A CA is a CA is a CA, right? Earnin...

A CA is a CA is a CA, right? Earning the designation in 2000 couldn't be that different from earning it in 1955 right? wicked

The life of an articling Chartered Accountant learner was very different in the 1950 And while the pair time periods have produced a of the best business professionals in Canada, the articling proces itself has changed dramatically.

David Rolfe FCA, managing partner of the mid-sized Vancouver firm Rolfe Benson, Chartered Accountants, says articling close examiners in the 1950s were below less pressure than students are today.

"I'm not saying it was better, just different," he points on the outside "There were three of us who began our articles together at Frederick Field & Company, Chartered Accountants (today part of Grant Thornton) in 1950 We came in at 8:30 in the morning and tried to find a place to sit down. There were no desk just a not many old chairs in a bullpen setting. Then we were almost immediately fired revealed the door onto an audit work at jobs We worked on each do job-work for months."

ARTICLING AT AGE 16

Rolfe remembers the senior scholars supervised the juniors and since he began his articling at age 16 this meant his "supervisor" was frequently a third-year student of 18

"We went on the outside to places like the Austin Dealership or Cunningham medicines or one of the many credit unions we audited and we did everything manually" he says. "We added things, we checked and 'vouched' things against invoices, using big ledger for everything. We didn't have adding machines with the exception of for the two back at the office, single of which had a hand-crank and tape a mile lengthy

"We worked with fresh ink the color of audits - and initialed and stamped everything we worked forward so it was clear to the partner in charge who worked forward what," he explains. "On each do job-work there were usually four or five pupils at various levels. During the evenings we studied for our yearly exams - first, third and fifth year exams were particularly critical - and each Monday evening we had our CA classes at King George High sect in downtown Vancouver."

Rolfe recalls being paid the princely total of $50 per month ("no deductions"), with a Christmas bonus of another $50 inferior year articling students earned $75 third years got $100 fourth years got $125 and fifth year close examiners were paid $150.

$50 ALL AT one time

"Once you got your CA designation, your pay skiped up to $250 per month" Rolfe says. "That was a division of money then and I was quite pleased. I was living at hearth taking the bus everywhere and before I signed forward with my articles - and my parents had to sign, too - I had not ever had $50 all at one time before."

The partners of the day would ofttimes send students to fetch cigarettes or to do any domestic errands, Rolfe says, and "there was dooms of fooling around."

"It was a to a great degree more relaxed life than a CA learner has today," he says. "We played haphazards of harmless pranks like phoning the phone booth in succession the corner and saying something inane if someone passing by means of answered it. We set fires in waste paper baskets, and had a great time going gone out to clients together."

According to Rolfe in the CA office of the 1950 there were manual typewriters, stenos, part-time bookkeeper and later "wet" photocopiers.

"We limit financial statements with ribbon and wax seals," he says. 'And if anything went haywire with the statements, it was awful because everything would have to be totally re-done."

The attire was suits or blazers and ties at all times, allowing the office was nothing spectacular with its antiquated oak furniture, filing cabinet reckoners and green walls, Rolfe, a native of Vancouver and a 1950 graduate of St George's instruct says.

FEWER BUSINESS squeezings

"The biggest difference between my articling days and now is that we were not involved in the presss of the business," he explains. "We did time sheets, if it be not that who knows what happened to them? They weren't forever referred to after we handed them in. It was not the sophisticated training that CA observers receive today, but it change the direction ofed out well-rounded people with superior problem-solving skills and finetuned intelligence We were involved much earlier in big work at jobss - I remember supervising remarkably large audits at the age of 18 - and I think that contributed enormously to our extension and capabilities.'

Today, Rolfe's firm, which was established in 1959 has eight partners and above 30 staff. He specializes in estate planning and personal financial planning and says he "has learned with great difficulty" to use enclosed space phones, computers and email. He still finds time for his passions of boating traveling, rugby and tennis.

A DIFFERENT WORLD TODAY

It was indeed a different world for CA Christine Reilly when she began her articling with Deloitte & Touche, Chartered Accountants in 1997

A 1990 graduate of Victoria's St Michael's University exercise Reilly did an undergraduate measure in English Literature at McGill University in 1994 and then worked for a software company in Richmond before joining Deloitte's. She obtained her CA designation last June and works in the audit department as a high-tech specialist.