Why didn’t I do this sooner?

Here we are again, at the end of week 1 of term 3 and back on the books. Despite my concerns I did rather well last term with a distinction in the Economics and Accounting in Australia units. Fortunately my wife is in the UK at the moment, I say fortunately as she wants to give me a good slap for daring to be concerned about the exams. She has far more faith in me than I have. Which is even more surprising considering we met at university in 1992 and I was definitely less than a model student.

Term 3 brings with it Australian Commercial Law and Statistics for Managerial Decisions. Both have started well. With Law, apart from a different text book and higher expectations (it is a Masters course after all) there doesn’t appear to be many differences to the the Law unit I took in term 1. Lots of reading and making sure I’ve good notes in preparation for the exam. No worries here.

Statistics is a bit different. Lots of reading and lots of working through examples, both on the computer and by hand. This one will just take practice. It’s been 25 years since I last did stats, having read the first chapters of the text book, I’m not overly concerned. Practice, practice, practice. Then in 11 short weeks I can walk away with a Grad Cert in Professional Accounting!! A bona fide qualification that I can do something with. That’s something to aim for. All this is great, unfortunately outside of Uni stuff it’s been a pretty tough week, which prompted some thinking.

Which brings me to the question, why didn’t I do this sooner? I’m really enjoying the learning experiance, I’m meeting great people and rising to teh challenges of teh course. so why didn’t I do this earlier? This is what I’ve been thinking.

In 2014 I was made redundant, in a very nasty way when the Bluetongue Brewery in NSW was closed down. As part of the government support package I was given the opportunity to do an Advanced Management Diploma, which I started and enjoyed, but didn’t finish. This was a mistake.

Due to the nature of the closure, missing out on a job in California and some other corporate nastiness that caused significant stress, with hindsight I believe I was not in the best place to make decisions and as a result we packed up and went back to the UK. If I had been thinking straight and beyond the career that had defined me to that point, a Master Brewer with an international career, perhaps I would’ve realized that there are other opportunities out there.

I think as I was so used to being the “big man”, at home, as the primary wage earner and at work as the leader and expert, suddenly not being in that position was a shock. So my aim at the time was to get back into that position. Which I have done sort of.

I’ve spent over 20 years as a brewer so I know a lot of stuff about my particular field. I can walk through Dan Murphy’s and see dozens of beers that I’ve brewed. Some of which were first perfected in Australia due to my skills. Now I make soft drinks and rarely drink beer, I’ve come to the conclusion I’m really not that interested in the beer culture anymore.

This is part of my mindset change that started me down the accounting path. Move out of what I know and can do with my eyes closed into something new that I can do for a very long time to come and do anywhere in the country.

If I’d realized this in 2014 I could’ve done this course in NSW, my wife would’ve remained teaching at a school she loved and I wouldn’t have paid out thousands from my redundancy to move from NSW to Northamptonshire in the UK and back to QLD. However the move did provide new experiences for the family, so it wasn’t all bad. As they say hindsight is 20/20 and I can see it all clearly from the lofty heights of 2019.

I’ve just read through this post and it’s taken a completely different tone to what I had planned, what it has done is remind me that experiences bad and good all help define the direction we take and the person we are or wish to be. If I had done this in 2014, life would not be the same, but then I would’ve had different experiences in the last 5 years which may not have given the same result. So I’m quite happy where I’ve ended up.

Throughout these first two terms and into this one I am continually glad that I have taken this opportunity to study and aim for a new career. I hope those of you reading this feel the same.

Happy studies

Feedback’s back alright!

Feedback, it’s the gift that keeps giving. Another assignment another set of feedback. And the Backstreet Boys, because why not?

To round off this bit of the unit at the start of week 8 I present you with my reflections on the restating process, ASS#2 Reflections on Step 3

This document explains my thought processes in restating my financial sheets. Which I did quiet enjoy. In case you missed it the financials can be found here, GALLIFORDTRY Company Spreadsheet FEASEY

The next item on the agenda is what I think of the feedback process in general and the feedback I have given and received along the way. This can be found here ASS#2 Peer Feedback Step 4 Consolidated Feedback Sheets Thank you to those who’ve taken the time to help me out and interact.

