The Student Accounting Association held its final meeting of the fall 2020 semester via Zoom on Wednesday, December 2. The guest speaker was Charles (Chuck) Oshurak, partner with the regional public accounting firm Arnett Carbis Toothman in their Pittsburgh office. Oshurak graduated from IUP in 1999 with a bachelor of science degree with a major in accounting.
During his time at IUP, Oshurak served as one of the SAA officers, and the SAA faculty advisor at that time is the SAA’s current faculty advisor, Kim Anderson. “One of Chuck’s greatest strengths by far was his willingness to seek out and take advantage of every networking opportunity available. If there was an accounting professional on campus, Chuck was there chatting with them and getting their business card,” Anderson said.
Oshurak began his career in Pittsburgh with the Big 4 firm Deloitte. During his eight years at Deloitte, he had the opportunity to gain experience in audit by working with a vast variety of clients. Oshurak said his time at Deloitte was very valuable to his career. It provided him with the opportunity to learn new things at a fast pace and experience many great opportunities that helped to further his professional career.
After leaving Deloitte, Oshurak worked for nine years at a regional public accounting firm in Pittsburgh, Schneider Downs, where he worked as an audit senior manager. Four years ago, he made the move to Arnett Carbis Toothman, a regional public accounting firm with eight offices located in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia.
Oshurak emphasized that working in public accounting provides experience that would be difficult to acquire anywhere else. In addition to a higher salary, public accounting firms offer accountants the chance to learn something new each day, providing them with an intellectual challenge. In addition, Oshurak said no two days in public accounting are the same, and he never really knows what to expect when he goes to work each morning.
At the end of the meeting, Oshurak offered advice to students about networking and internships. Oshurak emphasized that one of the most important things students can do is connect with people who are in their career fields. One way to do this is to connect with someone you talked to at a meeting or conference by joining their network on LinkedIn or by sending them an email as a follow-up. These connections often lead to job opportunities, such as internships. Oshurak believes that gaining work experience and being involved on campus are the most important things students can do to set themselves up for a successful career.
The SAA officers for the 2021 year were announced during the meeting, and they are as follows: president, Shelby Lowery; senior vice president, Alexis Diehl; vice president, Sandra Shanshala, and vice president of finance, Brandon Boyer. Kim Anderson will continue to serve as the faculty advisor.