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The following will make little or absolutely no sense unless you read this first. Or unless you enjoy far-fetched pirate stories How to Enjoy the End of a Summer Long Weekend - Prelude Agree with your girlfriend that you need to get out of the city. Even with all its parks, Toronto lacks certain things you can only find in the countryside. Like fields full of fresh produce. Set out for a promising venue, gorge yourself on the last raspberries of the harvest and the best french fries you’ve ever had in Durham region , and, realizing it's still very early, decide what to do with the rest of the day. You mean people actually commute to work in Uxbridge? Looking at the map, note that you’re not far from the home of your friend’s oddly located company. Send you friend a text message asking for details about your next destination. Look for the town’s famous bakery. Note that it’s closed for the holiday. “No Empire Cookies for us”, the travellers cry. Pay a visit to the ice cream shop instead...
It's easy to say that this post wins the prize for "most descriptive headline ever." It's even better than that one. Oh England. Just as I booted my computer I thought to myself, "gee, it's been a while since someone contacted me here with a question." Boom. Question in my inbox, in reference to a recent post . For a first year, do you actually get to take the entire month of July off after writing the SOA? In the Big 4 firms, do the UFE in-house training classes begin in August, or late July? Scary, no? Anyway, thanks for the questions - the answer to the first one is, yes, unless you want to work - and your company allows you to. This isn't a consistent rule by any means. I got to return to work after the SOA for three weeks. It was an enjoyable return, since I got to travel during that time, one week going to an exotic client site, another week attending an training course for my day job, IT audit. I remember that week well - it only took place a...
Part three in the series of "vacation question" posts. Click here for part two . Another reader's question: Is it common for juniors to take extra unpaid time off to study for CKE, SOA, and UFE? If so, on average how many unpaid days/weeks do people take for each of those tests? Using paid time off (PTO) is both common, and essential. Most companies will give you some paid time off to study, in addition to your vacation time. So you're looking at anywhere between 20 and 50 paid days off to study - most likely a number somewhere in the middle of that range. At the upper end, 50 days translates to 10 5-day weeks. Most juniors take a week or two off for the CKE - the Christmas holidays help you save some of that precious PTO. I never knew the joy of travel during my UFE writing year. But then I didn't show up to work for an entire month the following spring - guess when I took this photo? - so I feel like things balanced out nicely. The SOA is the next big 'sink'...
This is part two, continuing a series of three posts. Previous post . A reader asks: I assume it's next to impossible to take vacation during the busy season, so that leaves April to October, and maybe mid-late December open for vacation requests? But as a junior staff accountant, how hard is it to get vacation during this period, with so many things going on (CKE/SOA/UFE exams)? From your experience, are there any legitimate "tricks" that would maximize one's chances of getting vacation requests approved (e.g. submitting requests at a certain time)? First off, if you're going to take time off during your first year, it means unpaid time off unless you have the Most Generous Employer Ever . I'll explain why tomorrow in part three, but in a nutshell, all your vacation time will be "spent" on study leave, so if you want to take a vacation it's doable, but it'll cost you. If you insist on submitting a vacation request for your first year, do it...
Every time I see someone write about how they have "so much paid time off" to take, and no time to take it , I can't help but shake my head. Shortly after coming back from vacation last April I already started plotting my next bit of time off. It'll be in December, when I use up the remainder of this year's vacation time. Thanks to some careful planning I still have over a week off, and the Christmas holidays mean I get to enjoy almost a full two weeks off, which is simply awesome. Plotting time off, as well as fancy dinners. This all of course reminds me of a friend who scoffed in response to all this gleeful talk of vacation planning - "your entire life is a vacation." Hey, if you can pull that off, more power to you, I say. Even a child can realize that the world we live in asks that people work far too much considering the abundance of resources on the planet and the number of able bodied people able to help harvest the fruits of our collective labour...