Finishing Co-op

This is beginning of August 2010 and couple of more days to go to finish my Co-op with Canada Revenue Agency. Sometimes its hard to believe that I have been part of this organization for an year. I really got a chance to learn so much about this organization from inside. I am happy that I was part of very hard working, enthusiastic and helping team in Lethbridge Tax Office.

I worked as a GST auditor at Lethbrdige Tax Office. I have seen some other co-op students blog who worked for CRA at different tax offices, I noticed that their co-op program is different than what I had at Lethbridge Tax Office. Other tax offices tend to give students different responsibilities during their co-op term, whereas in Lethbridge Tax Office, I was strictly assigned for GST audits. This approach, in my opinion, has some positive and negative impacts. I read some proverb which goes on saying something like “Jack of all trades and master of none". So approach at Lethbridge Tax Office has been to not make us Jack of all trades but make us master of GST audits. After staying there for an year, I can safely say that I did some work there and was productive team member rather than trainee in different departments. Our training at the beginning of co-op term was also based on GST audits. I didn't get chance to work on Income Tax files, which is something I will miss as part of this learning experience.

I still have some audit files sitting at my desk which I will be striving to finish before end of this month. Most of the files are write up for my Medicine Hat field trips and couple of other regular desk audit files. I also finished my corporate finance course this summer and happy to have finished total 5 courses during this co-op term. It was very advantageous for me to get co-op in Lethbridge as I was also able to take some courses which at least saved me a semester.

There will be two new students joining their co-op term starting this fall and I am sure they will have good experience and will get chance to learn lots of things during their work term. I have 3 more courses left and will be finishing my degree in this fall 2010 and I am very excited to apply my knowledge and skills acquired through this co-op to my new job.

By the way; here is some inside secret information about CRA. There is new simplified way of tax filing form coming very soon. You can download the form below and fill up and send to your designated tax office. Filing tax has never been so easy. :)



Disclamair: ( The above form is joke and is meant to have some good laugh. It is not real form)
Picture Source: http://geconsult.com/demo/Library/Docs/EzTaxForm.gif

Auditing Field Trip to Medicine Hat

Last week, My team went to Medicine Hat .  We stayed in Medicine Hat lodge and it was quite comfortable and nice place to stay. It is a very big lodge and have lots of rooms. They are expanding the lodge and when we went there, the construction was still underway at some part of the hotel. I liked the indoor swimming pool and waterslides. I didn’t know that they have waterslides there otherwise I would have brought some swimming clothes with me. Kids were very happy playing in waterslides. Below is the picture of two giant chairs in the lobby hall. The kid in this picture is not mine. :)

Lodge also has indoor Casino and Bar but I never went there. I am not very firm believer in my good luck in gambling. Weather was clear when we reached in Medicine Hat, besides couple of snow here and there to make road slippery. They had developed new section of Medicine Hat and it wasn’t in my GPS but thankfully my Team Leader knew the place. After finishing our morning audit we went to hotel and checked in. I prepared my file for the next afternoon appointment. After  having appointment in afternoon we head back to lodge. Medicine Hat is not a very big place but its good enough to have all the basic amenities available there. I came to know that people from Saskatchewan also come there for shopping. Since Alberta only has 5% GST as compared to Saskatchewan, where they also have PST of 7%. Many border people like to shop around in Medicine Hat since it is closer to the province.

I am still working on Auditing files and most of the cases which I had handled so far were not very complex. I also find out that, if not all, then still many people tend to file their GST fairly. If there is anything wrong it either they don’t know the correct rule or by sheer human mistake.

Couple of my appointments were in out of town location and I am glad that I bought GPS at the right time. My Garmin nuvi 265WT GPS is good one as it has most of the Southern Alberta map there.  ( More info: https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=13430&ra=true#)

The only disadvantage which I found with this GPS is that it does not have very up to date information for out of town places but that shouldn’t be of very much concern since this GSP will at least  let you drive by to near local place and there you can search around to find the correct address.

Weekend has very strong wind blizzard forecast. So I came back to Lethbridge by Friday noon. I need to change my car tires but I keep postponing it because I would like to buy another car and don’t want to invest anymore in my current car. Matter of fact is, I am still financially constrained. I want to finish my degree as soon as I can. Being poor is not very pleasing.

I finished my Accounting Information System (AIS) course and now left with Management Law, which I have exam on Dec 16, 2009. AIS is new course offered in this semester and more or less looked like Assurance class. But Prof Gordon is going to revise course content in next semester and is going to add some software package in course such as Simply Accounting. I strongly believe that this will benefit lots of students. One thing which I would like to add in Accounting degree is to add some kind of software package curriculum. So far we have taken all theoretical accounting and management related courses but I find it very disadvantage to be not able to learn any kind of software suite. If not as credit course then at least offer it as non-credit course. Students needs to learn at least one accounting software package. Whenever I go for audit, I see business use some kind of accounting software package and its very difficult for us to test internal control of their accounting software system or make had and tail of report presented to us by accounting software. Most of the businesses I had dealt  with use some form of Simply Accounting package. I ordered book for Simply Accounting and will learn it of my own. There is some training provided in Lethbridge College for Simply Accounting but that is expensive. I strongly believe UofL should include this section of accounting learning in their curriculum.

Co-Op With Canada Revenue Agency

Working for Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is very different than working for any other federally administered public service organization. CRA’s mission is “ To administer tax, benefits, and related programs, and to ensure compliance on behalf of governments across Canada, thereby contributing to the ongoing economic and social well-being of Canadians”. Fairness and equality is what we can use to define CRA. A compliance organization making sure people pay their fair share of contribution for the economic well being of our country.

I got a chance to be part of this organization when I joined a year co-op term with Lethbridge tax office. I started my term this Fall 2009. CRA’s hiring process is very fair and competitive. They look for well grounded person and professional skills. Customer service, technical skills, organizational skills, analytical ability and working under pressure and deadlines are some of the qualities which are expected from every CRA team member.

The selection process for Co-Op position is different than selection for permanent position at CRA. This information is for people who are preparing for their interview with CRA for Co-Op position. I found their selection process to be different that interviewing with other organization. Atleast for me, we were given 6 different kind of questions, related with customer service skill, organization skills, analytical skills, and testing knowledge of computer. None of the questions were of technical in nature but they do grade you on the basis of response you give to them. Its more of kind of behavioral based interview such as how do deal with difficult team mates, how will you prioritize works etc. They also let you create some kind of pamphlet by using Microsoft Word. Overall, when I appeared for interview, I dressed conservatively and professionally.  Having confident and friendly attitude is important to relieve stress. This makes both interviewer and interviewee  comfortable in dealing with each other. Make good eye contact, don’t fiddle. Most of the time you will be having two or more interviewer and one of the interviewer will be asking all the questions. So you focus on replying that person but don’t ignore the second person. Keep proper eye contact with both person during answering questions. Since CRA ask most of the behavior based questions. So well prepare some of the examples in advance and insert those examples in answering questions. I know, I sound like bookish or information provided by other interview gurus but this is what I followed. I read their advice about presenting or tackling interview. So it works for me then I am sure it will work for you as well.

One very important thing which I learned for interview preparation is follow up letter. This is first time, I ever sent a follow up thank you letter and I am sure there is some credit for this thank you note to be able to make me different from other students.

I looked at some of the requirements for permanent positions at CRA. Its mainly based on written test and interview. I will post more info about this if someone ask for it.