Welcome to the Armanino Careers Blog

As the firm’s Campus Recruiter, this is always a busy time of year for me. It is also my favorite time of year. It is during this recruiting season that we meet and recruit next year’s interns and new staff. The competition for top talent is tough and one of the most common questions I get asked is, “What makes Armanino stand out from the rest of the pack?” Here at Armanino, that’s an easy question to answer and I could take up the rest of this page telling you why. But earlier today, as I lifted my head from the sea of resumes covering my desk, I read an article highlighting the firm’s most recent accomplishments.

 Of course, I was already aware of our accolades. We work hard to earn them and then make sure to celebrate. (Check out our most recent celebration, as we rented out all of Great America and enjoyed a private concert by renowned 80’s cover band, Tainted Love.) As I read along, it was another reminder of the fact that I’ve got it good! 1) As a driven professional with many years ahead in my career, it is great to work for a company that invests so much in its employees’ development, and 2) as a recruiter, my job is pretty darn easy when you have a firm like this that sells itself!

 So I’m going to take a quick pause (and only a pause, since it’s one of my favorite questions to answer) and let the following article begin to answer the question, “What makes Armanino stand out from the rest of the pack?”

 http://www.marketwatch.com/story/armanino-mckenna-named-to-five-prestigious-national-accounting-award-lists-in-october-2012-10-09

Busy Season. In one form or another, we know it well. It’s that time of the year that, to some extent, every person in the public accounting industry sees some elevated hours. Now, with less than a week to go, the end is finally in sight. Soon we’ll be able to lift our heads away from those computer screens and come up for air. Sup. Senior David will finally shave his beard that has been growing all season. Partner Dan will pack up the roll-out putting green that provided a much needed break for everyone on Saturday afternoons. And everyone will go home on a Friday, happy to know they won’t have to return to the office until Monday.

While it may be a stressful time of year, we always come out of it (relatively) unscathed and excited to celebrate another successful season. For years, the Armanino after-busy-season tradition has been and continues to be a Friday afternoon full of food, drinks, bowling and nothing resembling a tax return.

Our yearly After-Busy-Season Party one of the firm’s most anticipated and enjoyed events. Typically on the Friday following Tax Day, we will close up shop around Noon and head down to a local pizza place and hold our annual pizza-eating contest. The contest started as a simple, “I bet I can eat more than you can” wager and has evolved into a full-on war of departments. Last year, we had contenders from all four of our major departments; Audit, Tax, Consulting and Admin, with each group rallying behind their competitors. The contest always brings a lot of excitement and department-pride to the day.

After everyone has had a few slices and the competitors, definitely more than just a few slices… we take over a bowling alley for the rest of the afternoon. The spirit of competition continues as folks from all different departments and levels join forces to see which team comes out with the best score.

The event serves as a great example of how the firm creates an environment where people come together to work hard, deliver great service and then, when it’s time to let loose, those same people come together to have some fun. It is times like the After-Busy-Season Party when you really get a sense of that “family-feel” vibe that so many at Armanino talk about.

There are many words that you’ve probably heard describing the awesome culture here at Armanino, but one that doesn’t always get as much attention is competition .  Our professionals strive to be the best in everything they do, from excellent quality service to any sort of extracurricular activity they participate in, including their culinary skills…which recently led to the first ever AM Guac Off.

To give a little background, newly hired Consulting Manager, Jim Gellas, and I were discussing our shared interest in cooking.  During that fateful conversation, Jim asked, “So what’s one of your favorite things to prepare?”  My response led to one of the most highly anticipated cooking challenges the firm has ever seen. 

Okay, perhaps that’s a little dramatic, but we have had other cooking competitions before (every holiday season; there is a large baking contest for fellow AM peeps to show off their best holiday treats), but this one did seem to generate a lot of hype.

As it turned out, both of us had a guacamole recipe that we were proud of.  In overhearing our conversation, Rob DeMartini, from our Marketing Department, decided to jump into the fray and quickly a simple conversation escalated into a full-on competition to determine who had the best guacamole recipe within our Consulting and Admin departments. Word began spreading through our little corner of the office and within days, we picked up one more competitor, Steve Johnson, from our Internal IT group. A date was chosen and our departments were notified of the impending event.

Some friendly trash-talk ensued and within a couple weeks, the anticipation for the the Guac Off, as it came to be known, continued to grow.  The video you see here should give you a pretty good idea of how serious we became about the competition, setting up our stations, even donning chef’s hats! Ultimately, judges were selected to rate the recipes (and chefs) on execution, presentation and taste. This was the real deal.  Watch out Iron Chef, America, here comes Iron Chef, Armanino!

