IUP’s Student Accounting Association held its second meeting of the semester on February 20 in the Eberly auditorium with 60 accounting majors in attendance. The guest speaker was 1985 IUP accounting alumna Sue Maloney, CPA.
Maloney is a senior manager in the Pittsburgh office of Baker Tilly, the 13th largest public accounting firm in the United States. Maloney began her career in one of the Big 8 (now Big 4) accounting firms, leaving for a short period to work for a Fortune 500 company and a nonprofit corporation, then returning to public accounting, where she has worked for Baker Tilly for 10 years.
Rather than focus specifically on her experience with Baker Tilly, Maloney started by sharing her insights on how to be successful in any of the work environments that accountants will have to face. This included advice on how to deal with the stressful workload that often comes with the accounting profession, especially the public accounting audit/tax busy season. She cautioned against unhealthy ways that some workers resort to in effort to deal with stress, such as smoking, excess caffeine intake, poor eating habits, and sleep medications. Maloney mentioned more useful ways to cope with stress, such as improving time management skills, making to-do lists, avoiding procrastination, turning off e-mail (in addition to only checking it twice a day), and starting work early. Outside of work, she suggested that one’s religious faith, exercise, and spending time with supportive family and friends all help to alleviate stress.
At Baker Tilly, Maloney works on nonprofit audit engagements. She loves public accounting because it is “dynamic” and there is always something new to do. She explained the public accounting career ladder and how, as one moves up, their time is devoted more to nonchargeable hours, which she prefers. She explained how chargeable hours refer to those hours spent working directly with clients, and nonchargeable hours are those spent on non-client matters such as recruiting, interviewing, or training employees. Maloney enjoyed her time back at IUP and will be attending the SAA’s Recognition Dinner on April 19.
Join us at the next SAA meeting on Wednesday, March 3, at 4:00 p.m. when Jeremy Hartzell, CPA and managing partner, from HBK will be joining us. According to HBK’s website, “HBK is a multidisciplinary financial services firm, offering the collective intelligence of hundreds of professionals committed to delivering exceptional client service across a wide range of tax, accounting, audit, business advisory, valuation, financial planning, wealth management and support services from 14 offices in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, New York and Flori