Oh, one more thing. When it comes to feedback, don’t be this guy.

dilbert feedback

Happy studies.

BTW – the last word. If you read this and enjoy it, just hit the like button, that way I know I’m not talking to myself. If you don’t like it, leave a comment as to why, maybe I’ll do something different next time, maybe I won’t. Leave a comment and we’ll find out together.

From desperation comes motivation

In chapter 1 of the study guide Martin makes it really clear that in order to succeed in this course you need to be spending 12.5 hours a week on the subject. I think I have spent more than that just trying to untangle Chapter 4 and that’s before I start on the restated financial statements.

In the study guides I don’t mind a bit of trivia now and again. I do have a passing knowledge of Machiavelli and GK Chesterton, but I’m not going to search out Euclid. To be honest in this chapter these nuggets I didn’t find at all helpful.

A lot of the concepts in Chapter 4 I’m familiar with through experience, having them interwoven with kinder eggs and Ryman Healthcare didn’t help me much. Especially when trying to work out how to play with my spreadsheet.

What I wanted was details of the mechanical process for the spreadsheet, what I got was somewhat different. As I may have mentioned before, if it was easy everyone would do it. So I’ll read the chapter again and watch the video and see how we go.

I’ve got a Law assignment on the go as well and wanted to get at least something on ASS#2 out so I can concentrate on that. So as the title says from desperation comes motivation. What I have attached is probably version 5 of a first draft.

I’m not happy with it. I’m sure it’s rambling, simplistic and misses a hundred points. Take a look, rip it up and tell me where you think I’ve gone wrong. It’ll be a feedback gift I’ll appreciate. I’ll what Studiosity has to say about it as well.

The output of my desperation can be found here. Paul Feasey ASS#2 Step 1

On a more positive note and speaking of motivation. It was a great parkrun this morning with two colleagues from work joining me. Dan worked for me when I was in operations and Kasey is our project accountant. I run with Kasey twice a week and have been encouraging her to get faster, usually by not telling her the pace we’re running at and she’s come a long way since starting regular running in January.

I am really pleased to say that this method of motivation and support has paid off and she ran her fastest 5k at 26:25. Something to celebrate (unlike my draft 😦 )

Happy studies folks.

Week 5 already?

How’s everyone doing?

Week 4 is drawing to a close and I’m quite astounded in how it’s going. I was not totally sure how studying, life, the universe and everything was going to work out. We’re a 1/3 of the way in and it’s going all right.

Couple of things I’ve experienced, learned and been reminded of this week.

PASS sessions continue to be extremely valuable. If you’re not in it, why not? I’m enjoying the interaction and by talking with the group I’m able to better understand the concepts and help out as well. I am trying to say less, honest, but it is a challenge as I’m so used to leading and talking at work.

Warning this is the only negative I have so far in this unit.

PeerWise, to be honest at this stage is losing it’s value. I’m well up on the scoring system and could stop now and still get a pass. I appreciate that we will be at different stages in the reading and I’m deliberately looking for the challenging questions. What I’m finding is that some of these challenging questions are only that way due to being badly written and with no explanation.

If I get genuinely hard question wrong, no problem, I’ll go back and learn from it. But it is frustrating to get a question wrong when it’s badly worded and there’s no explanation.

I have lost count of the times I’ve written provide an explanation in the comments. I’ve now taken to grading questions as fair or poor if there’s no explanation.

Back to being positive! 🙂

Good feedback is really important and to do it properly takes time. I’ve provided feedback and I hope it’s been helpful. I still have a couple outstanding, which I will try and get to. Though it is the weekend, where you’d think there would be more time, however as everyone is home it’s not the case.

Thank you for those lovely folk who have provided feedback on my work and my blog. With the blog it’s always nice to be appreciated and the fact that it’s been helpful is a real bonus.

The feedback on my ASS#1 has been great, but reminds me of an important point. Feedback is not necessarily proof reading. In the words of the immortal Public Enemy (quite frankly one of the best hip hop groups of all time) don’t believe the hype!

In getting the feedback which was really positive in terms of content and style, which I really appreciated, I almost sat back and thought “perfect I’m done” and went to submit it early. A little voice inside said, “are you sure?” So I went back and proof read it again, found spelling errors, grammatical errors and formatting that needed correcting.

