Fund Accountant 

(Female, Age 25) from Normal, IL

This is a REAL-LIFE job profile written by a Female aged 25 who works as a Fund Accountant in Normal, IL. We have removed all names and personal information in order to protect privacy. This professional kindly spent a bit of their time to complete one of our job profile surveys so that prospective job seekers like you could read their insights. Please excuse any punctuation or grammatical errors in this profile.

At a Glance

Current Job

Basic data on your current job

Job Title Fund Accountant
Salary $30,500
Other Compensation None Set
Hours/Week
Company Size (not answered)
Location Normal, IL
Years Experience 1 year

Career Ratings

Opinions on your CAREER overall (i.e. not just your current job)

Years in Career 0
Education (not answered)
Income Rating 0 / 10
Interest Rating 0 / 10
Work-Life Rating 0 / 10
Fulfilment Rating 0 / 10

Current job Q&A

Describe the type of organization you work for.
I work for a large insurance company. We have offices across the country. I work at the Corporate office. I work within their mutual funds area and perform daily processing of mutual funds that are traded on the NYSE.

Describe your job role and responsibilities.
The company I work for own mutual funds that employees and customers can invest in. My job is to perform the daily processing on these funds. I track purchases and sales of stocks & bonds. I also confirm prices, stock splits, mergers, etc that happen within the NYSE, as these stocks and bonds make up the mutual funds that I work with. I also price these funds – this is determining the purchase price that we send to NASDAQ. Our funds are publicly traded funds.

Please list an additional benefits (beyond compensation) that you receive.
Insurance, Paid Time Off, Vacation, 401K,

Do you feel you are under/over or well/fairly compensated at your current position?
Under compensated

Does your job entail you working with others on a daily basis? Is this something you like/dislike about your job? Please explain.
Yes, I have to work with people all day long. This is something I enjoy within my job. I used to work in customer service in a restaurant, so this allows me to have the people interaction again. There are also times that this can be difficult – as some peoples’ personalities don’t mesh well together.

Do you work collaboratively with supervisors/managers?
Yes

Do you work collaboratively with your co-workers?
Yes

Describe your work location (e.g., office, home, theatre, in the field) and what you like/dislike about working in it.
I work in a cubicle in a large office building. I would prefer to work from home, but am unable to do so, due to the amount of information we receive from external sources and other departments within the company.

Please rate each of the following aspects of your current job on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest/best):
Income: 2
Benefits: 6
Hours: 1
Co-Workers: 3
Supervisors: 5
Job Title: 8
Level of Responsibility: 7
The Actual Work: 4

A day in the life of…

Please describe a typical workday for you in your current job:

5am to 6am
6am to 7am
7am to 8am I arrive at work at 7:30. After logging into various computer systems I pick up reports from the printer. The reports equal about 2 reams of paper. I must sort these for each mutual fund that our department is accountable for. There are 18 unique funds, some of which hold up to 8 different classes. After these are sorted, I pass them out to various people within the department. These must be handed out by 8:30.
8am to 9am I then create a report to send to multiple outside companies that we work with. In order to complete this report I have to gather information from various sources and compile it. I must be careful that all information is entered accurately. This must be completed by 9 am.
9am to 10am I then gather e-mails, faxes, and other data that pertains to the mutual fund I am working with. Once I have all the information needed for daily processing, I begin to fill out numerous spreadsheets. These spreadsheets help me throughout the day and the month to track the movement within the fund. I must compare and apply cash from bank statements.
10am to 11am I will load and process any stock trades that have affected my fund. Some days there are none, some there are quite a lot. I will then print out reports that reflect the daily work I have completed. These reports have to be checked to the source documents to be sure that all information has been loaded into our computer system accurately.
11am to 12pm I have completed the morning processing of my funds and turn the funds over to someone else to check and verify. I now take a lunch break.
12pm to 1pm After lunch I work on other reports. I have weekly and monthly duties in addition to my daily work. These confirm that everything in our computer system is accurate. I complete monthly financial reports – Balance Sheet, Income Statement, etc.
1pm to 2pm I queue off a report from the computer system and modify it by making a spreadsheet. This report lists all stocks and bonds that the whole department owns. I will use this at 3:00. I also prepare documents to be scanned into a computer system. We will use these records at a later date. All the files must be in a certain order and labeled a certain way.
2pm to 3pm At 3:00 I must pull prices from the NYSE for all stocks and bonds owned by the department. We will use this file tomorrow in case we have problems with the prices of anything we own.
3pm to 4pm I receive reports at my desk and continue my daily processing. This is when I price my fund. I am comparing income, holdings, etc and determining how it affects the offering price of my funds. Once I have completed a spreadsheet I turn this work in to be checked over by an analyst.
4pm to 5pm I send prices to NASDAQ. There is a 5:00 deadline for this. If we don’t make the deadline – our funds will not be properly reported to the NYSE. Once all daily processing has been completed for all funds, I will close the day of business in the computer system.
5pm to 6pm No work related activities.
6pm to 7pm No work related activities.
7pm to 8pm No work related activities.
8pm to 9pm No work related activities.
9pm to 10pm No work related activities.
10pm to 11pm No work related activities.
11pm to 12am No work related activities.

