The Accounting Association hosted a guest speaker, Richard Sobine, this past Monday night for their senior Capstone class. Sobine, manager at WithumSmith and Brown PC, spoke to accounting majors on the importance of having certified fraud examiners.
Sobine visited this particular class of seniors in the effort to expand their ideas of what possibilities are available for them after graduation. He described how his main focus in the field is in government services. His main job is auditing and consulting which can take place in many levels of government.
A CFE is a “specialist in the detection and prevention of a wide range of white-collar crime and other fraudulent conduct,” according to the Philadelphia Area Chapter for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners’ website.
This particular area of accounting is primarily geared toward auditing and can sometimes lead into a career in criminal justice.
This was only a brief overview of what this job entails. That reality was exactly the reasoning behind bringing in Sodine.
The senior capstone is a class meant to challenge seniors into utilizing all the skills they gained in their time in their given major. By providing these students with events similar to this, the Accounting Association is bringing light to what the real world has to offer.
While many may be anxious at the thought of what may come post-graduation, there “are a lot of opportunities with an accounting degree,” Sodine said.
The accounting industry is constantly changing. It is no longer just pencil pushing in the confines of a cubicle, according to Sobine. Today, different industries are incorporating the skills of accounting and utilizing them in new ways. Sodine said this by describing how in today’s accounting industry, it is now becoming niche-based. Accountants have the opportunity to specialize in what best suites their interest.
Events like this are not only informative but enlightening for all students working towards a degree in that field.
