The Auditor, an instructional novella written by James K. Loebbecke, tells the story of Jack Butler, a man from the San Francisco Bay area, who goes to college, majors in accounting, and goes to work for a large accounting firm referred to as “The Firm.” The story is loosely based upon the real world experiences of the author, and is written to give students a look into the world of public accounting that goes beyond a textbook. The Auditor not only gives students a chance to follow Jack Butler’s journey up the company ladder at The Firm, but also reiterates the relative importance of conventional lessons learned in school. The story begins with a nerve filled morning for Jack Butler. He is one of three managers who are being considered
Wally was responsible for about twenty students and referred to them as “Wally’s Raiders.” Jack describes how influential this group of students was to his success. By participating with other students in Wally’s group, Jack was able to develop relationships and mentoring skills that would help him later in his career. The chapter ends with Jack describing the different career options he considered during his senior year. Jack goes through most of the options for accounting majors, such as going into industry, working for government, becoming an internal auditor, or working in public accounting as a CPA with an accounting firm. He gives an overview of each sector and then explains how he decided to become a CPA. This gives an example to a student of what decisions they are going to face as they near graduation. This internal deliberation by Jack allows the student to get an idea of the options for employment that are in the job market, and depicts how a student might go about deciding which sector to enter. The fourth chapter addresses one of the most important issues for an accounting student, getting a job. Jack begins the chapter by describing his job search experience while he was in graduate school. He speaks of going to “Meet the Firms Night” in order to meet with representatives from accounting firms. After attending firm night, he signed up for as many interviews as possible. This part of the chapter is great experience for students, because it lays out