Table of Contents

How you got your job

How did you get your current job?
I wanted to work at this company and so I applied there.

What was the application process?
submitted resume, completed pre testing

Did you have to interview for your current job? If yes, what did the interview process entail?
Yes. I had two interviews. The first one was with 2 supervisors. The second was with a Supervisor and a manager. Each of these interviews lasted about 30 minutes.

If you can remember, what questions were you asked during the interview?
How did I deal with a stressful situation, What mistakes have I made in previous jobs? What are my strengths? What are my weeknesses? What is my favorite part of my prior job? Why did I leave my prior job? What kind of experience do I have? How familiar are you with computer programs? How familiar are you with Debits and credits? Do you have experience with reporting?

Do you feel your employer properly prepared you for your job? Explain.
No. There were no written procedures for the job. I was taking notes on processes that I did not understand. I was given in depth training – but the method was not the best one I have experienced. I learned many things by making mistakes and correcting them.

Was there training for your current position? If yes, what did it entail?
Yes, there was brief training. I was given a “big picture” overview of the work. I then watched someone else do the job and took notes. Next I was given my workload. I started working off of my notes and had someone sit with me for a couple days. From there on I just ask questions when I need to learn something new.

Do you feel your educational background prepared you for your job? Explain.
Yes. I have an Associate’s degree in business. I have also worked in accounting jobs before. If I had more education, there are certain aspects that I would understand more. But I am learning these things on the job, instead of in the classroom.

If applicable, do you feel your internship experience helped you prepare for your job?
N/A

If someone wanted to go about getting a job similar to yours, what would you recommend for him or her to do?
Go to college. To be competitive in the field, you need at least an Associate’s Degree plus experience in Accounting. The company I work for also offers job shadowing, to see if you’re interested in the work.

What skills do you think a person should have if they want to pursue a position like yours?
ATTENTION TO DETAIL – in my position I work with LOTS of numbers every day. I have to type these numbers. If I am not paying attention I could cause negative affects for the company. GOOD COMPUTER SKILLS – I use the computer 90% of the day. A familiarity with spreadsheet is a MUST. FLEXIBILITY & RESILIENCE TO STRESS- Because I rely on so many other people to get the information that I need, I have to be flexible. Sometimes I have to wait an hour before I can complete part of my job. Things pop up unexpectedly sometimes as well. This can be stressful because I have deadlines to meet. SELF STARTER & RESOURCEFUL – Sometimes I have to research problems on my own. I have to take the initiative to call people to figure out problems and find solutions.

Do you feel that you need a certain level of education or training to be successful in your job?
Yes

What advice would you give to someone who was about to start work in your position/ line of work?
Take it slow. Write things down – so you can remember them in the future. Ask lots of questions. Pay attention to detail.

Long-term career plans

Is your current employment part of your overall career plan? Why or why not?
Yes, I am hoping to use this job as a spring board to move up within the company.

What are your current career goals?
Learn the job I currently hold and develop myself to move up to the next level.

Is there anything else you would like to share about your career?
N/A

Prior work history

Please list your most recent jobs prior to this current job:

Title Length Salary Description
Prior Job 1 Systems Specialist 8 months 23500 I was a secretary. I created invites for meetings, prepared documents for the meetings, and took meeting minutes. I worked on spreadsheets, made photo copying, and other menial tasks.
Prior Job 2 Manager 1 year 32000 I managed an employee base of 10-20 on a given shift. I made sure all food preparation was up to legal standards. I interacted with custmers and made sure they had a great dining experience. I ordered supplies, made cash deposits, & tracked information for historical purposes.

Educational background

Please list your educational background:

High School GPA:3

GPA School Degree
College (Undergraduate)
or Technical/Vocational
4 Heartland Community College Associate’s in Business
Graduate or Professional
(Masters or Doctorate)

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