Response

1)Hello everyone, my name is Elisabeth but I go by Micki. I transferred to George Mason from NOVA with a Business Administration Associate Degree. I am a senior now in my last semester. I hope to fulfill my 150 credits for the CPA exam. I currently am an intern at a local tax firm. I also locally pet sit and dog walk every now and then too. Something fun about me is that I am originally from China and was brought to the states at a young age. Unfortunately, I do not speak any Chinese, but I hope one day to learn.

I think I connect with the most to the junior staff. I picked this individual because sometimes it is hard for me to put myself out there, and especially now in this pandemic, it is so easy to just stay home and disconnect. When the choice comes to sending an email or meeting someone face to face, the introvert inside me wants to send an email, but I know when things are serious that stepping up is what is needed most, especially in an important engagement as seen in the video.

The audit engagement was different from what I expected. I guess when I imagined an audit engagement that there would be more separation and independent work, but the junior staff is working closely as a team. I like that interaction and accountability. The different opinions being suggested help move the team forward in a productive manner like when that one junior staff suggested a meeting instead of an email.

2) Hello everyone, my name is Nicole Suarez. I was born here in Fairfax, Virginia, and raised in Quito, Ecuador. I am graduating this upcoming May and my future career plan is to go into International Tax. Something fun about myself is that I love to learn languages and dance.

I relate to the the senior associate, as I prefer to deal with situations right away and believe that scheduling a time to have a face to face conversation is much more efficient than sending emails back and forth and dragging out the subject. Although, this approach might seem more intimidating as you’re speaking directly to the client, they will end up appreciating it as it will also save them time and effort. In addition to this, I also like to send an email to the client quickly restating the highlights of the meeting and thanking them for their time. This will allow you to have a written statement of the matter, and could save you a lot of headaches if any inquiries on the subject arise later on.

The audit engagement in the video was exactly how I imagined it to be (post-COVID era) as the team was sitting side-by-side in a conference room working together bouncing ideas. One thing that I noticed is that Brit was wearing a crew neck and seemed to be dressed very casual, although she was at a client site. I did noticed she came in wearing professional clothes on the day she had to talk to Margo, the client, meaning that the audit team probably spends a lot of hours in that small conference room without windows, and the company probably has a “dress for your day” policy.