Changing Lives, One Return at a Time

When Adolfo Alvarado walked into the library with a pencil and a 1040 he couldn’t have imagined he was going to change someone’s life. Like his fellow Accounting Society officers, he was volunteering his time to help low-income taxpayers file their returns through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. Unlike many accounting students throughout the country who participate in VITA, however, he was extremely prepared for the task.

Alvarado began an internship with Lewor O’Brien & Chervenak, a three-partner firm in New Jersey, during his sophomore year at Montclair State University in Upper Montclair, N.J. He started with tax returns, moved on to client write-ups, and finished with audit his final year. By the time he got into his core classes he was working 35-hour weeks at the accounting firm.

And because of his wealth of practical experience, he was able to apply the earned income credit—and help the VITA client reap a $4,700 rather than a $1,000 tax refund.

“She cried,” Alvarado said. “It was an awesome experience—for something so effortless on my part. I don’t know what she did with that money, but I changed her life for that moment.

“VITA reinforced what I knew and made me realize how important accounting is to some people. That’s reality.”

For several years now accounting has been Alvarado’s reality, but it wasn’t always so. After graduating from high school he took a year off, working three jobs simultaneously: “I didn’t want to dip into my parents’ pockets anymore.” While juggling positions with a Nissan parts department, Home Depot paint department, and Macy’s shoe department, he learned how to handle clients in a variety of situations, a skill that many accounting students say is key to becoming a successful accountant.

“I’m a people watcher,” he said. “When I was working three jobs I would have to change face totally from one job to the next. Now, I look back and recognize the benefits of it, of being able to ‘deal’ in different situations.” Nevertheless, after a year he returned to school with the understanding that so much work could only be “a means with no end.”

Alvarado, who graduated in the spring of this year, originally enrolled as a biology major but changed to accounting at the end of his freshman year. He said he was strongly influenced toward accounting by the kids he had grown up with on a dead-end block in Paterson, N.J., who now number two lawyers, one doctor, and four accountants.

“The accountants influenced me the most,” he said. “We’d talk about the business aspect of accounting. I like to walk into a business and know how it functions. The more you understand how a business functions, the better you do. Accounting is an umbrella; it has a hold of all the aspects of a business.

“I came back and took my grades very seriously,” Alvarado said. “I also paid my way through—I know what it’s worth.”

He landed the internship his sophomore year because a friend there was moving on.

“I can’t begin to explain how good it was for me to start my internship early,” he said. “They treated me like a junior accountant. Firms don’t expect recent grads to have [this kind of] experience.” He left the internship with 400 audit hours.

Alvarado started with Deloitte & Touche this September under an agreement signed in August 2000. The firm approached Alvarado after he completed its mentorship program, which revolved around a series of social gatherings.

“They study how you interact in social settings and teach you the accounting stuff later,” he said. “Their main concern is people who can work in a team.”

Alvarado said social interaction is essential to success in accounting: “It’s where you gain your client’s confidence.” He envisioned plenty of opportunities to interact while performing external audit at Deloitte & Touche, saying that “external audit has that little bit of glamour that you want in your first few years.”

And to further ensure his success, he plans to pursue the CPA designation: “It’s important, because the profession has changed so much that you’d sell yourself short if you don’t have one. It’s like an internship—it’s awkward if you haven’t had it.”

Alvarado characterized a good CPA as “very responsible, very honest.

“You’re dealing with other people’s money, and you have to be very astute,” he said. “You want to give people the best advice.”

He said it wouldn’t be difficult to convince someone to pursue accounting as a career.

“When you want to start your own business you contact an accountant and a lawyer,” he said. “Accounting gives you a better understanding of business. If you’re going into business you might as well understand business. Accounting opens doors for you.”

To back up this argument, he named the CEOs of Home Depot and Nike and the owner of the pop band The Back Street Boys—all accountants. He added, though, that the profession faces certain obstacles in attracting prospects. As an example, he cited the 150-hour requirement to sit for the CPA exam, a major provision of the Uniform Accountancy Act.

“The 150-hour requirement is working against us,” he said. “Freshmen don’t have much interest in majors anyway. But the opportunities are there. Accounting is one of the highest-paying first years out of business school. The jobs are there, the money is there. We have to change the students’ morale when choosing a major.”

Not surprisingly, Alvarado supports the experience requirement. “I can’t stress how important the practical experience is,” he said. “The core courses were important to me, especially with work. I could see how they apply.”

The youngest of five children, Alvarado is the first in his family to graduate from college.

“They have to see me graduate,” he said last spring, referring to his nine nieces and nephews, all of whom live close by. “I spend most of my free time with them. Family is very important to me.

“If I let anyone down then I’m letting myself down, and I don’t want to do that.”