If I’d put in “as was”, I would’ve only had myself to blame for not checking and would’ve thrown away easy marks. Rookie error and not good at all.

Which segues nicely to the next lesson. Attention to detail. In my career I should be super focused on the details. If you get times, temperatures and the analysis wrong, you will make bad beer. Quite clearly I wasn’t focused enough on the details and my draft was lacking. But that’s why we do a draft.

The other area of where I wasn’t focused enough on the details was at today’s parkrun. I had an aversion to the numbers 51 to 100 and decided to skip straight to #101. I only noticed when I handed over #151 to the 51st runner. A quick swap and we continued from 101. Not a train wreck, but a bit of a nuisance to sort out at the end.

In my defense I had just run a 56 minute 10 K (my 3rd fastest in three years, go me!) and hadn’t had breakfast, so my brain may have been a little low on sugar.

My faux pas was source of much amusement; that an experienced Race Director who’s doing a degree that involves numbers can just miss a whole set of finish tokens. I will never be allowed to forget this, which is a perfectly reasonable response by my fellow Race Directors, who are here in this pic sorting out my mess.

Park run RD's

Week 5 starts, well now, with Chapter 4. I’ve read it once and there is a lot covered. I can see many KCQ’s on the horizon. We have the additional challenge of restating our financial reports. This will take some patience and keen attention to detail. As it’s another new area for me I’m looking forward to it.

The last words:

positive feedback is great, but don’t forget to remain critical of your own work and take that last look before submitting
don’t forget the details. Attention to detail is an essential part of managing numbers and business (and parkrun) and a skill to master early on.

Happy Studies

The mind bloggles!

When I started this unit I was a bit put out about the need to write a blog and be so interactive as part of the process. After all I came here to learn accounting and where the numbers go, I didn’t come here to blog! A blog is what I do for fun, not as part of a university unit.

After a bit of reflection and some sage advice from my wife, “get on with it idiot and stop complaining, you know how this game is played!” I did what she suggested and got on with it. A very astute woman is Mrs Feasey.

Because of who I am, I can’t just do a token effort to meet the minimum standard, it’s all or nothing. I also can’t stop myself from sharing my experiences and trying to help.

So despite my initial thoughts of “what’s the point?”, I can completely see the point of the exercise and I seem to have gotten right into it.

Writing blogs is fun, it can definitely open up a new world for those unfamiliar with it and providing comments and support to others through blogs is immediately helpful and actually a really good idea. Well done Martin for coming up with that one.

This post is not about me though, it’s about others and who I consider to be the top 3 blogs I have come across on the unit so far. With over 300 participants on this unit there is not chance I’m going to see all of the blogs, though I am giving it a red hot go and following about 50. This alone makes it a tough decision.

Not being one to arbitrarily decide anything, there’s got to be at least some criteria and I’m going with

layout – how does it look and feel, can I find posts easily
content – what’s in there, is the course criteria being met
style – how is it written, does it engage me as a reader

There are some really strong contenders and I wrote about some of them in a previous blog post last week. A couple of additional mentions before I declare the one’s I enjoy the most so far.

Mel Sergiacomi, Naija Farcancy Gayle Black Maitland Bezzina Karen (sorry can’t find her surname) Dayanara Lopez and Kym Hof

I enjoy all these blogs for various reasons, including the fact that they just make me smile. Go check them out if you’ve the time and follow their links to others and share the love.

In the end there a can be only ~~one~~ three Highlander and in no particular order

Claudia Turiano

I came to Claudia’s blog via Shannon Pengelly . Shannon’s blog is well worth a look btw. Claudia’s blog is very well laid out, I like the style, the content and the level of self reflection. I appreciate a good meme and a good quote and Claudia has a good balance so far in the blog.

Lisa O’Neill

I reckon Lisa’s just warming up. She’s got a dry sense of humor and I’m getting a feeling that if she really let’s it rip it’ll be a doozy. I like her style, honesty and can relate to her challenges of study and managing life with teenagers. Her content is good and she’s on track with the requirements.

