It doesn’t work quite that way at H&R Block. Every H&R Block preparer must first of all complete the H&R Block Income Tax Course, an intensive 69 hour course full of tax law information and practical application using the proprietary Tax Preparation Software. Secondly, the newly hired preparer must take a course called Skills for Success. It is an additional 30 hours of instruction taught just before tax season begins, that is required of everyone H & R Block hires.

At H&R Block Tax School, you first learn to do taxes by hand – the old fashioned way then on the computer utilizing their famous software. That way you develop a sense of how things work and what kind of result to anticipate as you go along. At H & R Block, the preparer you sit down with has over 100 hours of training and experience, even if you are his or her first customer.

As we all learned from Ken Jennings on Jeopardy a few years ago, most preparers are hired by the tax season. Many come back year after year, so some of the locals have 20 to 30 years experience, but regardless, every preparer must still undergo successfully complete 24 hours of additional training to be rehired, and thirty hours if they wish certification. So you figure out how much schooling a 30-year veteran has!

Cheryl and her staff train and screen preparers, hire the best, and open and manage H&R Block’s 22 local offices and over 300 employees for tax season. Tax school starts in August.
In 1976 hairdresser Cheryl Wilcox and her husband sold everything and left Akron, Ohio for Florida. He went to work with the City of Ft. Myers. Cheryl, now allergic to hairdressing chemicals, took the H & R Block course and became a tax preparer. She then was soon promoted to manager in Tallahassee. In 1996 Cheryl became the District Manager in Fort Myers. She insists, “Everyone should take a tax course. Even if H&R Block prepares it, you still sign your return and swear it’s correct, so it’s best if you know what’s going on.”
“The great part of working as a preparer is it’s seasonal, and if you move, the possibility of jobs is very high.” Evidently, so are the possibilities of promotion if you work with Cheryl. Four of her assistants have become district managers.

Cheryl and her husband, both avid golfers, have 2 daughters, one son, 5 grandsons and 3 granddaughters.
 

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