As you’ll see, Rob came out victorious, though all competitors agreed, it was a blast no matter who won. What started as a simple conversation turned into a great, relatively impromptu, event.  A sense of competitive spirit within an organization is not unique to Armanino, but how it is applied here is. We love to win and, together, we will support each other to achieve personal and firm goals. And when we compete against each other, the end result may be a little about bragging rights, but is more taking a little time to have some fun with our coworkers, as it was with the Guac Off.

With our After-Busy-Season Party and Pizza-Eating Contest just over a month away, that competitive spirit will live on and the fun will continue. Stay tuned!

Accounting firms can get a bad rap as stuffy, no-fun places to work. We disagree. Of course, this is an industry where professionalism and hard work are important, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a personality too!

Our firm sees the value of well-rounded professionals; those who get the job done (and get it done well), but also those who can enjoy themselves too. Whether it’s pictures with our travelling pyramid on Facebook, firm events like our pizza eating contest and bowling party or some friendly office pranks, Armanino is a place that goes beyond simply providing quality service, it does it with a fun, energetic and positive attitude.

With that said, the pictures above probably deserve some explanation. So, Darrin in our Marketing Department took some time off to go to Hawaii (poor Darrin, right?). Well, some of his colleagues might have been a little jealous and decided to have some fun with the contents of his cube and the result was a “garage sale.” Upon his return, Darrin laughed and laughed, but then quickly said, “This means war!” We’ll have to see what kind of payback he comes up with.

Last month was a big one for us on the recruiting end! We welcomed a total of 30 professionals into the firm. An Armanino record! 2011 was a strong year for the firm, as we surpassed our forecasts and finished the year with nearly 20% revenue growth! Of course, with an increase in business, that means an increase in the number of professionals to service those new clients. Here at Armanino, we don’t grow to simply be bigger, whether that is in revenue or headcount. Of course, we’re proud to continuously climb the Top 100 ladder (in 2010, we ranked #35 and we’re excited to see where we wind up in the 2011 rankings), however, the more important reason for our strong emphasis on growth is to constantly provide career opportunities for our people.

As we continue to expand into new service lines, new industries and even new geographical areas, we create niches for our professionals to pursue and develop career paths where they have a passion. The entrepreneurial spirit and open-communication that is embraced by the firm fosters an environment where those looking to take control of their careers can thrive.

The hiring we saw in January is an exciting and encouraging piece of news for our current professionals and those who we look forward to joining us in the future. With great excitement and optimism, we look forward to another fantastic year in 2012!

As this year comes to a close and 2012 approaches, we are inevitably led to reflect on the past and contemplate what the future will bring. Many will find an article, a book or even a simple quote that will resonate with us as we look toward the new year. For me, it was this great HBR article titled, Mastering the Art of Living Meaningfully Well by Umair Haque. Umair’s impetus for this article stems from his own experiences along with the insights of numerous Twitter followers exploring the question, “what three lessons would they give people younger than themselves about leading a good life?” The points Umair shares are great reminders as to how to live in a way that will hopefully lead you to a truly prosperous life. I hope as you read the article you are inspired to live in a way that is meaningful to you. The #3lessons I would give are 1) Find your passion and pursue it with utmost intensity, 2) Maintain an insatiable curiosity, and 3) Do something every day, large or small, that will change the world for the better.

Wherever your pursuits take you, my best wishes to all for a healthy and HAPPY new year.

Kevin

 What a weekend!

It was great to host our fourth annual AM Leadership Conference last Saturday. We had an awesome turnout of students from over a dozen campuses join us to spend the day learning about leveraging interpersonal strengths, the accounting industry and, of course, a little about Armanino. We had a number of our professionals, from relatively new staff all the way to Andy Armanino, our Managing Partner, come out to represent the firm so I thought I’d take a few moments to thank them and do a little recap of this year’s conference.

We started the day off strong with our pre-conference session, Audit vs. Tax. Dean Quiambao, Audit Senior Manager, and Lorena Barrientos, Tax Staff, faced off in a light-hearted “debate” to give insight into two possible career paths within public accounting. When it was over, several students mentioned to me that Dean and Lorena’s presentation helped give them a better idea of what a day in the life would be for an auditor or tax professional.

Our Learning and Development Director, Eugenia Tripputi, then took over to facilitate the True Colors session. It was a lively, interactive and energetic session that illustrated how we all have different strengths and styles when it comes to how we learn and communicate. It was very fun to see the different teams come together and create some very entertaining product pitches during the “Colorful Pitch” activity. Each team was given one of those “As Seen on TV” type products and given total creative license. It was great to see what they came up with.