Sonia Elizabeth Lopez Gomez

I think Sonia is doing a cracking job. Again I like the style and layout of her blog and she’s put some great content on it. I like the way she laid out her company profile nice and clearly. What put Sonia in the top 3 was the time she took to go through the ASS#1 requirements and break it down nice and easy for everyone. This is great leadership and support behavior and sets a great example to others on what good looks like.

That’s the top three at this time.

What I’ve enjoyed is that we’re all, me included, coming to grips with a new concept of learning and communication. I’ve enjoyed reading my peers reflections on how they got here and what their goals are. We’ve all got access to the same base information in the study guide and everyone has a different company. What’s been interesting is the way that each student has gone about interpreting and presenting their information and this is great to read and review.

I’ve enjoyed reading the blogs, the KCQ’s and the company information. I’ve commented where I think I can add value and I have been appreciated by others. It would be fantastic to be able to acknowledge the great parts of all 55 blogs I follow, unfortunately breakfast and work is going to take priority. Maybe in a future post.

As I mentioned earlier at the start I really didn’t understand the point of an accounting blog, but I do understand it now. It’s a great medium to encourage communication, one of the key aims of the unit, collaboration and learning. It’s also fun and when we have fun we learn more. Kudos to Martin for this stroke of genius.

Kudos

Top of the Blogs!

How’s the weekend been folks? Did we spend it locked behind closed doors frantically typing numbers into a spreadsheet while watching a YouTube instructional video, wading through the glossy brochures that are our company reports or did we get outside and get some fresh air?

If you are like me the answer is all of the above. I’ve had a splendid weekend. 10k run on Friday night after work, 8k run on Saturday morning as the sun came up over Bargara, followed by volunteering at parkrun.

Then I followed the very comprehensive YouTube video and plugged all my figures into the spreadsheet. Took longer than I anticipated, though pretty confident that I’ve nailed it. Then I started to read the annual reports in some detail.

After all these years of getting annual reports as a shareholder in some of the world biggest brewers I finally set down to read a report. The mad thing is I’m not getting any dividends off GallifordTry, yet I’m putting the most effort in to understand it.

Sunday has been a complicated day. My middle two children were awarded age champion in their age group at surf lifesaving. Completely irrelevant I know, but I don’t care. They train bloody hard and it’s great that they were recognized for their achievements. Further study of both LAWS11030 and ACCT11059 ensued at the beach this afternoon. Fantastic spot, conducive to study? Maybe not.

While I was taking a break from trying to understand statutory interpretation of legal texts (still don’t understand it BTW) I checked my student email. In there I find an email alert from Accounting With Georgia. Georgia has read the ASSIGNMENT STAGE 1 (ASS#1): GETTING STARTED, a bit more closely than I, and has posted about her top three blogs.

Which then brings me to the point of this blog, what are my top three? I actually don’t know yet. Georgia is in contention as she’s ahead of the curve and said nice things about my blog. But who else and how to work it out?

I looked on WordPress and I’ve followed over 40 blogs. To be fair I’ve been and looked at each and every one of them this evening. There’s a definite mix throughout and some of our fellows are more active than others. I’m actually thinking that we may have a few casualties who have decided that accounting, at this moment, may not be for them as they’ve been very quite since their first post.

Monday 25/03/19 08:43. A quick addition on that above paragraph. As I was swimming this morning it did dawn on me that it’s only the start of week 3. I’ve cracked on and got a bit ahead of the curve. Not everyone is like me. I really do hope there are no casualties so far and the reason for the lack of blog activity is due to the pressures of life, the universe and everything and these folk are all on track with blog posts ready to be published. My apologies for any assumptions I have made that may be considered disrespectful. Definitely not my intent.

There are some very good initial descriptors on companies and I would recommend looking at Susie Luck, Chris Apps, Lisa O’Neill, Emily Bagnall and Georgia’s blog for some pointers.

Do these make the cut into the top 3? I’m going to give it a few more days before deciding. There’s a lot of good stuff in the Accounting Blogosphere and I’ve learnt new things about companies I’ve never heard of before, which is a real benefit.

It’s now late Sunday night, #2 swimmer child needs to be up at 4:45 for training in the morning and I’m in charge, so it’s bedtime.

Have a great week. Happy studies!

Maybe 10 minutes on PeerWise first though

Third one’s a charm

Thank you to those who took the time to read my first draft of ASS#1. I took the feedback on board and did some editing and some revision. I’m now up to version 3, which I’m calling as the final one.

