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If you’re looking for a profession that’s all about people, community and service to others… may we suggest accounting? That’s right, accounting. Gilmore Jasion Mahler, the largest public accounting firm in Northwest Ohio, recently launched a high school initiative to help area young people better understand what the accounting profession is all about.

The firm is taking professionals into area high schools for presentations on trends and opportunities in the field. The program is in conjunction with an initiative from the Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants (OSCPA), aimed at educating high school students about the abundant opportunities and highly competitive salaries in the accounting industry right now.

“I have talked with accounting students who sometimes have five to six offers for full-time employment upon their college graduation,” says GJM Recruiting Manager Carrie Giannetti. She’s overseen recruiting for GJM for about five years, but has been recruiting in the accounting industry for two decades. “Most skilled accountants who present themselves well will have no problem finding a job, whether it be their first job out of college or making a change with some experience under their belt.”

Recent numbers from the Robert Half Salary Guide for Accounting & Finance show that salaries in public accounting continue to increase, with 2017 compensation (entry level to 3 years’ experience) ranging from about $50,000 to $90,000 a year, depending upon the size and geographic location of the accounting firm. The study shows that professional certifications and graduate work can further increase compensation by about 15%.

Giannetti is coordinating GJM’s high school initiative. She says competitive salaries certainly are a factor for young people in considering a career, but so are opportunities for professional development, company culture and other factors. A key focus of the GJM presentation is to help students understand that accounting may be a real option for them as a potential career... and what they think accounting is… may not be the reality at all.  

“What I find is that a lot of people have a misperception of what accountants actually do,” she says.  “Most people think of money, taxes, and sitting at a desk all day when they think of a career in accounting when in all actuality, people are our business. There are also many more aspects to accounting other than taxes, such as auditing, IT, and consulting and many accountants are barely in the office. Rather, they’re working out at the client site, establishing networks within our community, and helping others which can be very fun, social, and rewarding.”

The GJM high school presentations kicked off in the fall of 2017 with visits to Perrysburg, Bowling Green, and St. Francis De Sales High Schools. The firm plans more scheduled visits toward the end of the school year in May, 2018. GJM staff members helping with the presentations so far include Alex Spieker, Matt Cavanagh, Nick Jackson, Matt Hoverman and Krista Huff. Matt Cavanagh, a graduate of Bowling Green High School, even had an opportunity to visit his old locker the day of the presentation. Krista Huff helped with the Perrysburg High School presentation and is also part of GJM’s recruiting team, which engages quite a bit with college level accounting students at The University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University.

“I think it’s a great idea to educate high school students about accounting because I know at that age I didn’t know anything about the career or the opportunities it can offer,” she says. “Getting in early and introducing them to the industry is really a win-win for everyone. They can better prepare for their future and we can get even more excited and interested candidates in the future.”  

GJM also hopes the sessions will help address a lack of diversity in the industry, exposing students to a career path they may not have considered and one that can serve them well.

“No matter what type of business or industry you might want to pursue, whether you want to be an entrepreneur or work in management or supply chain, accounting will always be the most valuable subject to learn in order to be successful,” adds Krista. “Many people get discouraged by accounting because they think it’s difficult and heavily math-based and that is very much a misconception. Accounting is definitely difficult, but the opportunities and success that can come out an accounting degree and career are certainly worth it.”

Established in 1996, Gilmore Jasion Mahler, LTD (GJM) is the largest public accounting firm in Northwest Ohio, with offices in Maumee and Findlay. Locally owned, GJM offers cloud-based accounting services and provides comprehensive services including assurance, business advisory, tax, risk advisory and healthcare management. The Firm’s professionals specialize in industries including construction & real estate, healthcare, manufacturing & distribution and utilities. Learn more about GJM opportunities at GJMLTD.com/careers.

“GJM Pistol Team?  What’s that, exactly?”

Exactly what it sounds like!

Let me introduce to you this year’s co-captains of the Gilmore Jasion Mahler Pistol Team: Stacie Heitmeyer, defending champion Hannah Nowak, and yours truly.

