Take Me as an Example – Thoughts 12 Years After Graduation

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This post was last edited by Zou Yang on 2020-9-22 at 18:06. In 2008, I graduated from a second-tier finance and economics college in Xi’an. Upon graduation, I obtained the accounting professional qualification, as well as a Level 2 computer certificate and a CET-4 score. After graduation, I was eager to make a lot of money. Instead of pursuing a career in finance, I chose sales. Two years passed in this field, but by the time I left, I had no savings at all. In 2010, I joined a state-owned enterprise with my girlfriend. Since the company policy prohibits two people from being in the same department, I joined the production department while she took on a role in finance. This is also where the story begins; it is for this reason that I joined the HaiChuan forum and started learning *chemical engineering techniques. I joined the Production Technology Department; at that time the company was in the process of being established, and there was no head of the technology department – a vice president for technology served in that role temporarily. Later, a proper head of technology was appointed. I started learning *production* from him. He is a quite shrewd leader who has received **-level awards; I really admired him at that time. Although I’m not a professional in this field, I am confident that I can do this job well. We have worked together for half a year, and my supervisor has a fairly good opinion of me. Thus, I gave up an opportunity to request a transfer and decided to stay here with him to start our own business. In 2011, I performed outstandingly, was nominated as an advanced individual, and received the opportunity to join the Party. However, for various reasons, he eventually joined the Party, but received no honors. In 2012, I kept working hard and was recognized as an advanced individual. Nothing else, just a raise in salary. At the beginning of the year, the leader resigned and went to another company. In 2013, new leadership took office. I was a bit hesitant at the time, not sure whether I should persevere. After much hesitation, I decided to stay. In 2014, the leadership changed, and by then I already had a full grasp of the department’s operations. But due to personality, interpersonal relationships, and other factors, I didn’t have the opportunity. Starting the intermediate economist exam. It was approved back then. Life went on in 2015; I submitted my resumes, but there was no suitable job available – my professional skills were too specialized. I’m planning to change my career and obtain the Level 2 Constructor qualification, with the intention of passing it in the same year. So I obtained the first-level constructor qualification, passing two subjects in that same year. I submitted my resume along with my wife to another company; my work experience met the requirements, but due to the fact that I wasn’t in the right field, I didn’t get a chance for an interview in the end. At this moment, I suddenly realized that everything is ephemeral. I wasted the best 6 years of my life here; I can’t make another mistake. At the end of the year, my wife left the company. I’ve started planning for a new job. In 2016, to prove myself, I retaken the accounting qualification exam; that same year I left my company and began working as an accountant. These days, both income and company size are better than before. The only thing I regret is that if I had started working as an accountant right after graduation, I would definitely be doing better now than I am. Our current corporate finance manager also switched to this field later in life; he started working in finance when he was already in his thirties. Actually, I just want to tell everyone that you must plan your life well. It’s all just the beginning. In October 2016, I took the exam for a first-class construction engineer qualification; I passed one subject, but failed the one related to municipal engineering, which was quite disappointing… Before long, 2017 arrived. At the end of 2016, due to reasons such as drinking alcohol, I returned to Xi’an for surgery and rested for 3 months. After the New Year in 2017, I went back to my company. A month later, my boss gave me a raise; life became fulfilling and work was wonderful. Since I am already working in accounting, and considering the need to pass accounting qualification exams, as well as the fact that I already have someone holding my second-level constructor qualification, after much consideration I decided to give up on obtaining a first-level constructor qualification. After all, I won’t be working in the construction industry in the future, and the risks associated with having someone else hold a first-level constructor qualification are much higher than those associated with a second-level one. Since I have spent a long time working on the front lines of enterprises, I am quite familiar with their production and management processes. Therefore, they enjoy the manager’s great trust in financial matters, and their professional skills and level of engagement are higher than those of ordinary accountants. I feel like I’m making progress quite quickly. Some improvement suggestions were also put forward, some of which were adopted. It’s very fulfilling to work. I passed the junior accountant exam in May and am full of confidence. On a whim, I signed up for the Intermediate Accountant exam. However, due to work and personal reasons, I didn’t prepare seriously for it. As a result, in September’s exam, I managed to pass only one out of the three subjects. My scores in the other two subjects are probably about 10 points short of the passing mark. Very frustrated, made countless assumptions... Actually, with a little more effort, it might just be manageable. After all, an intermediate professional title is an important factor in getting a salary increase. Subsequently, the company planned to go public, and I was fortunate enough to attend related meetings and work on it. I suddenly realized that many of the issues I mentioned at the beginning of the year that needed to be addressed were related to the accountant’s opinions. In fact, previous work experience is very helpful for the current job. Subsequently, they were responsible for drafting the company’s relevant management systems and responsibility standards. I used to carry out internal audits for ISO90001 certification at my workplace, so I’m quite experienced in organizing regulatory documents. I plan to obtain the intermediate accountant qualification next year, and at the same time apply for the certified public accountant exam. At the end of 2017, changes took place within the company; the group appointed a new finance director. As is common when a new manager takes office, they set about making immediate changes. Since my current manager had been very supportive of me, and considering the situation of the company, I suddenly thought about leaving. But I still decided to wait and see. But at the end of the year, I was fully responsible for setting up the new accounting system – from the accounting approach to the specific account settings. My suggestions were followed, with the manager making minor adjustments before we began implementation... I consulted former classmates and friends, as well as current business partners, and referred to the accounting methods and account structures used by various organizations. The activation of the new ledger was completed