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Cool Careers in Accounting Ep. 2 - The Fulfilled Family Office CFO with Brittani Dorociak
207 Plays4 months ago
Brittani Dorociak, is a CPA and CFO of a family office that handles a broad range of investments. She loves her job now and it took work to get there. Learn about what helped her the most on her career journey, how she finds work-life balance, and the surprising connection between work challenges and career fulfillment.
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Transcript
Introduction to Cool Careers in Accounting
00:00:09
Speaker
All right, Spencer Payne here with Becker and another episode of Cool Careers in Accounting today with Brittany Deroziak, CPA. And Brittany, would you mind sharing with us what it is that you do, title, and maybe how you describe what you do to to friends and family when they ask, what do you do for work, Brittany?
What Does a CFO at a Family Office Do?
00:00:27
Speaker
All right, yeah. I'm the CFO of a family office, ah which I tell people is more like an investment company that's privately owned by a family.
00:00:35
Speaker
and they're kind of in private equity and real estate, direct investments, um kind of like to to say it's like a real world, um I'm blanking on the show, shark tank. Okay. Very cool. Like people come with investment ideas and then the investment committee, the board and the family decide if they want to want to invest in them. So Okay. It's a really fun place to work. Awesome. And where, uh, is there anything that's energizing you about your job over say the next three or six or 12 months or any projects that you're working on or anything that you're looking forward to, to sink in your teeth into? Yeah. Um, gosh, it's a loaded question. I think this is such a fun job because it's really dynamic and there's always new challenges, uh, coming up every, every new investment tends to have different accounting needs and
00:01:29
Speaker
different team needs, you know, requires different expertise. um So, you know, there's no specific thing in the pipeline that I'm really excited about, but there's so many things in the pipeline kind of that it makes it exciting if that makes sense.
00:01:43
Speaker
Yeah, so it's ah it's a varied job that requires you to tap into maybe learning new things, curiosity, et cetera, on a regular basis, which means you don't necessarily have to look forward to anything in the next
Navigating New Challenges and Assessing Performance
00:01:55
Speaker
six to 12 months. Because you know, just by being in your seat, new twists and turns are going to come. They're going to kind of force you to learn and grow and follow curiosity to help understand ah like, how can we understand if this is a a good investment? How do we account for this? How does this impact cash kind of good stuff? So you're kind of, um everything iss everything's new and interesting in the first place. And I guess in that world, how do you how do you look back and say like,
00:02:19
Speaker
How do you know you're doing your job well in that environment? There's all there's all these new things coming, it's varied, it's dynamic, it's quick, it's fast paced. Yeah, how how do you step back and say like, yeah, I'm rocking, me and my team are are rocking here in this job. how do you How do you get a sense of that? Oh, just being able to keep up, um you know not letting anything fall off the radar is a really important important part of my job. So just making sure, you know, we're all organized on task. Everybody has the tools they need to get the job done well. um So I guess I know I'm doing a good job just by making sure, you know, we're we're getting it all done. um And the investment team and the family is getting the information that they need from us to make good investment decisions.
Brittany's Career Transition from CPA to CFO
00:03:05
Speaker
Yep, awesome. And I'd love to step back now for a second of the path maybe to get here, um because CPA to kind of CFO of a family office that's heavy heavy into into ah kind of in this investment world, um that's not exactly a common path. um So how how like can you help us understand maybe the the career path that you have navigated that has helped you earn the skills and and get to this role that you're in now that isn't necessarily something that cpas at the beginning of their career think of as where they can go. So how how have you navigated here? Yeah, I certainly didn't think of this as a position that I would be in or even a type of role I would be when I would didn't even know what a family office was in the beginning of my career. So um I started in public accounting and. I thought I was going to be partner in a public accounting firm like that's what I set out to do and just, you know,
00:04:02
Speaker
didnt kind of learned what worked for me, what didn't work for me, what was important in my life, um you know what I really wanted to prioritize and and have just kind of made career decisions from that point forward.
Finding a Dynamic Role and Internal Transition
00:04:15
Speaker
So i went I went from public accounting into industry in oil and gas and spent some time there. I did some financial reporting there. um you know My first job actually out of public accounting was pretty boring.
00:04:30
Speaker
and and i pretty much immediately regretted leaving public accounting. I i really do thrive in a fast-paced environment where I'm being really challenged and and it was a very routine job, kind of typical what you think of a accounting job. just yeah You're doing the same thing every month. you know You're not really learning anything new from month to month. um you know No curve falls coming at you. and Some people really like that kind of career, not really something that I was interested in. so
00:05:01
Speaker
I kind of moved into the operation side of accounting there as a financial analyst, which was in the business unit, as they call it with engineers, you know, working on on helping them with their accounting yeah and budgeting and analysis. And I liked that a lot more.