We always strive to make GJM a fun place to work – people do their best work when they’re happy at the office. One way we do that is with a pretty unique offering: we are the only accounting firm in Northwest Ohio (or anywhere?) that sponsors an official firm Pistol Team.

A little history

In 2012, a handful of us who enjoy some target shooting in our spare time looked around at the various softball, bowling, kickball, and other team building fun outings, and thought “what a great idea if we did a pistol team.”  Cleland’s Outdoor World runs winter and fall pistol leagues every year, and the format of the league makes for a lot of fun. In addition to traditional bullseye targets, the league uses some variants like Bingo cards, word scrambles, etc., and some truly silly stuff like saltines, candy Valentine hearts, and once even an apple on top of a mannequin’s head. Results on the little candy hearts are usually pretty mixed but most of us do a good job on the saltines.

The league format also allows for substitutes – so we would bring five different shooters every week to get as many people involved as possible. This doesn’t always produce great team scores but it does give us a chance to involve folks from all the departments, so auditors and tax associates and consultants and administrative folks all get to play together outside the office. This builds some comradery among the departments and allows some friendships to form among people who otherwise might not have occasion to work together often.

We started challenging ourselves as to how many different shooters we could involve each year. The 2017 team fielded 26 different associates and interns at least one time, many of them first-timer shooters.  We all find teaching newcomers how to shoot fun and rewarding – its outreach for a sport we all love and who doesn’t love learning new stuff?!

We also get the sweet uniform shirts you see above, which is a fun souvenir of the experience, and draws lots of attention out on the streets or on campus. We’re a different kind of accounting firm, both for our clients and for our associates and interns. I love answering the question at the top – “Pistol Team?” – because it’s one more way to show we are outside the box.

But we’re accountants, so we have to compete

If you’re not keeping score, there’s almost no point in playing, right? So we do track and award both team and individual awards. The team award is the coveted Grand Interdepartmental Pistol Championship™.  Turns out that historically, the audit department is fairly awesome at this and has won three trophies in the six years we’ve fielded a team. Our healthcare group has won two and our tax team has won once.

Maybe 2018 will be the year tax gets back in the winner’s circle, where they haven’t been since 2014. Tax’s own Hannah “Shooter” Nowak has won two of the last three Individual Pistol Champion trophies, including last year when she won the championship on the final shot of the night, by plinking a peppermint lifesaver one-handed from 50 feet away, which will be a story re-told and probably embellished for a thousand years.  Also the annual Most Valuable Intern award will be up for grabs – our overwhelming two-time winner Jess Knepper has joined the firm full-time and is no longer eligible for intern awards!

Look for updates throughout the 2018 season, pull for your favorite to win one of the coveted awards, and maybe you’ll see us on some bubblegum cards come springtime. Happy winter meantime!

J Kenneth Saggese contributed this blog. Ken is a partner in the Audit Department of Gilmore Jasion Mahler. With the Firm since 2006, Ken is a member of GJM’s Construction and Real Estate Specialist Group. His area of expertise is affordable housing.

Do you know when you want to retire from running your own business? Planning for the future of your business with you out of the picture can be tough. Gilmore Jasion Mahler Audit Partner Greg Taylor says many businesses drag their feet when it comes to future planning. He says you need to plan ahead and you need to start talking with your trusted advisors.

If you're interested in receiving more informational articles and tax strategy ideas direct to your inbox, be sure to sign up for our free GJM tax newsletter Focus. You may also want to consider signing up for some of our free quarterly industry newsletters, including The Manufacturer (for those in manufacturing & distribution), On-Site (construction & real estate industry), Practice Management Advisor (physician practices and other healthcare practices) and The Expert (with a focus on business valuation and litigation support). Sign up here for any of GJM's free newsletters.

Established in 1996, Gilmore Jasion Mahler, LTD (GJM) is the largest public accounting firm in Northwest Ohio, with offices in Maumee and Findlay. Locally owned, GJM offers cloud-based accounting services and provides comprehensive services including assurance, business advisory, tax, risk advisory and healthcare management. The Firm's professionals specialize in industries including construction & real estate, healthcare, manufacturing & distribution and utilities. 

