. 00:08:53:15 - 00:09:19:23 Unknown So that's maybe the standard piece. And then the very variable piece is going up to clients and traveling to, you know, different states for different client meetings and conferences and coming up to, you know, CBA meetings and outreach events with you guys. So it's a very wide variety. But I would say the the consistent theme is I'm always working in teams and it's very client facing at least the big four firm. 00:09:19:23 - 00:09:43:55 Unknown And I think you're also very client facing. That's right. And so this is a really hard question. And it it varies. And that's one of the beauties of I think what we do is a varies from day to day, but there are some administrative tasks communicating with clients or with colleagues or doing networking or preparing and giving presentations. 00:09:44:10 - 00:10:31:43 Unknown Those types of things. But in terms of client work, for me, day to day would probably involve reviewing documents, lots of documents, and those documents would be, contractual obligations. So contracts, licenses, it would be, invoices, it might be receipts, it might be financial statements. I'm trying to think, it might be conducting interviews, reviewing interviews, reviewing deposition transcripts, all of those types of, information gathering so that ultimately I can synthesize it is precisely as possible for whoever needs this information. 00:10:31:48 - 00:10:37:57 Unknown Yeah, it's the best I can do. I think shifting a. 00:10:38:02 - 00:10:58:55 Unknown Yeah. So, you know, being a, someone had a big for accounting firm, you know, you have a stake in the business. How has your role changed throughout, 18 years? The big four accounting firm. And what advice would you give to students who may think, it might be too big of a dream to make it, 18 years or make it partner at a big for it. 00:10:58:55 - 00:11:34:23 Unknown However, it's a very, very good question. So, yeah, I mean, I've spent my entire career with Peter. I've been in different markets. I was in the Bay area. I'm now down in Los Angeles, as, as a partner. Obviously, my role has changed fairly significantly, but I would say that is when I look at from associate to partner the entire progression, when I kind of break it down and think associate to senior, senior to manager, manage to a director, it's all a very natural kind of flow and pacing and change in responsibilities. 00:11:34:28 - 00:11:53:43 Unknown So, you know, when you're an associate and you're, you know, new in the door, you're learning everything. There's a huge learning curve. But you've got a great, you know, supporting group in your engagement team. There's a lot of hands on training that's involved. And then you kind of progressed through your career. You have expanded responsibilities. You become more client facing. 00:11:53:43 - 00:12:21:16 Unknown You're learning how to kind of scope work, and you understand the parameters around whatever your technical specialty is. So I focus on state and local tax. So I obviously kind of grow and expand and spend a lot of time researching in that platform. There are other folks who have, you know, an international expertise or federal tax focus. So there's a lot it's kind of like in school, you know, you start as a freshman, then you have to hone in on your major. 00:12:21:21 - 00:12:52:51 Unknown That's kind of what it's like when you're working at a big four. You're getting all of your general out of the way as an associate. And as you go from senior to manager, you've got a declared major. You've got a focus, and you're kind of expanding as an expert in whatever that role is. And then, you know, if you if the desire is to make director or managing director or partner at the firm, I would say, you know, be vocal about what you're looking for, seek out qualified mentors. 00:12:52:56 - 00:13:17:50 Unknown There's a lot of folks in the firm. And this is not just limited to A, B, C, but a lot of the firms that are very supportive of career progression. And they will help kind of train and mentor you towards that expanded set of responsibilities. They can guide you and coach you through difficult client conversations, because those are going to happen, you know, out there that's inevitable. 00:13:17:52 - 00:13:57:33 Unknown Yeah. But they'll help you through technical tax matters, whatever that might be. So as you progress, your support and your responsibilities certainly grow. But it's been a very natural progression. So it's not overwhelming. You know, you you do kind of just roll into the role, I guess, but in a very prepared manner. Yeah. And in similarly owning your own accounting firm, like how have your roles changed from when you started school to now, you know, from being an accountant to now also owner and operator. 00:13:57:33 - 00:14:42:21 Unknown Yeah, yeah. This is much easier, but it's more but it's more perilous, you know? Right. So, I was with, big eight, so Arthur Andersen and then KPMG and then Ernst and Young over the course of 18 years. And when I left Ernst and Young, for instance, one of the projects that I worked on, towards the end is we reviewed about 500, I'm sorry, we reviewed about a million documents, emails, and we had a team of, of about 80 people in, the United States, Australia and South Africa. 