I'm finishing up my tax LLM and I feel like I know nothing. Once I'm done, and after a little break, I start in public accounting as a tax associate in international tax. What are the keys to being successful in my role and how do I set myself up for success?

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I finished my LLM last year and am working in M&A tax right now. I know exactly how you feel. I knew nothing coming out of LLM, but the key is to strive to learn. While I don’t know much about international tax still, I do know that the majority of what I do requires repetition and I’m sure it will be the same in international. Take every opportunity to work on a project that presents itself. The more reps you do, the quicker you will learn and the more successful you will be. But don’t put too much pressure on yourself. My experience has been that they don’t expect you to know much coming out of school, but they do expect you to be open minded, willing to learn, and put in the effort to learn, something I’m sure you understand coming out of law school and LLM.

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Thanks!

LLM and former EY/PWC ITS here. When I first started, Manager told me that, as an attorney starting at B4, i had an “inverted skill set” i.e. the opposite of a typical 1st year who comes in equipped w/ excel; modeling; and other raw quantitative skills then eventually learns legal tax research, writing, analysis, etc. His advice was to focus on quickly becoming competent on the former in order to start excelling at the latter

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Big 4, Big Law, Fed/St Gov. Network ABA Tax

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Learn how to use excel competently

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This is useful. Is this applicable across service lines, e.g. International tax, M&A etc

I’m graduating my LLM now and have been interning with Itl tax. I’m coming back full time after. It’s been pretty tough but a good team makes it bearable.

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There’s areas of knowledge I lack when it comes to the accounting side of things. I excel in tax research though and for the most part I feel very mentored and supported. Its not easy work but I’m doing more actual client work then I ever would be at a big law firm I believe.

The hardest part of being a JD LLM in PA is learning how to be proficient in excel and compliance, work hard to learn these in the earlier side because it’ll make your life easier once you reach Manager/ SM

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