Informational Interview Assignment

For my informational interview assignment, I interviewed John Goodman of John Goodman CPA on October 17th. I choose to interview Mr. Goodman, because he owns his own firm and he’s a local that understands the area and market. We started out the interview with what lead him to his career in accounting. He always wanted to own his own business, he started out as a software designer for a tax firm. He picked up much of his initial knowledge of accounting by designing this software, after that he decided to start working in that accounting field. Eventually he did get his CPA and founded his firm. His day to day is primarily taxes for small businesses and individuals, but he also does some payroll for local small businesses. From here we talked about the variation in accounting clientele, from his experience to consider someone a client he must work with them for at least
He believes with the advancements in AI and computing technology that the industry will become more automatized. This would require one to have more technical knowledge to be able to deal with any and all issues, but also allow them to stay relevant in a machine controlled industry. He did not give me a time line of when he believed when this would happen, but there was an expectation within the next ten to fifteen years. Some of the important skills he recommends to any one going into this field is computers, communication, and marketing. With him owning his own small firm he doesn’t have any IT personnel, so he does most of the maintenance and troubleshooting in the office. He highly recommends communication, so one is able to easily get relevant information from clients and insure that the information is accurate. When one doesn’t work for a large firm they must be able to properly market themselves and services to local businesses and individuals. One must be able to distinguish themselves from the