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Start date

Most of my peers / class and I signed the full-time offer that's supposed to be starting in September of this year. However, HR has now provided us an option to defer our start dates. I'm considering deferring to the next start date - January. Do you think this puts me at a disadvantage? Would missing planning and interim work in the fall affect my intermediate (2nd year staff associate) year performance? Would Seniors be so busy during busy season that they wouldn't have time to teach me / properly give instructions? Is it more difficult work in busy season? Thanks!!


It depends. So if you start in January and are a good performer, you will probably get promoted the same year along with the September class, so if you graduate early, and want to get a head start on your professional life, go for it. Busy season will be a heck of a training ground for you.

If you want to ease into busy season hell, start in September. You are right about seniors not having time to teach you during busy season. So ideally, for the team and for yourself if you like instructions and warm-up, start in september, but there are a few rockstars out there who started in January. Definitely more difficult, but it saves you three months of work.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I am starting my career in audit in September at a European office. I know that the companies have very good training programmes, yet I still feel like preparing myself in any way possible. Do you have any tips for me and other new hires?
July 12, 2013 at 3:01 PM
Anonymous said…
Unless you want more time to pass the CPA or for something equally important, I don't see the point of deferring to January.

Starting in busy season makes it hard on the entire team because there's just not enough time to teach you stuff properly. Starting earlier gets you at least some familiarity with the client and the process of looking at PY, testing, documenting, updating open items, sending requests, etc.

July 17, 2013 at 11:45 AM
Workers Comp Consultant said…
Thank you for another fantastic blog. Where else could I get this kind of information written in such an incite full way? I have a project that I am just now working on, and I have been looking for such information..
September 8, 2013 at 2:55 AM
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