community

After 29 years in any career, it is easy to forget what it was like when you were finishing school, wondering what your future held and how you would actually put your degree to use. Thanks to a professor friend of mine at Cal Lutheran University, I have the opportunity several times a year to meet with CPA students who are in exactly this position. I am able to talk candidly about my three decades at the firm of Rose, Snyder, & Jacobs, about the business and what to expect from it and how to succeed in the accounting world. One of the topics I like to focus on — especially with this generation — is ethics. It is important that students go into this industry with their ethics intact. We discuss cases of fraud by using examples of our own clients, as well as some cases that have made the national headlines. We talk about the reasons accountants might be willing to go along with these unethical practices, as well as how they ultimately got caught and the consequences their actions delivered.