If you’d like to see it before it’s submitted please follow the link. Feedback is always welcomed.

Paul Feasey ASS#1 Step 1 V3

falstaff

By the way, I quiet like Shakespeare, though I don’t consider myself a scholar of the bard. This quote is from The Merry Wives of Windsor

It’s Been One Week…..

Well almost! It’s almost been one week since the official start of my new very mature student learning experience. What’s it been like so far for everyone?

I suspect for some members of our course, especially those staying on campus and/or studying full time, the previous week has been hanging out, getting free stuff, meeting people, a few parties and wondering what’s going to happen when the course really gets going.

For me and my fellow distance learners with families, careers, and a host of conflicting demands I imagine it’s been business as usual with the added bonus of self reflection in “what the hell have I done?” and “what the hell am I going to do about it?”

What I’ve been doing is some serious planning about how I’m going to fit my two units (ACCT11059 and LAWS11030) around work and life in general. Success in these units seems to be, if not guaranteed, very likely if you can fit in 12.5 hours of study time per week for every unit. Where do you find the hours?

I’ve had to make a few sacrifices, I’ve cut my running schedule way down to maintenance program of 20 -25k per week and locked that time in. As for entertainment, that’s going to be a rare coin in future. No more Netflix binges for me.

My day now looks like this. It starts not with a run, but with hitting the books, PeerWise etc. Lunchtime is at my desk (I hate eating at my desk!) on Moodle, reading and thinking about KCQ’s. Evening is normal domestic stuff and then back to the books.

Lather, rinse and repeat. This routine I feel is essential, as without discipline and sacrifice nothing worthwhile is achieved. I also know what I did the last time. Hint, it wasn’t what I just described.

Tertiary study is hard. It’s hard if you’re straight out of school and it’s hard if you’re coming back into it again or for the first time from the workplace. Thing is, it’s supposed to be hard. If it was easy everyone would do it. But they don’t and we are.

We’re all here for many different reasons, but we all want the same outcome, we all want the degree qualification along with the learning and personal growth experiences that come with it

As the course progresses we will all have great moments of clarity and positive results. We will also experience some not so great moments. Those times when we can’t quite grasp the subject or an assignment doesn’t quite work out the way we want. At these times we’ll wonder why are we doing this? This is perfectly normal.

All being well (through planning, hard work etc.) the great moments will be far more plentiful than the not great moments and we will learn, overcome and succeed in our goals.

Unfortunately sometimes those not great moments can be a significant challenge, especially when taken into context of our busy lives.

We have over 300 students on our unit so one very important thing to remember is that wherever you are and whatever stage you are at on the course or in the unit you are definitely not alone.

So my advice is this; if you need support, whatever the circumstances, don’t be shy in reaching out. Chances are someone has the same question, the same worry and once that’s been shared you’ll be one step closer to sorting it out. As Martin makes it quite clear, the lone ranger approach is not cool.

The last words; communicate, interact, share and together we will be successful. Enjoy the studying everyone.

support and guidance

Keen as mustard

My family are all off in Hervey Bay at swimming training so it’s just me and the dog. Nice and quiet which allows me to get some stuff done. I’ve been busy apparently.

In 6 days, (as well as normal domestic stuff, been to work, interviewed for new canteen staff at the school, P&C preparation, BRC training course and been for a couple of runs), I’ve done the following:

Updated my Moodle profile
Created a blog – and wrote some stuff
Created a Gantt chart for this unit
Been on PeerWise
- Wrote some questions
- Ran out of questions to answer
Read the intro
Read chapter 1
Wrote a lot of notes.
Read everyone else’s blogs

And I’ve made a start on LAWS11030 as well.

I’ve also had a crack at ASS#1 Step 1. Because, why not?

Quite frankly I really have no idea if I’ve answered the question and intent correctly and this is likely not the finished version. However as it’s a personal reflection on the intro and chapter 1, I don’t believe there is a wrong answer to this one.

I would appreciate the views of the group. If I get the link correct you can read it here

Paul Feasey ASS#1 Step 1

Let me know what you think. As we’ve not officially started I’ve got a week to tear it up and do it again.