00:14:42:25 - 00:15:05:47 Unknown And we were going around the clock. And so managing and organizing that was a full time job. And plus then the sun never set. Oh, gosh. And and then, being able to report out to the client as well as making sure that everyone had a share, where was sharing knowledge and we were learning from each other. 00:15:05:47 - 00:15:30:34 Unknown So that's a lot. Well, now it's me, and I am just having this 1 in 1 relationship with the client and all the work, that I can do, I do, and hands on. So that's why I say it's much easier. It's just a little bit less stable. First of all, in forensic accounting or litigation support, it's very cyclical, right? 00:15:30:43 - 00:15:53:38 Unknown I mean, it's boom and bust. And then, during the bust times, you know, how much faith do you have? How can you continue to do productive things and not worry that work will never come again? That's how it's, changed for me. But I really like the flexibility of having my own practice and the fact that it's almost entirely remote. 00:15:53:38 - 00:16:14:02 Unknown And that's the clients preferences as well. The clients rarely want to come to an office and meet. Yeah, I mean, just kind of touching on the remote aspect. How have you been seeing any shifts in that type of, like whether going back to office or working remotely, is there a preference between maybe the clients or the industry as a whole? 00:16:14:02 - 00:16:35:58 Unknown Like what are some of the things that you guys are seeing? Well, there's a couple of things about remote, and I'll answer your question first. So I tell the story. I had, two New York law firms that I was working on in successive years. And each of those years I was in, Manhattan, around the corner from their offices. 00:16:35:58 - 00:16:59:18 Unknown And so I was I was asking them all, can we get together for coffee? I'll come over to your office. And they, both of them said, oh, no, I'll be working from my home office. I won't be, I'm not coming in, but we can have a zoom call if you want. And, so that seems to be the preference is people would rather do the zoom calls, and then separately as an investigator. 00:16:59:18 - 00:17:25:53 Unknown So I do a lot of internal investigations. I'm also a certified fraud examiner. And it became very difficult and a big change during Covid. We continued to do investigations and now doing it over zoom is much harder. There's this lost, this lost ability to really take the measure of the person that you can in in person. However, it's much more efficient. 00:17:25:53 - 00:17:53:04 Unknown And, you take the, the pluses with the minuses and, the efficiency is really a big plus, right? Yeah. Using. Well, the firm operates under a hybrid schedule, hybrid expectation. So, you know, we do about 2 to 3 days a week in office or at a client site. You know, whatever your, your team happens to, to, to need at that time. 00:17:53:09 - 00:18:19:28 Unknown And then another 2 or 3 days, you can be remote from home or traveling up to, to Hayward. You know, whatever whatever needs to happen. I would say, you know, before Covid, I was in the office five days a week. That was just how we operated. I was traveling to clients a few times a month. You know, it was coming up to the Bay area or going out to New York or DC, like quite regularly. 00:18:19:33 - 00:18:40:31 Unknown To Doug's point now, a lot of my clients prefer remote, their clients I've had for like ten years and I haven't seen them in person in the last five years. But I talk to them every week like we still have that relationship. There's, you know, I'm still a trusted advisor. We still have a big, you know, a pretty meaningful connection. 00:18:40:36 - 00:19:06:04 Unknown So it it depends, you know, the the remote versus hybrid hasn't really changed. We're still like very functional. I do have certain clients that are in the office five days a week. They're probably it's probably a smaller percentage. The most, most of my clients in the firm operate under a hybrid schedule, and it honestly seems to work really, really well. 00:19:06:04 - 00:19:28:29 Unknown We haven't we haven't had a lot of disruption or or issues, and people tend to manage their time well there. You know, there might be outliers here or there, but for the most part it's been, a fairly successful working model. Yeah. And I mean, I guess I would want to follow up with, you know, because there is efficiency in maybe remote work or there is this hybrid schedule. 00:19:28:38 - 00:20:05:10 Unknown But I've also noticed is that it's getting harder now and now to connect with people. You know, I was actually talking with my professor about it earlier how if you're in an elevator with like five other people, your first thing is to look at your phone, right? And, like, not socialize. And so I feel like that could be a issue when you are trying to connect with someone or move up, into more senior roles, like, have you noticed that maybe the people who are connecting are in the office a little bit more, are getting more opportunities? 00:20:05:15 - 00:20:31:59 Unknown What what would you say? Yeah, you bring up a valid point. The being fully remote is difficult, and it's probably not advantageous if you have really high career aspirations. That's why the firm is operating under sort of this mandatory hybrid schedule at a bare minimum, 2 to 3 days in the office or, you know, connected at client sites, whatever that might be. 00:20:32:04 - 00:21:09:02 Unknown I would say those individuals, especially the new associates, those folks who tend to come in 4 or 5 days a week, they seem to be learning a little bit faster than some of their peers who are a little bit more remote. And that's not necessarily due to a lack of opportunity. It's simply because the individual who happens to be coming in is getting the advantage of working side by side with their senior or their manager, or maybe, for better or worse, I don't know if they like it getting grabbed by me and pulled into a meeting. 