After a quick lunch/networking break, we got right back into it with our keynote speaker, Rebecca Ryan. She always brings something fun and fresh to the table and this year was no different. It was great to hear her perspectives on how getting to the top means going beyond strong technical skills and how one must also exhibit strong interpersonal skills as well. Whether it was a student attendee or one of our veteran professionals, I think I can speak for all when I say that her speech left us inspired to keep reaching higher!

Once she finished her presentation, Rebecca switched to a moderator role and facilitated our Senior Leader Panel, where we had John Brychel, Tax Partner, Theresa Brown, Consulting Director, Leslie Carballo, Audit Senior Manager and Andy Armanino, Manager Partner, as our panelists. It was great to hear their stories on their professional backgrounds, what they look for in new staff and why they enjoying working at Armanino.

We wrapped up the day with a Leadership Development Tradeshow, which provided students with the opportunity to visit different booths manned by our staff to learn about the various career paths within accounting, the value of internships and how to find the right firm. We were also happy to have Roger CPA Review, Becker CPA Review and CalCPA in attendance. Not only were they able to lend further insight into the profession, but they had some great raffle items too, including review courses and a Kindle!

Overall, it was a great day, jam-packed with all kinds of info and activities. I want to thank all my fellow colleagues that helped out and hope that everyone had as great of a day as I did!

See you next year!

- Kevin

P.S. We'll be posting pictures from the day on our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/ArmaninoMcKenna . Check them out!

This Friday we will be closing up our offices for the day to embark on our second annual “Great Give” event! On Friday, all 260 of us will fan out into the Bay Area communities to deliver a day of hands-on volunteer services to community-based organizations and non-profits. This year, we will support 15 organizations spanning five counties. Activities at this year’s Great Give event will range from building repairs and classroom teaching appearances to landscaping and serving food to the needy.

The firm estimates that we will donate more than 2,000 hours of total volunteer time. Even more exciting, over the last three years, we have amassed over 5,000 hours of volunteer time and raised more than $115,000 for community organizations!

It is an exciting day for Armanino and its people as the Great Give symbolizes the firm’s culture of teamwork and collaboration. One of AMLLP’s staff sums it up stating, “Many of the firm’s employees are heavily involved in their communities at the individual level. It is inspiring to be in a firm that sees the value in giving back to the community so much that it makes time for us to come together as a group and give back as a team. Plus, the Great Give has created a wonderful opportunity for us to develop stronger bonds with one another outside of the office setting.”

Every year Chris Seely, one of our Supervising Seniors in our Tax Department, organizes a firm-wide Adopt-A-Family program where we all donate money and gifts to families in need. This is a great effort from Chris, those who helped her and all of those who participated. Below is a letter to the firm from Chris outlining the impact our firm was able to make on these families this season. Collectively, the firm did a great job and we are proud of what we were able to accomplish by coming together.

Happy Holidays,

Andy

12/16/09
RE: HOLIDAY SHARING - 2009 ADOPT-A-FAMILY THANK YOU ALL!!!!!

Many THANKS to all of AM who participated and contributed to make our 2009 AMLLP Adopt-A-Family program a TREMENDOUS SUCCESS!! You are all truly AWESOME & VERY GIVING!! We out-did ourselves this year to help make a wonderful holiday for the 36 members of the 9 families we “adopted”. Over one third of the firm participated in what is now our 9th Annual holiday sharing effort!! Congrats to all for a job well-done!

With your generous support, last Friday we delivered to the Salvation Army Concord Community Church over 40 boxes & bags chock full of Christmas gifts wishes along with a total of $3050 of Safeway grocery gift cards – each family received up to $500 in Grocery Gift Cards (depending on family size). A truly great accomplishment!!! Your generosity and caring are so much appreciated at this busy time of year and in these tough economic times. THANK YOU ALL!!

THE FIRM MADE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF 36 SPECIAL INDIVIDUALS THIS HOLIDAY SEASON!!! For that, we are all thankful! And you know there will be many SMILING FACES and LOTS OF LAUGHTER, along with FULL TUMMIES, in the homes of all our special families on Christmas Day!! THANK YOU AGAIN FOR EVERYONE’S GENEROSITY AND SUPPORT!

BEST WISHES TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES FOR A JOYOUS HOLIDAY!!

Christine Seely
Tax, Supervising Senior

2010 AM Leadership Conference from Armanino LLP on Vimeo.