It's been a long couple of weeks.
Week one -first three days - orientation and chaos. Took the oath. Some people never showed up. Heard a couple got in about midnight because of plane delays etc. Lectures on benefits, presentations on the deadly sins of looking at taxpayer info, losing your compture, joys of the union, of dealing with hostile taxpayers, back to the consequences of losing your computer. Getting photos for commissions, badges, picking up badges etc. Not well organized - people lining up for 2 or three hours at a time. Room with reps from HR about benefits, payroll etc - all the paperwork we had to fill out. Got credit cards, will get commissions when we get back to POD I think but had to have pics taken here. Meet and greet with VIPs first night and they gave us two free drink coupons.
Day four and five- IT hell -
more death threats associated with losing computers. If the building is on fire, the plane is crashing etc and you have to rescue your computer or your baby you are expected to rescue the computer. These people are nuts. assigned computers, set up, passwords (hope you have a good memory - lots of them and don't plan to write them down.) One teacher and a couple techs. Students kept haveing to go to the "war room" to get special help because their computers were so bad. Some tech teachers were good, others were really bad geeks who were horrible I guess. Lots of internet and web problems couldnt do a lot of the stuff we were supposed to because the internet was down.
Second week - got our regular teachers. One main instructor and two assistants. Some good, some bad. About 24 people in the class. Hope you like to read -- most of the class is self taught -- you sit at the computer and just read and take (ungraded for now) quizzes. Half the time there isn't enough time allotted for the whole course. Plus there are supplemnetal courses we are supposed to do.
Did mandatory briefings on stuff we had heard about in orientations - computer security, taxpayer info security, physical security (don't lose your computer, don't look at taxpayer info or discuss it and don't leave stuff on your desk), sexual harassment, whistle blowing stuff like that.
Learned to use a research program for tax law research and how to do citations. started learning how to do the actual audits -- acutally the stuff you do before you audit. Another thing added to the list of deadly sins - don't miss a statute of limitations deadline. The list of stuff that can get you disciplined, fired or tortured just keeps growing.
Its like law shcool - scare you to death, work you to death, - j ust waiting for t he bore you to death part. Learning how to use the audit software - you've never seen anything so antiquated. Some woman in my class keeps asking how to do this or that short cut, and there is never a way, Really old software and isn't going to be updated anytime soon.
Learning how to talk with tax payers and doing audit case scenarios. SOme good stuff depending on which teacher., One just reads from the piece of paper. The other two actually expand on the subject and add stuff from their experience.
Hotel is okay but not great. If you don't get your room cleaned every day you can get a $5 coupon you can use at the restaurant or starbucks. Class is 8-4:30 with 15 minute breaks morning and afternoon and lunch. Most people go to the mall across the street and get subway or some other kind of take out. Hard Rock and Hooters across the street and other places around. Found some good clubs. Make friends with someone who drives to training so you can go out without worrying about the transportation, Lots of people saving per diem and going to grocery store and stocking up on tuna and pb and j. Breakfast and snack in the afternoon provided. Gold's gym cut us a deal and there is a little workout room here. Lots of different kinds of people. Some about my parent's ages and some just out of school. About 6 CPAs in my class, 4 people with masters. 1 from big 4, a few from tax firms, a ffew from private industry, a few from auditing and a couple from other IRS jobs - get to know them.
Phase 2 is graded, homework and more intense from what the teachers said.
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