Support for WXA V88.3 of them is being brought to you by Bookies, New and Use Books. Bookies has two locations, one in Chicago at 10324 Southwestern Avenue and its new location in Homewood at 1-8-1-0-9 Dixie Highway. For more information, please visit their website at BookiesBooks Stores.com. You can also find them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Support for WXA V88.3 is being provided by Northwest Community Credit Union located on campus inside the Graham School of Management. The Credit Union helps students learn about the importance of good credit and how to better manage their finances. Do you know the importance of a good credit score or what a Roth IRA is? Learn about these concepts and many more on NWCCU's free financial literacy modules located on their website at NWCCU.com or call them at 1-800-2-B-Long.
Hello and welcome to the Center for Success Career Talk Podcast, a series that provides tips and advice for fine-tuning your resume, networking and getting that first job. The hosts for the series are members of the Center for Success at St. Xavier University in Chicago. Hi everyone, thanks for joining us.
My name is Debbie Beale and I am the Director of the Center for Success at St. Xavier University. I'd like to welcome you to our Career Talk Podcast series. Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Mr.
Mike Frigo. Mike is the Director at Aducie Vega Financial Group in Paylose Heights, Illinois. Mike, thanks for taking the time to chat with me today. You're very welcome.
Pleasure to be here. Would you start by just telling us a little bit about Aducie Vega Financial Group and your role as the Director? Sure, be happy to. So, Aducie Vega Financial Group is a local CPA firm.
We have offices in Paylose Heights in all swim Westmont. I report to the owner in my position as you mentioned as a director. So, that means I'm here there to help him manage the firm. We have about 25 professionals and we offer a wide range of accounting services, audit services, and tax services to small and medium sized clients in the whole metropolitan area.
Can you tell us a little bit about your career path? What led you to this position? So, I'm leading up to this role? Well, I have a degree in accounting.
And then after I received that degree, I worked with two international CPA firms. And then I took a little bit of a left turn and I went into non-profit. So, I've been in non-profit for 30 years. We retired from that job on June 30th of this year.
And then in July 1st, I started with Aducie Vega because I had a relationship with them when I was in my previous job. Very good. Congratulations. Thank you.
So, for anyone considering public accounting, what is the best way to enter this field? Do you have to be a CPA? Can you earn it while you're working for your firm? And what advice would you give to someone in preparation?
Well, I do have a degree in accounting and it is required to have a degree in accounting. And if you're going to get your degree in accounting, I would strongly recommend that you go on and get your CPA certificate because that is the gold standard in the industry. Also what I would say is if you're currently taking accounting or you're thinking of taking accounting and you like it and you see yourself doing this all the time and you're looking forward to your classes and your homework, well then maybe it's the right field for you. If you've dreaded it, then I would strongly recommend that you look to some other opportunities because probably it's not the best fit for you.
So what are some of the characteristics? Someone that maybe they're taking an accounting course or considering it, are there any particular characteristics that you would think of or what type of person normally does well in this field? So all the accounts in CPA as I know are very detail-oriented. They're very organized people and they enjoy learning because part of the requirements of being a CPA is you continue your education throughout.
So you know, I've been a CPA for a number of years. I still try to get 30 to 40 hours of continuing professional education every year. So if that feels like it fits you, then you're probably a good candidate to be an accountant and go out to be a CPA. Any parting career advice for a young professional or a college student getting ready to graduate?
I would say study hard if you go into accounting because you're preparing for the CPA exam. And if you do well in your undergraduate studies and get a good grasp of the accounting concepts, then when it's time to take the CPA review and CPA exam will not be that difficult. So I always say to people at least get a B-average or better in your accounting major and it should flow very naturally for you. The last thing I would say in parting is the industry has changed a great deal like everything is and there's so many different opportunities in for-profit, nonprofit, governmental.
The other thing that's very nice about accounting is it's real easy to be part-time or full-time. In our firm alone, we have a number of people that work from home. We have a number of people that are raising small children at home and they work on a part-time basis. And since there's so much demand for accountants, we are more than happy to flex our schedules accordingly so they can do that.
So it's not unusual to have someone work full-time and go to the part-time and come back in full-time again. So it really, really offers you a lot of variety and they always need accountants, so you'll always have a job, which is another very good plus because you'll never be extinct because they always need the hands-on skills that accountants bring to any business or nonprofit. Absolutely. Okay.
Well, thank you so much. We appreciate your time. Thank you for stopping by, Mike. Thank you very much.
Thanks for listening to this episode from the Center for Success Career Talk Podcast series. For more information, please visit them at sxu.edu and search Center for Success.