Tax Experience with Mowery & Schoenfeld
Jon Sniegowski
After graduating from Northern Illinois University with my M.A.S. degree and completing internships with a “Top 20” accounting firm, I wanted to begin my career in public accounting in a challenging role that provided me with leadership and development opportunities in taxation. I also wanted to achieve balance between my life and the challenges and opportunities of work. This is exactly what I found at Mowery & Schoenfeld
For the first three weeks on the job, I absorbed technical audit and tax knowledge from firm managers through Mowery & Schoenfeld’s exceptional training program. Even after the formal training courses were complete, senior staff, managers, and partners have been available for questions on every assignment. This exposure and experience in talking with experienced tax professionals allowed me to better understand the tax concepts of each assignment.
The Firm provides a broad range of assignments to a first-year staff member. In my first year, I have prepared partnership, corporation, high-net-worth individual, trust, and nonprofit tax returns. I have also been assigned projects from our Managing Partner, Jeff Mowery, on numerous occasions. These included income tax projections for individuals and entities, investigation of and responses to notices from tax authorities, and various tax research assignments. The complexity of the projects has increased dramatically over the past year; I continue to be challenged by these assignments. The Firm’s open door policy allows me to discuss my results with Jeff after completing a project. These conversations have been the key to developing my tax knowledge, building on what I learned in school.
In addition to providing the training of an elite CPA firm and a challenging range and depth of assignments, Mowery & Schoenfeld actively provides for work/life balance for each staff member. Several times during busy season, I was asked by managers and partners about my workload. Management seems genuinely committed to preventing “burn-out.” Many firms have a work/life balance policy, but few firms have management that actively supports the policy like Mowery & Schoenfeld does.
As my career progresses, I expect that Mowery & Schoenfeld will continue to help me develop my technical and soft skills, in addition to providing leadership opportunities. Opportunities have already arisen in tax planning, recruiting, and client-contact. I have already seen my role with the Firm expand in just one year, and I look forward to the career growth opportunities that lie ahead.