00:05:19
Speaker
and I would say, well, how do you go from like our public accounting, it's time to leave, you take this first job out of public accounting, which many, many people, it's a big deal, right? Like, this is that, that's like that first time leaving that big job, you got out of college. And it sounds like your first reaction was, this isn't quite what I hoped it would be necessarily. This is a little You know, maybe, maybe boring, like it's too, it's too much of the same thing over again. Um, so how do you, how do you, where where do you go from there? How do you bounce back from that? Do you decide? Like, do you go internally? It sounds like maybe you're going internally to a different role where there's a little bit more, um, I can't use the word dynamic earlier. The role is a little more dynamic. There's more challenge. There's more new things being thrown at you. So I guess, it could you put us in that moment maybe for a quick second of, oh, this isn't quite what I thought it was going to be. I know I want more of this, this, and this. How did you go about getting more of that dynamic, fast-paced, deadline-driven learning that maybe you didn't quite feel like you were getting when you first made your move? How did you make that transition? Yeah, it was internal. So that was a big part of it. i
00:06:28
Speaker
but yeah accounting team as a whole was altogether, even though some worked in the business units, some worked in the corporate accounting side, some in financial reporting. So I interacted with everyone and I just felt like I would enjoy the financial analyst job at this company more than the job I was in. So, I mean, I just kind of let people know that that's what I was interested in. And then when a position opened up, which they this company was really big on internal movement. So,
00:06:56
Speaker
When a position opened up, I i moved into it. It was a really hard transition as people knew and their careers will learn. When you transition internally from one position to another, you end up doing both jobs for a good bit of time. um Totally normal, something to expect, but ah transitioned into that and I just really liked it. I was gonna say earlier, working with engineers is fun because I think engineers love to teach and I love to learn. So it was fun.
00:07:26
Speaker
working with them, I could just, you know, kind of connect the accounting to the operations really well, just by working, working closely with them, I'd go into their office, they would, you know, draw a picture of a well on their board and taught me through the different the different pieces of it. So it was a fun job. Yeah. And and just speaking of like, you want to if you want to go get, you know,
00:07:48
Speaker
have people believe in you at ah at a job, like be interested in what they're interested in. And that'll honestly take you a pretty long way. Like, cause these guys are obviously very excited to describe the inner workings, maybe where you're like, you might be like, I don't really need to know all that detail. I need to know this little piece for how it affects my job. But when you show interest in what people do, it honestly typically builds the relationship and helps you do your job better and them do your job better. Even if maybe they go to a level of detail that you don't necessarily need to go to show that interest and it helps a lot. Yeah, for sure.
00:08:18
Speaker
um Awesome. and then And then at high level from there to being a CFO of this family office that you kind of likened it to almost like a shark tank, maybe on on steroids. what What skills did you need to develop to be able to do that? And and maybe how many years from that first job to ah to now has that taken you? And what where are some of the critical skills that you've needed to develop to be successful in the job that you're in now?
Essential Skills for a CFO
00:08:44
Speaker
Right. So I i went from the kind of that corporate in nature job to financial analysts back to another corporate in nature job. But instead of financial reporting, it was corporate accounting. And I liked that a lot too. It was kind of like the kitchen sink team of the company. Everything kind of came to us to handle if you know other teams weren't equipped to handle or didn't want to handle it. um So really dynamic, as you said. um And I really just got recruited into this role. i
00:09:18
Speaker
would have never really set out to get it. A recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn. I wasn't exactly happy in the job where I was at. ah I didn't see a lot of movement um going forward. And i um I joke about this around here, but I took the interview as practice because I didn't think it sounded like a cool job. So I went into the interview, like really just brushing up my resume, brushing up my interview skills and I was probably in their interview 10 or 15 minutes and I decided, oh, I actually really want this job. Like I'm going to turn it on now. Um, so that, you know, it surprised me how interested I was in it. And, and my first job here was, um, in a more corporate accounting kind of role. So really felt very similar operationally to what I was doing at the oil and gas company. And, um,
00:10:14
Speaker
We kind of have our accounting team is kind of divided. I like to call it like a finance side of the team and an accounting side of the team. And I moved over to the finance side of the team because because people here in leadership wanted me to understand both sides of the business so that I could kind of progress in my career here. So I was excited about that, but also nervous because I don't have a finance background yeah and I don't really know anything about investment accounting. So it was a lot of new stuff to learn.
