Last June, Appalachian State University student Danielle Pollock became one of the seven students to be selected for the Governmental Accounting Standards Board's
GASB selects a total of seven students nationwide for its summer and winter cohorts. To be considered for this year-long program, high-performing students must be nominated by an accounting faculty member and have completed coursework relating to accounting theory and practice.
"I think being able to help with the standards really just helps you appreciate and empathize with preparers and auditors when they're reading a standard and have to interpret it," said Pollock. "Being familiar with the structure, the process and the input of building the standards is really something that's going to be valued in the marketplace."
On her way to transfer to Rutgers University to pursue a master's degree in governmental accounting, Pollock was the first candidate to apply from an Appalachian state and is now only one step away from completing the program. Her governmental accounting professor nominated her and, in her application essay, Pollock discussed her journey with accounting.
She originally wanted to focus on taxes to support people and their communities and worked in a small firm in North Carolina, but Pollock quickly realized it was a topic that no one liked to talk about. After taking a step back and reassessing her goals, she then decided to look at the issue from the other side of the equation and switch to governmental accounting.
Instead of trying to understand how to collect taxes, she would look at how the government spends tax dollars.
"I am honestly honored to work with all of the people at the GASB because they're brilliant and I think it's important work that they do," said Pollock. "That's what I tried to get across in my essay, and I am very proud of it. I structured it as a story to really get across why I wanted to do this because I didn't get into this program only to use it as a stepping stone to the next place."
GASB project manager Joseph Wicklund said PTAs have been part of the organization for nearly four decades. He said PTAs are treated as full-time collaborators who are regularly involved in critical specialized projects in collaboration with project managers. Wicklund added that recipients get as much as they put into the program, especially during the orientation period, while learning to work on standards that frequently interact with one another.
PTAs actively assist the organization in making informed recommendations and writing papers. Throughout the year, Wicklund said students get the opportunity to present sections of a paper they write on technical accounting analysis to the board, with recommendations that will impact future standards. He said the training recipients receive goes far beyond an internship with condensed experience, and they'll regularly contribute to multiple high-level research projects assigned to different teams.
"What we hope for these PTAs is that they really get what they want out of the program, and they're all amazing candidates," said Wicklund. "There's a lot of GASB PTAs out there in the world that are continuing the work that we do, and I just think it's a very rewarding experience in both directions, both for the PMs who get to work with these very strong profiles, but also for them who get to become very desirable candidates in the market after they leave."
From his experience, he sees a strong candidate as someone with high critical thinking skills and creativity, because one needs to have a genuine interest in theoretical accounting to take in various viewpoints and have a broad perspective when examining items such as stakeholder feedback. Wicklund said that setting standards sometimes means diving into very niche sides of accounting with little supervision, and to do that successfully, a PTA needs to be a self-starter and team player.
On the technical side, strong writing and reviewing skills are essential to join GASB because PTAs are regularly tasked with conducting literature reviews that focus not only on the organization but other standard-setting entities as well. Additionally, Wicklund said the organization seeks natural leaders with effective communication skills and a real interest in the discipline. He believes the environment the program provides allows candidates to heighten their skills over the course of the year, but for that, they need to be ready to make the best out of their time at GASB.
"As far as being in the program, I think every day has its challenges as well as its rewards, but what I love most about it is that the projects are all at different stages," said Pollock. "We get to apply a lot of different skills on top of the content, whether it's about the financial reporting model or going concern, and it's just been an unbelievable experience."
When it comes to the concept of going concern — an accounting term that designates a company that is financially stable enough to fulfill its obligations — Pollock remembers taking part in the reexamination of GASB's
She also took part in post-implementation review projects, examined archives to pull out critical information, and worked with the Governmental Accounting Standards Advisory Council, which became one of her favorite parts of the program. The council holds meetings three times a year, and Pollock said that sitting with various stakeholders to discuss important projects is an opportunity that only GASB could provide, for which she is still grateful.
"Another thing that some of our PTAs assist with is technical inquiries, where people reach out to auditors and preparers because they have questions on financial topics like transactions," said Wicklund. "We really try to make sure these guys interact with a lot of folks, such as stakeholders in governmental accounting, so we're talking with a lot of great individuals from a number of different organizations, who are all providing feedback back to the project staff or the board."
Another side of the program that Wicklund believes to be critical is coaching and mentoring, which he said is the most effective tool to prepare students for the next stage of their careers. A manager's goal shouldn't be to train their people only to do the things they like, but also to work toward growth, so they could make a vertical transition in case of a career change. Wicklund said active listening and constructive feedback are what sets up a valuable learning curve, especially when a candidate manages to get advice from more than one experienced professional.
When it comes to Pollock's career, she decided to stay in the government and public sectors. In the short term, she aims to stay in smaller firms because she believes they better match her personality and, in the future, she intends to work for budget or treasury governmental offices to continue serving local communities.
