Professor P.J. Hoffman is a faculty member in the Accounting Department at Kelley.
What classes do you teach/have you taught at Kelley?
I teach intermediate and advanced financial courses to accounting and finance majors. In the undergraduate program, I teach Intermediate Accounting I (BUS-A 311) to accounting majors, Management Decisions and Financial Reporting (BUS-A 310) to finance majors, and Advanced Financial Accounting (BUS-A 422) to both. In the graduate programs, I teach Financial Reporting and Analysis (BUS-A 579) to MSF students and Advanced Financial Accounting in the online MSA program (BUKX-A 596) and in the in-residence 3/2 MBA and MSADA programs (BUS-A 562).
What do you enjoy most about interacting with Kelley students?
I really enjoy the enthusiasm and curiosity Kelley students bring to classroom discussions. I like to talk a lot about current events and “real-world” issues when covering topics in class, and I genuinely enjoy our discussions. I often gain a different perspective or learn something new, which makes teaching incredibly fun and exciting.
Why did you choose to major in accounting?
As an undergrad, I majored in accounting and philosophy because they both work logically in my mind. I’m the type of person that gets a warm and fuzzy feeling that all is right in the world when everything “fits” nicely… debits equaling credits, completing the assembly of IKEA furniture with no leftover pieces, etc. The more I learned about accounting, the more interested I became in how accounting rules are written to make the accounting treatment reflect the economic reality (and what kinds of interesting things happen when there’s a mismatch between financial reporting and the underlying economics).
Drawing on your experiences as a student and a faculty, what advice would you give to future Kelley Accounting students?
I would recommend learning about all the different interesting career paths made possible by majoring in accounting. When I was an undergraduate, I mistakenly thought my only career options were audit, tax, and managerial accounting. I had no idea how many different options there are, and it’s been really rewarding to see my former colleagues and students take on roles as hedge fund CFOs, Environmental, Social, and Governance auditors, merger and acquisition advisors, IRS agents, and all sorts of other exciting careers. One thing I really like about the Kelley accounting program is that we have a course designed to help students learn about all these cool opportunities (BUS-A 313).
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