talk about a skills shortage (2 Viewers)

[turtleface]

i heard some bs today about too many accountants so i went and checked out seek.com.au

i went to Accounting section and clicked on the financial controller stub and theres like 15000 vacancies. more surprisingly theres like 500 financial controller/finance manager/CFO vacancies they have like, (these are the top accounting positions in Commerce/Industry, where the minimum salary is like 100K+)

http://www.seek.com.au/accounting-jobs/
click "financial controllers"

e.g. http://www.seek.com.au/users/apply/...2&PageNumber=1&JobID=6819656&msid=1&Keywords=
Imagine 500 of those jobs to choose from lol

surely noone can deny a skills shortage now, if there are so many accounting manager jobs free, imagine how many jobs there are free in non managment accounting roles and like in public practice (big 4 etc)

 

[seremify007]

Haha... and let's not forget they want skilled accountants- not TAFE book keepers We've got good odds.

 

[blue_chameleon]

Accounting is where its at

Things looks promising career wise for the future...then again, doing accounting/commerce and going on to do CA or CPA will put you in that situation anyway, all talk of shortages aside.

 

[redruM]

Skill shortage also mean that there are more opportunities for people to advance in their positions/roles (and also their back pocket).

 

[¬_¬]

... as long as they don't start outsourcing accountants to overseas firms then we're okay

 

[redruM]

Yeah, but there have been reports of the poor communication skills of such accountants. As long as we have ze engrish we are OK.

 

[Tabris]

According to GCCA, communication skills ranks high among the qualities employers are looking for. I dont know if its the same case at others but at Macq, the communication skills amongst the majority of accounting students (mainly asian background) are quite poor.

They dont speak english often and only when asked a question or if it is absolutely neccesary. They tend to stick to their own nationality and babbe off in the lecture theeatre with the different chinese dialects. They stutter heavily at presentations and pronounciation of words are sometimes elementry.

Here the problem, according to international accounting standards, all formal accounting reports are suppose to be in english, written in eglish, interpreted in english and disseminated as english. If their communication skills are poor, then high grades can only make so much of their shortfall in communication skills.

 

[turtleface]

lol what a snob

you try going to china and studying accounting there

Here the problem, according to international accounting standards, all formal accounting reports are suppose to be in english, written in eglish, interpreted in english and disseminated as english. If their communication skills are poor, then high grades can only make so much of their shortfall in communication skills.

1. You are incorrect. They do not. the only possible explanation i can think of to explain your reasoning is that Australian Equivalents to IFRS (AIFRS) have such a requirement...which is expected since english is the main language of australia. AIFRS do not apply to the whole world though. Not everyone uses english like you.
2. Learn how to communicate effectively yourself before bagging others.

 

[redruM]

You must remember that most of those international students will go back home to practice. I think an Australian degree is seen highly? Perhaps it is cheaper/convenient?

turtleface, I don't think you can use the "try learning accounting in chinese" card. They are fully aware of the difficulties they will face studying in english. And, as Tabris mentioned, the thing that ticks me off is their lack of effort in trying to communicate amongst different people. They stick to their racial groups, which I find very irritating.

 

[seremify007]

I agree. I also get annoyed when they speak in their own languages- even if I can understand them, I will always speak in English when there are others around... unless of course it's a really personal conversation and the use of native tongue is either for convenience or to prevent others hearing.

As for the Australian degree- yes it does command a very high wage overseas. For example, in my uncle's company, the normal Malaysian educated accountants get RM2000-3000/month (about $800-$1100- considered a good wage), but the Australian educated CPA gets RM8000/month and it's not uncommon for annual bonus to be 6 months salary. Btw for comparison, Big4 pays graduate positions in Malaysia RM2000/month.

 

[kow_dude]

You must remember that most of those international students will go back home to practice. I think an Australian degree is seen highly? Perhaps it is cheaper/convenient?

That is so not true. I have asked many international accounting students why they chose to study here in Australia. All of which gave me the same answer: They believe accountancy is the easiest way to get a job and hence, permanent residency in Australia.

And, as Tabris mentioned, the thing that ticks me off is their lack of effort in trying to communicate amongst different people. They stick to their racial groups, which I find very irritating.

I second that. International students (typically asian ones) tend to avoid eye contact and avoid any friendly conversations with anyone else.

 

[sarevok]

I second that. International students (typically asian ones) tend to avoid eye contact and avoid any friendly conversations with anyone else.

a lot of accounting asians are like that tho. sometimes i have a hard time telling the diff between the international asians and the regular ones

 

[turtleface]

Although I too find many (ok most) overseas students irritating (e.g. coming into lectures late, and then turning the simple act of finding a seat and sitting down quickly into a melodrama...or making you wait like half an hour before you get a chance to ask the lecturer something) I think it is unfair that you can say that they make no attempt to integrate into the local student population.

As a mentor for teh commerce faculty, many overseas students come up to us and ask us for help making friends with local students, but the communication barrier is just too big for them. This is compounded by the impression that local students don't seem to want to get to know them.

Sticking to racial groups is not limited to overseas students. Look at your locals. You have the white people banding togethor, then you have your indians/sri lankans, and then your asians who look like overseas students anyway.

Most of them have crap english - point taken. But blame this on the cash strapped uni's who rely on the income they receive from this segment of students. The uni's bullcrap their a#ses off (for good reason I guess) when they say overseas students have to meet strict english requirements to be able to attend. give them some sympathy next time they are presenting a topic and look like a bunch of knobs.

Bad analogy but Its a bit like Drug dealers prompting druggies to shoot up. sure the druggies are idiots, and may shoot up anyway, but you have the additional party there supporting it.

 

[phrred]

Yes thats true. Ive got an overseas student stayin in my house. shes been here since yr 10 and shes in yr 12 now and last week she didnt know what cough meant. she still doesnt know how to construct a basic sentence.
All her friends r also int students.

 

[Minai]

Yes thats true. Ive got an overseas student stayin in my house. shes been here since yr 10 and shes in yr 12 now and last week she didnt know what cough meant. she still doesnt know how to construct a basic sentence.
All her friends r also int students.

that's pretty pathetic..

 

[seremify007]

Haha I can think of plenty of examples where I've had to explain very simple words... You want a challenge? Try explaining the synonym for the word "um"! It ain't in the English-Chinese dictionary.

 

[volition]

I was in a tute once watching a presentation, where one guy said "COE" instead of "CEO" how's that for mispronunciation (he did it consistently, not just once) maybe he was just nervous tho heh.

Anyway, what I wanted to ask was, supposedly goin to UNSW and doin comm is good, but what kind of grade average is 'competitive' to get into a Big4 accounting firm? and what would I be looking at to get into 2nd tier? just wondering how 'bad' the shortage is...

 

[:: ck ::]

ok as for 'sticking with your own racial groups' thing... how about u go to some overseas country and try to study there... for sure u will stick with ppl who can communicate with you

the same applies here... stop calling them ignorant... i know a lot of international students and the reason they dont mix really well with locals is because they are embarassed of their english (and so they stick with other ppl from similar background)

 

[turtleface]

i agree with ::ck:: you guys are tight bagging overseas students for their (lack of) english skills.

I'm sure they don't want to be fobs, but its quite difficult to integrate into a different culture and society most of us have been apart of for many many years.

 

[jase_]

I agree with ck as well. I've worked with a few international students on assignments as well as tutored them. Sure, some of them may not have English skills that are up to scratch, but the ones I've worked with have been quite smart and even did more work than I did. You learn a lot from working with them as well and it will help you in your career if you learn how to interact with students from non-English speaking backgrounds.