Are you a contractor about to start a new project? Partner Bob Bobek, CPA leads GJM's Construction & Real Estate team and says there are some critical questions to ask before moving forward.

Bob works closely with many construction businesses as a trusted advisor in key business decisions. Interested in learning more about issues, regulations and tax strategy specific to the construction industry? Sign up for GJM's free industry newsletter On-Site. Established in 1996, Gilmore Jasion Mahler, LTD (GJM) is the largest public accounting firm in Northwest Ohio, with offices in Maumee and Findlay. Locally owned, GJM offers cloud-based accounting services and provides comprehensive services including assurance, business advisory, tax, risk advisory and healthcare management. The Firm's professionals specialize in industries including construction & real estate, healthcare, manufacturing & distribution and utilities.

I first heard of Gilmore Jasion Mahler, LTD (GJM) through my neighbor, Bob Bobek, when looking for an internship to fulfill my credits for my undergraduate degree.

I was brought in for my internship in July of 2013 for 3 weeks which then turned into over a yearlong internship in the audit department (which is not your typical internship) that led to a job offer before going back to graduate school. I started out as more of a shadow for the first couple weeks bouncing back and forth between jobs just to get an idea of how the different industries work and the basic differences between how an audit, review, compilation and cost certs work. I was able to work with different managers and was able to go out in the field and get a feel for fieldwork and client interaction. The longer that my internship lasted the more detailed work I was able to contribute throughout the engagements. Going out into the field rather than sitting in the office completing the work was very beneficial to building my confidence in my work and having that experience to build off of. I was able to see how testing was performed, how to make inquiries, and start to build relationships with the clients.

Everyone at GJM is amazing to work with. I was especially worried being a new intern with no internship experience at all and being completely new to the public accounting atmosphere. All of the staff that I worked with through all of the engagements took on all of my questions and rather than being annoyed by all of the questions, made me feel like they were necessary and were essentially building blocks to better understanding the client and processes of the engagement. Any employee, regardless of their title or position, is willing to help you grow and point you in the right direction to help you learn and continue to grow. The office atmosphere, encouraging communication, and friendly staff members, who are willing to help everyone grow in every way that they can, makes coming into work every day enjoyable.

GJM is far from a “stuffy accounting firm” to say the least. It is not an everyman for themselves environment where no one communicates and keeps to themselves. Everyone is encouraged to ask questions when they don’t understand, share discoveries that others may benefit from, and share victories together. There are a variety of committees throughout the firm that employees are encouraged to be a part of to keep fresh ideas running through and keeping GJM a great place to work. The Fun Committee plans events to keep the office atmosphere light and show that the company realizes that we put in hard work and need a break/some fun from time to time. The APE Committee(Audit Policy Excellence Committee), which I am a part of, discusses solutions for inconsistencies throughout the firm or between the Findlay and Maumee offices to make our work more efficient in the long run, and the LEAN Team works to make our work more efficient and better managed overall. All of these small things build up to keep the environment across the firm light and enjoyable even through the busy season when stress levels and workloads can sometimes be overwhelming. Another great aspect of the firm that sets it apart from the others is the open door policy. This basically invites staff of any level to talk to whomever they feel is appropriate for the matter. It encourages communication through all levels and really unites the firm. It essentially reminds us that the partners are not keeping to themselves and only upper level staff can communicate with them and really supports the idea of “One Firm” in which everyone in the firm is working together to accomplish the goals of the engagement. GJM also has a variety of leagues and encourages all employees to take part. These leagues range from a bowling team and slow-pitch softball to a pistol league throughout the year. I can’t think of many firms that offer these experiences that encourage the employees to get to know each other outside of the office as well.

Lauren Grana is a GJM Audit Associate. Learn more about Gilmore Jasion Mahler’s capabilities in Assurance and our approach for helping businesses succeed.