00:21:09:07 - 00:21:33:58 Unknown So there's, I it almost seems like you learn faster when you're in the office more, and that's something that we're encouraging. It's not mandated, but it's certainly encouraged. And I think for the associates who find that a little more exciting, they seem to be, performing at a level slightly higher than some of their peers. Okay. 00:21:34:03 - 00:22:00:09 Unknown It's interesting. Yeah. I'm thinking that really the biggest inflection point, the most important part point is when you first start a job, that's where it's really going to impact you, this virtual world. And anything you can do to be in the office, even if you're alone for 38 of those 40 hours. But, during the two, somebody came in and you talked to them. 00:22:00:09 - 00:22:21:40 Unknown That's your chance. And, not sure what to do about looking at the phone in the elevator. It's just human nature that it's not going to go away. You know, the, the other thing that I notice is I'm reminded when I do have an in-person meeting is, oh, you know, it just seems easier to add the ad hoc question. 00:22:21:44 - 00:22:45:49 Unknown Easier the the conversations before the meeting are very helpful. The conversations afterwards just hanging out a little bit longer. That's lost in the virtual world. And for me okay. That that's all right. But if I were just starting my career it would be detrimental. It would be a huge it would have the greatest impact on me at that point in my career. 00:22:45:53 - 00:23:15:38 Unknown So you would say for I can, the camera on me, we just take advantage of as much in-person time as possible, connect with people and, you know, stand out in that aspect. Yeah, yeah. And, and as a byproduct, you'll stand out. Okay. Exactly. Yeah, I like that. Yeah. It'll just kind of naturally occur and you'll, you'll sort of look back as you're a couple years and, and then I think you'll be able to, to tell like, oh yeah. 00:23:15:42 - 00:23:35:41 Unknown That relationship that I established from actually being in the office a little more regularly led to that opportunity. So it's it's something, that you have to think of more in a long term frame. Yeah. That one time I was in the office and I talked to that person. It's been so beneficial now that we work remotely. 00:23:35:55 - 00:23:54:35 Unknown You know, now that we're in all these remote meetings, just meeting some person one time, it makes it much easier when the subsequent meetings are, remote. Yeah. I will say this is the first in-person meeting I've had in a while, so that's really nice. Yeah. Could you imagine doing this over zoom? We'd be talking over each other. 00:23:54:35 - 00:24:15:20 Unknown Yeah, yeah, I'd have to meet each other. Or, like, the host would have to meet everyone. And so, yeah, one of the worst is when, when someone has their microphone on and they don't notice it and nobody has access to control it. Yeah. Oh, man. Let's let's switch into another zoom call you guys later. Yeah. That's funny. 00:24:15:31 - 00:24:32:53 Unknown Well, I mean, this is a little bit more in a different topic or I mean, I kind of I think it kind of goes on, but I guess, you know, you said your 18 years with, with BWC, it's been over like, it's it's not over. I mean, like, is there anything that influenced you to move up to your current role? 00:24:32:53 - 00:24:53:21 Unknown Was it more of a just something natural and like, equally like, is there something where you, I think you touched on it, where you decided from, I'm going to start my own, my own firm. Like what? What was the influence where the people that, helped you make that decision? Was there something in your life that you saw it? 00:24:53:26 - 00:25:13:51 Unknown This is what I need to do now. This is my next step. And Teresa's case, she couldn't be stopped. There it was in her. She was bound. Destined to greatness. Yeah. You know, I don't know what possessed me, but. But when I was an intern, I was like, I want to be a partner here. I spent two weeks or. 00:25:13:56 - 00:25:35:12 Unknown But for for whatever reason, I, I felt like, very strongly invested already. Like, I knew I like to counting. And then I joined the firm as an intern, and I was like, hey, this is really cool. I like the people I work with. And I was like, oh, I want to be partner. I had no idea. So anyway, you know, you start at the firm, you give it a few years there, it's going to be good days. 00:25:35:12 - 00:25:56:26 Unknown There's going to be bad days. But ultimately what what has kept me at PwC for 18 years and ultimately why I kind of maintained my desire to make partner, was because of the people I worked with and my mentors. I was always supported when I voiced interest in an opportunity. I, you know, I had to do my part. 00:25:56:26 - 00:26:19:10 Unknown I had to perform well and, you know, maintain expectations. But the firm was very supportive and lining that up for me. So I was able to work on certain client accounts or, you know, I did a rotation in New York. Oddly enough, when I was in the Bay area, I was chatting with one of the PwC partners who was also on the California board of Accountancy, and I was like, that sounds interesting. 