CPAs on CPAs: Bridging eras

Ruby Mah CPA, CMA and Julia Mah CPA—who also just so happen to be mother and daughter—are CPAs from different eras of the profession. They received their designations more than 30 years apart, and things have certainly changed in the profession in that time. Ruby shares with Julia what being a designated accountant used to look like, and Julia shares what it was like to study and start her career during a global pandemic.

Ruby: My name is Ruby Mah, and I’ve been retired for five years now.

Julia: My name is Julia, and I’m a newly designated CPA who got my designation within the past year. Mom, I have a question for you: How did you take your CMA courses since it was before the internet?

Ruby: We had to go to classes! It didn’t matter if it was minus 30°C; you still had to go because those classes were running for maybe 10 weeks, so if you miss one week, it’s a big deal. I did have friends who didn’t want to travel to attend classes, so what they did was they would do correspondence. They would receive huge packages of classroom docs through the postal service, and they would go through the course information themselves…and send in their assignments through the postal office. It’s not as easy as now!

Julia: That sounds so inconvenient! So you decided you wanted to do in-person classes rather than correspondence?

Ruby: Yeah, because I would not have the discipline to go through correspondence. Julia, COVID came during your last year at university, and in-person classes were all cancelled. Your CPA modules were mostly based online. How was technology used to help support your learning?

Julia: When classes were cancelled in person, we moved to online Zoom classes. What I liked about that was the professor would share their screen during the call, so you are guaranteed to see their notes rather than when you’re in the classroom.

For my CPA modules, it was mostly self-learning, where you utilize their online textbook to do your assigned readings, and you submit assignments online. They also had useful webinars to supplement our learning and online discussion boards if you had questions.

Ruby: Your first full-time job was also during COVID. I remember you doing your orientation online at home. Did you find it difficult to start without really knowing your supervisor and being introduced to your coworkers?

Julia: Not really! In my first full-time job, my team was very intentional with making sure the supervisors and coworkers had social interactions to build up that relationship….

However, when I did eventually meet my coworkers in person, it felt easier to have a friendly, casual conversation with them because it felt more natural. But given the circumstances, I think the company used technology in a smart way to ensure social interactions.

Ruby: That’s good!

Ruby Mah CPA, CMA (left) and Julia Mah CPA

Julia: You were working before computers came along. What was office communication like?

Ruby: It’s hard for people nowadays to imagine, but when I started working full time, there
were no individual computers. Everyone had a telephone and a calculator at their desk. And we’re not talking small calculators! Everyone had those big calculators with big numbers and a roll of tape in it, and I don’t think you see those very much anymore.

Julia: I’ve seen a couple around, and they’re gigantic. They look like cash registers!

Ruby: We had to sign up to use a shared computer. There would be a sign-up sheet with time slots, so if you wanted to use it Monday 2-3pm, you sign up on the piece of paper. When the time came, you would wheel the computer to your desk and work on it…. Everything was taking longer.

Julia: Did you have to fight a lot for computer time?

Ruby: I think there might have been one computer for every five to six people, so it’s not like you had to share with 20 people. It was manageable at the time!

Julia: I know, for myself, I grew up with computers, so I didn’t really have to learn how to use a computer. Did you have to take lessons or classes?

Ruby: Yes, the company was really good. You can’t just give somebody a computer and say, “Here you go!” We had sessions to learn how to use different things on the computer, even Windows and what-not. There were many learning sessions.

Julia: When technology came along, did a lot of people lose their roles, like the data entry clerks, since they weren’t as needed?

Ruby: I would not say a lot of people lost their jobs…. Their old jobs would take less time to do, so then they could use their skills to do more analysis and other things.

Julia: That’s a fair point. I know when I was in university, some people would tell me, “Oh, in the future, you’re not going to have a job because technology is taking over.” But, really, technology is just making more manual aspects automated, which leaves time for CPAs to focus more time on the analysis aspect.

Julia Mah CPA (left) and Ruby Mah CPA, CMA

Ruby: That’s very well said. I think technology is continuing to take away some of the manual tasks, but people use their skill sets to do other things, to do better analysis.

Julia: I know in the past for my job, staff would manually go through each piece of paper to find what they were looking for, but nowadays, we get these large documents scanned into a PDF, and we can use the search function in the PDF to quickly find the information we’re look-ing for, so that saves a lot of time.

Also, Excel worksheets are increasingly becoming more automated by using formulas and new reports to gather data…. I think technology has definitely made the job easier and less manual, which has been nice.

Hear more from Ruby and Julia in their episode of Uncommon Sense, a podcast featuring Alberta CPAs sharing knowledge with Albertans. Available anywhere you listen to podcasts on September 12!