Over the next three to five years, my intention is to build up a number of skills, competencies and acquire the knowledge that I will need to set myself up to achieve my long-range vision for myself. That long-range vision is to build an accounting consultancy firm that can help businesses to deal with the challenges associated with doing business in different legal, political, ethical and social environments. This marriage of functional (accounting) with some of the softer skills associated with international business is a compelling proposition. In an era where many skills and talents are being automated – and where artificial intelligence is going to automate many more – I envision the most successful people being the ones who are able to do multiple things. Where an AI can perform a purely functional task, like basic accounting, an AI will not be able to perform tasks as complex and nuanced as blending a variety of hard and soft skills together. Not for a while yet anyway. I see my business vision as being something that I can sustain as a career throughout the coming technological transformation.
The skills that I acquire today will directly help me get to the point where I can start my consultancy. Over the next few years, I wish to obtain my degree of accounting, and acquire along with that education a CPA designation, and some of the different soft skills that are required to thrive in the international business environment. The Business Administration Accounting program offers me the opportunity to acquire precisely the skills that I believe I will need in order to navigate the complex and rapidly changing environment. Accounting is a resilient functional skill that lies at the core of every business, while the softer skills will allow me to build up my flexibility and adaptability, which are also two of the traits that I will be able to offer my clients when I eventually can start my own firm.
Before I get to that point, however, I will need to complete my degree, and obtain my CPA. The next step after that point will be to go to work for a Japanese accounting firm. In that position, I will be able to build the relationships that I will need to help carry me through the early parts of my career, as well as put myself in a position where I will be constantly building up my competencies. Specifically, I want to build on the education that I intend to obtain in strategic planning and strategic management. Strategy is an area that requires not only vision, but the ability to execute on that vision, thus a variety of soft and hard skills. If I can get to the point where I understand the strategic needs of businesses in uncertain international environments, then I will be able to strike out on my own. The next 5 years will put me on that path, if I can acquire the knowledge and competencies that I intend to.
Reflection on Current Semester
My current semester has been fun. I achieved my goals, through hard work, but I had a learn a lot along the way. The first thing was time management. It's not easy in the sense that I work part time, and my family is in Japan, which makes communications a little bit more complicated. You think that there is lots of time, but then you realize that you do not always have a lot of energy, especially after work. That is not just automatically time you can expect to be productive at school. So finding the times that work best to handle the course load was essential to my success this past semester.
It can be a lot of work, so one of the most important aspects of time management is really to accurately assess how much work it takes to get things done. Some things take a longer time than you expect, and you have to leave room for that. You also have to accommodate that there are many different assignments in different courses. Sometimes they can come all at the same time, or right around exams. Learning how to juggle, and plan my work, are two essential skills. Thankfully, I feel that I was a quick learner on those things, and therefore was able to have more of a fun semester, where I was prepared with the hard work,...
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