I had an amazing opportunity just kind of drop in my lap. A friend and her office mate offered a position to me to work for them through tax season.
Of course I didn’t even have to think about saying yes to this opportunity. I knew it would be hard juggling two jobs and life because things were crazy before but I am four courses away from completing my bookkeeping certificate, after that I want to complete my accounting certificate and then I haven’t quite decided if I want to work towards a designation or a diploma, but those paths will be chosen later. This is an amazing chance to get real work experience and make sure this is what I want to do with my life.
These two ladies have been amazing with mentoring, and inspiring me and throwing me in the deep end. I haven’t sank yet and they haven’t had to fire me yet so those are always good signs.
There was one thing that I wasn’t ready for and am still getting use to.
Feeling like a jerk when people owe taxes.
I have been told that this will pass, and it is getting easier to accept the numbers. There have been a few situations where the people are in bad personal positions and then I work on their return and slap them with a tax bill of thousands of dollars. Or I just recently did a return not quite correct, said let me look over it again because it doesn’t seem right and then have the final tax return go from thousands to pennies.
In the end I do not make the decisions. I am just the manipulator of the numbers.
We all know taxes can suck, the end result we may not be thrilled with but I love doing them.
No two files are exactly alike. Every single return and person is different. It is challenging and requires you to be thinking and always learning. The tax rules are always changing. There are ways to plan and optimize returns, minimize amounts owed and so on.
I have also gained a direction and where I wasn’t quite sure which direction I wanted to go in I now have a more solid plan and have some things I am working on.
I am sure as I do more and more returns and interact with more and more people not everyone is going to be happy with me but I am not the government, I did not make the tax laws and several of them I would change if I had the power.
My skin will continue to grow thick, but I am still human and I am sure there will still be moments where jerk is the only appropriate way to feel.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