successfully. After the Spring Festival in 2018, when I returned to the company, everything had changed. The new leader had his own ideas, and as a subordinate two levels below him, I had mine as well. Actually, I don’t want to leave; after all, I’ve only been at the company for less than two years. But if you’re not happy doing it, why go through with it? I started reaching out to other companies; basically, their offers to me were around 10,000. I shared my thoughts with my manager—that if no offer comes through, I’d ask for a raise. The manager said he couldn’t make that decision on his own, as the new supervisor had his own ideas. I calmed down and told him that if it really didn’t work out, I would leave… When everything was ready, I found a new job. The manager had a long talk with me one night; I said that I would leave if there was no salary increase. Perhaps it’s because he doesn’t have anyone else to work under him, and perhaps he relies on my experience. He agreed on the spot to raise my salary starting this month, satisfying my request. And due to my concerns about work experience, I ultimately decided to stay. The following month, I had the honor of becoming the chief accountant—responsible for cost management. Actually, I never even thought in my heart that with less than 2 years of work experience, there’s no way I could become a senior accountant. Calm reflection, coupled with my previous on-site work experience, gave me the leverage needed for negotiation. It’s easy to communicate and coordinate in order to address issues within the production units; I know what they’re thinking, so communication is very straightforward. This is not something that can be acquired after working as an accountant for a few years. Subsequently, we began to work on reducing costs and making the necessary adjustments; more people were added to the department gradually, the business tasks became more detailed, and I focused on handling cost-related matters. UFO report design, formula data retrieval – countless late nights spent studying the UFIDA U8 operation manual. One after another, the older employees left the company. While continuing to work, I persisted in preparing for the intermediate accounting exam; however, due to limited time, I decided to give up on preparing for the CPA exam… The intermediate exam is in September, and the CPA exam is in October. It’s worth mentioning that although I didn’t review any materials specifically for the CPA exam, I felt fine during it – many of the questions covered topics that weren’t in the textbooks. There was content related to construction contracts; although I hadn’t studied those topics in the CPA textbooks, they came up during my preparation for the first-level constructor exam. In the end, I was able to answer the CPA exam questions using the knowledge I had from that exam… It’s indeed beneficial to learn more… October 19, 2018, was an important day – I successfully passed the last two exams required for my intermediate accounting qualification. After careful consideration, I shared my thoughts with my manager. With my children growing up and my parents getting older, although I remain at the company, having an intermediate accounting title should help me have a decent career path, but the journey will surely be tough. So, I decided to start over from scratch... I will leave my job at the end of the year and return to Xi’an to build my own life there. Over these two years, I am very grateful to myself for keeping working hard. Finally, let me conclude with a short story. There was a donkey that fell into a very, very deep abandoned pit. After weighing things over, it was decided that it wasn’t worth saving it; it left, leaving it all by itself. Every day, people still throw garbage into the trap, and the donkey is very angry: it’s so unlucky of it to have fallen into this trap; its owner no longer wants it, and doesn’t even let it die peacefully, throwing so much garbage beside it every day. But one day, its way of thinking changed. It decided to alter its attitude towards life (or rather, its “donkey attitude”). From then on, it stepped on the garbage under its feet every day, instead of being overwhelmed by it; it also found some leftover food in the garbage to sustain itself. Finally, one day, the trash became its stepping stone, allowing it to return to the ground. Perhaps I am that donkey… Starting in 2019 from Xi’an, I set very high goals for myself, hoping to work for or help establish a listed company. I submitted my resume and received responses, but during the interview process it became clear that since I had been working in cost management, my understanding of taxation was still at the level appropriate for someone just starting out in this field, which severely restricted my career progress. In the end, I planned to join an education and training institution that operates as a chain across the country; going public was an inevitable step for such an organization. However, on the night I submitted my medical examination report, I received a call from another manufacturing company offering me a job. After carefully considering the benefits and the industry sector, I decided to pursue a career in manufacturing. Everything seemed wonderful before starting work, but after joining, I found that the reality was very different from what I had imagined. Left the job peacefully after 3 months. In summary, the internal relationships in established companies are complex, and private enterprise owners believe that there is nothing that cannot be resolved with money. In May, I joined a construction company to work in finance; it was a very small company with just one accountant and one cashier. But without complicated interpersonal relationships, right after taking on the task I ran into issues related to unpaid value-added tax; it took over a month to sort things out, and I studied the value-added tax reports in detail from start to finish. This experience is very precious to me. In the blink of an eye, more than a year has passed. I feel that I’ve become somewhat lax with myself; I started to settle for the status quo, and my preparations for the CPA exam were neglected. Needless to say, the results of taking the exam without any preparation were predictable... In 2020, the pandemic brought life back to square one. My workplace wasn’t greatly affected, and salaries continued to be paid as usual during that period. But it tested many people and many things... As there was only one person, I handled all the financial tasks related to the company except for managing funds; I felt that I grew rapidly and was able to handle routine accounting and tax matters on my own. Watching my child grow up and seeing rising prices, I feel I should try again, and I’m also thinking about my plans for the future. ①I continue to work in corporate finance, but I’ve reached an age at which I feel I’m hitting a bottleneck; good companies prefer candidates under 35, and I feel I don’t have the right qualifications to be a manager. ②Working in the bookkeeping agency industry, with the goal of moving on to work as a freelancer in the future. I have completed all the standard procedures for setting up a company, from registration to everything else that is necessary for normal operations. However, I am still not very familiar with some of the business functions; should I consider working at an accounting firm to gain experience? Tax consultants and certified public accountants should make a choice first; they’re still hesitating……