00:26:19:10 - 00:26:45:56 Unknown I might want to do that one day. And ten years later, he puts my name and he says, Teresa Thompson's interested. And I was like, oh, wow, we did have that one conversation one time. So, you know, that was just the level of support that I always received through my career. And when you have that level of support, it's it's easy to stay motivated and it's easy to kind of maintain course and hit your goals. 00:26:46:01 - 00:27:04:39 Unknown Yeah. So be careful what you say in the office because it might end up on the Orange County seat. I already took, when I did an internship this last summer, I already told my mentor that I want to be partner, so I think I think I'm like, oh, you may have just committed yourself to something. Maybe. Maybe, he told me, use it as your northern star and see where it takes you. 00:27:04:44 - 00:27:19:37 Unknown But maybe it'll take me all the way. Who knows? Yeah, and if you don't make partner, maybe you go off and you do something else that's also really, you know, really well executed and really exciting. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You could be like Doug and have your own firm. Yeah. Like my buddies and I have been talking about that. 00:27:19:37 - 00:27:44:38 Unknown We're like, if anything fails where we're going to be gone for something that you do. Oh yeah. Okay. Well, thank you for sharing your guys's stories. It's really interesting to hear. But moving on to the aspects of like, AI and technology, how do you think that the role of accountants would be impacted? And, how can, students prepare for those changes? 00:27:44:43 - 00:28:15:50 Unknown Yeah, it's a great question. And, so, I already is impacting account. You see, it's already being used. And I'll tell you how I use it. I use it for research, for background information on people that I'm going to be, interacting with, maybe, potential clients. And then on specific project, projects, I'm using it for research on the company itself. 00:28:15:55 - 00:28:41:45 Unknown And I haven't done this yet. I'm still reading the, the annual and quarterly reports that are submitted to the SEC, but I'm anxious to try to feed those in to say, I like to use cloud and see what its summary is, no matter what it says, its summary is. I'm still going to read through until I build up some trust. 00:28:41:50 - 00:29:12:01 Unknown Yeah. A good friend of mine said, you know, treat it. And he's, an attorney. Treat it like a first year law. So it's a very, very eager, associate, which is that. Yeah. Bring it back. But then I'm going to, check it all, where it won't, so how well can you use it? So, what you want to be learning, I think, is, you know, how can I provide it with the proper context? 00:29:12:15 - 00:29:35:25 Unknown How can I, provide it with the appropriate prompt? How can I refine the results? And, and what other uses, how can I use it? And so using it as a tool and those are the great things to learn and that will make you more valuable. And then how will it be, how will you use it in the future? 00:29:35:25 - 00:30:04:23 Unknown I'm not sure. I'm, I've told you how I'm using it, but I still, still a little bit of trepidation. Some of it is because the outputs have been wrong and really just hallucination is a good description for it. And, some of it is because I'm not quite skilled. So as an existing practitioner, I might be in the same position as you are. 00:30:04:36 - 00:30:28:27 Unknown I'm trying to learn this. I really need to learn it. And the way that I've approached it. So as an aside, is my understanding is, is that there's two camps, people who are using it extensively, maybe 10% of whatever population, and those who are not using it at all, which makes up like 50% or something like that. I'd like to be in the middle there. 00:30:28:39 - 00:30:54:49 Unknown And one way for me to do that is to do something each day. So I recently signed up for a newsletter I'm, also looking for. I signed up actually for two newsletters, and I'm, I'm attending webinars and I'm trying out these new, methods and tools to see how I can incorporate it into my business to, operate more efficiently. 00:30:54:49 - 00:31:19:44 Unknown But when it comes to the analysis, because of all of this and because of that and this other thing, it means this is just not going to be replaced. Thank you for sharing that. And did you have any comments regarding, I mean, somewhere similar to Doug? I use it a lot for research, but like I'm all in on I what I'm open to any and every solution. 00:31:19:44 - 00:31:46:19 Unknown We use it a lot for like data standardization and I use it personally for, you know, email writing memo reviews, performance reviews, like just where, where I can kind of just give it my thoughts and then it presents it in a very cleansed, organized manner. A fan of of it for, for that purpose. People ask like, are you ready? 00:31:46:19 - 00:32:11:31 Unknown I'm going to replace you. I'm like, please try it. Like, let's like give it, give it your best shot. Because no, I'm not worried that AI is going to replace people in the public accounting profession. I think it's going to replace mundane and monotonous monotonous tasks, but it's not going to replace people. I think it will make people more efficient. 