D high C

I am a Dominance, high-Conscientiousness type. I have taken several Personal Profile Tests and tend to get results which rank either Conscientiousness or Dominance as high and I agree with these results. As far as Dominance is concerned, I like challenges, do not mind to manage trouble, and want freedom. As far as Conscientiousness is concerned, I think things through in detail and try to give my best in completing tasks.

On the other hand I tend to find myself ranking low in Influence. Since I want to do tasks in my pace and following my own way, I do not prefer team projects, especially with people who have goals that differ from mine. In fact, school team projects often are hard for me, because for some students a grade of B is good enough, while I strive for As. At the same time, though, I consider school team projects an excellent (and low-risk) practice. I think it is not necessary to change myself, but I need to learn the skills on how to get my own views heard and, hopefully, adopted by other people.

I strongly believe that although it is convenient to determine people by types, we need to see each individual’s personality to establish good relationships. It is important to try to find out the reason for people’s action, especially of superiors. Why did the manager say such a thing? Because of personality or because of something else? How serious should I take a manager’s words? I think this kind of thinking helps to establish an efficient work environment and reduce unnecessary conflict.

I think that taking a Personal Profile Test is useful for me because it gives me an opportunity to think about myself. Even though I do not think the results show my character in great detail, they may point out some important things that I may have overlooked without taking such a test. If I feel that a result is correct, I can determine what kind of new skills I may need to learn. I feel this is more important than the test results by themselves.

VISIONS

The visions for my future include running my own CPA office, working in a first class company as an internal auditor, and working in one of the Big Four Accounting Firms. So far, I worked in both, a first class company and a small CPA office, and found both work environments attractive. However, one thing I definitely need to achieve is to become licensed as a CPA.

To become licensed, I do not need to graduate from college again, since I already have a bachelor degree from Japan. Therefore, I have two options to complete the coursework required for the CPA exam:
1) To take the classes in an under graduate program and go to the 5 years program at Baruch.
2) To take the classes in a graduate school.
For both options I need a GMAT score of at least 570. The other issue is tuition. Since I am an international student, I am paying more than $14,000 per year for tuition at Baruch College, while following Option 1) above. As a solution to the tuition issue, I am seeking a paid internship; otherwise I have no idea how to pay tuition. For this I need to keep my GPA at 3.5 or above… and luck. Please wish my luck!

I think another big challenge will come after passing the CPA exam. I need one to two years of work experience after passing the CPA exam to become a licensed CPA. To do so, I need to find a employer who sponsors a work permit visa for me. Although everybody says it will be easy if I pass the CPA exam, I do not want to be a too optimistic and have already started to look for a respective position.

So now all I can do to work toward fulfilling my vision is to study for the GMAT, keeping a good GPA and continuing to look for a paid internship. And all that, while still bringing my English language skills up to speed. Sounds hard, huh?