00:32:11:31 - 00:32:31:10 Unknown I think it will make us more organized and creative. And, you know, we'll we'll come up with some really unique solutions. But at the end of the day, it's still going to be driven and executed by the people. So I'm all in on it. I'm not worried about it replacing anyone. And I say, give it your best shot. 00:32:31:10 - 00:32:52:22 Unknown I let's see how far we can go. It's a way to distinguish yourself. I think if you come in with, really good AI skills, that will distinguish you. Yeah. You know, hey, I oh, I see what you're trying to do. I can use AI to do that to help you do that faster. So it's Excel in AI now okay. 00:32:52:35 - 00:33:10:20 Unknown It's like Excel is never going anywhere. Yeah. Yeah. That's the first thing they ask you. Do you know how to use Excel. If you don't you better learn. That's for me. And now I had a prompt. That in itself is a skill that you need to understand. Because in order to get the right answer, you need to be asking the right questions. 00:33:10:20 - 00:33:36:54 Unknown Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's for sure. And then you need to have some context to know if the answer is right or not. So as a first year associate, you may not know if that answer is right or not, but that's okay. Farther along the so it's just an advanced skill to have, that comes with time and experience to know if that answer is, appropriate or where it might be a little bit wrong. 00:33:36:59 - 00:33:48:00 Unknown Always ask if you're using Claude or Chad. You could always ask for the citation. If they can't come up with a citation, then don't rely on it. Yeah, 00:33:48:00 - 00:34:00:35 Unknown finally the last question. Any words of wisdom that you would like to give to our generation? Oh gosh, the generation no, that's more than just these three. 00:34:00:40 - 00:34:45:45 Unknown Okay. I think it goes back to this virtual world and the phone in the elevator. So I think that anything that you can do to have real human life, connections and developing relationships. So communication skills, of course, but also relationship building skills. And maybe it's just in the, restaurant by, asking the waitress or waiter how their day's going, or do you, live nearby or, you know, any opportunity to have these small conversations to develop this small tech talk and, the interaction, the human interaction? 00:34:45:50 - 00:35:09:25 Unknown Yeah. A piece of advice I got earlier in my career. I might have been a senior manager was, know your pitfalls. And so the person was basically telling me, know your weak spots because if you know your weak spots, you can address them before they become problems. So like for you guys or for your generation, you know, like knowing your weak spots. 00:35:09:25 - 00:35:41:54 Unknown So you guys kind of grew up in a really critical time of your life after Covid and have had, you know, this remote element and sort of, a little less day to day interaction than the generation before you. So recognizing that and knowing that it's a weak spot or classified there for a second, once you know that and once you understand it, you can kind of think to yourself, okay, well, I want to make sure I keep this in mind and I want to give myself the best opportunities in life. 00:35:41:54 - 00:35:58:19 Unknown So if I need it, not pull my phone out when I'm in the elevator and just give someone a quick nod like, hey, morning, maybe that'll lead somewhere. Or to Doug's point, if I'm in the US, you know, at a restaurant and I, the waitress comes up to me, a server comes up to me and they're like, hey, what should I order? 00:35:58:24 - 00:36:18:26 Unknown What do you recommend? What's good here? What do you think? Like kind of keeping in the back of your mind whatever your weak spot is and then making sure that you are responding to that eventually it's not going to be a weak spot anymore. It's just going to be how you operate. And you will kind of be, whatever level you desire to, to operate at. 00:36:18:26 - 00:36:40:51 Unknown So that would be my advice to you guys. And I guess, I guess your generation, this is going to be a little sound bite somewhere. I'm thinking that, yeah. For my weak spot, I'll find a team member. Where? That's their strength. Oh, absolutely. I know my technical weak spots, and I know who to call. Perfect. All right, well, conversation is good for the soul. 00:36:40:51 - 00:37:01:18 Unknown That's why this was so exciting to me to bring. I hate saying, bringing the generations together, but bringing the student generation with the professional generation so you can see what, what you're in for and what it's going to be awesome. And so I hope that you all enjoyed this kind of real world insight into the, the, the accounting profession and everything we brought. 00:37:01:18 - 00:37:18:33 Unknown So thank you so much to our CBA members who are sitting down and being willing to share your expertise and experience with all of us, and thank you for the students for being brave enough to jump in on this podcast. You all did great. So this is what is your hard work and preparation? Well prepared. Absolutely ready to be partner. 00:37:18:40 - 00:37:33:33 Unknown Yeah. Yes. Partners coming soon. Thank you so much for watching and or listening to this episode of the accounting for, accounting for California podcast. Until next time, everybody say bye bye. Is the. Hey,