00:10:44
Speaker
yeah um I had a lot of really good mentors here that i that I worked with that helped me kind of, you know, learn just on the surface level what we were looking at, you know, different return metrics and what would be important to making good investment decisions.
00:11:01
Speaker
um Resources I used for that would have been, I listen to a lot of podcasts. It's not like the best um resource, but there's not a lot out there really for like I took finance classes in college, so it wasn't completely foreign to me, but know I needed to brush up on it, make sure I understood it and it at a deeper level. um So I just started listening to podcasts just to kind of hear the lingo, you know make sure I understood what was going on and and understand what was going on in the finance world every day.
Balancing Work and Family Life
00:11:35
Speaker
Like what was the news that was important for that day? So that's kind of how I how i started out.
00:11:41
Speaker
Yeah, awesome. and And you mentioned a little bit earlier, kind of alluded to, hey, really enjoy your job right now. and maybe at the corporate accounting role prior, there were some times where it was fun, not fun, didn't see a path necessarily, which which caused you to kind of pay attention to LinkedIn recruiters when they reached out, even for a job that you weren't sure of. I guess with all of that as context, could you help us understand like, do you generally enjoy your work, kind of have work-life balance, wake up and think like, I think this is going to be a fun week? um And how has maybe some of that trended over time, your excitement about work and kind of being able to balance
00:12:16
Speaker
uh, you know, being great at your job while also accomplishing whatever you'd like to do with family and personal and all that kind of stuff. So can you kind of help us understand? Yeah. Do you like your job? Do you have a good balance? And how is that traded over the, the maybe that's say 10 years in your career? I love my job. I tell people here all the time, this is my favorite job I've ever had. Um, I think it's just really fun. I work with really intelligent people that are constantly challenging me and helping me learn and challenging the whole team.
00:12:45
Speaker
helping them learn and grow. And, ah you know, I just love the dynamic environment. I love that it's difficult. um But I also do have, I think I have really good balance. I have a married, I have three kids. um I find it really important to have dinner with them every night, you know, and as long as it's possible. I mean, sometimes there's deadlines you can't avoid.
00:13:12
Speaker
but otherwise I've made it pretty well known that I'm going to leave here in time to have dinner. I'm going to cook dinner with my family, eat dinner with them, you know, get them in bed. And then basically I'll just hop back on if there's more to be done for the day. Um, that's just kind of, I call them, you know, that's my boundaries. Um, and, and I've made, I've made it work and people have, you know, respected it and sort of worked really well for me.
00:13:39
Speaker
Yep, awesome. And ah just one more quick question, just because I know I had this experience in my career where early on, right? Saying yes to as many things as possible. I was staring at Excel for 12 to 14 hour days for a long stretch of multiple weeks in a row.
00:13:55
Speaker
um And in the in the middle of it, you're like, I literally go to sleep, I wake up, I eat, maybe I go to the gym, and I stare at Excel, and then I go to sleep and I do it again. This is not very fun, right? But now I look back and I'm like, that was only like two months. And gosh, those skills have really set me up. I have a lot more balance because I put myself through some situations that were hard to ideally set myself up for things that allowed for a greater balance later.
00:14:20
Speaker
um So again, just curious, do you have anything similar? Is there any times earlier in your career where you're like, man, I don't feel like I'm, I love my job. I don't feel like I'm having great balance. um But maybe those things have helped set you up for you being able to light up now and say you you love your job. So I guess I don't want to give ah an impression for folks like, ah, it's always awesome. Like sometimes you have to go through some tough times to get to that awesome. Do you have anything like that that that is applicable? Absolutely.
Learning from Tough Work Periods
00:14:45
Speaker
Yep. Yes.
00:14:46
Speaker
um I mean, I worked a lot of hours in public accounting. Everyone does. yeah I was on a really big merger of airlines and, you know, auditing a merger is a really a lot of work. yeah um And so we worked just so many hours. We worked, you know, up until morning hours and we worked weekends and just I mean, I definitely didn't go to the gym. I didn't really have it have time for anything, um but work and sleep. So I did that you know for a while and just couldn't do it anymore. um you know But I did learn that I didn't want to go hit the brakes completely, which is what I ended up doing. you know yeah ah So I ah kind of had to navigate like what what's the level of work that makes me happy, like makes me motivated, we driven.
00:15:40
Speaker
Um, but also gives me that that time. And, and I will say in accounting, like you're, you're never, or really probably in any career, you're never going to have a lot of balance, like on consistently. Um, there's, you know, I worked a lot in the beginning and then I worked really not much at all. And then I kind of had times where I worked a lot during close, you know, where every month it was really busy and we knew.
00:16:07
Speaker
when I was in that corporate accounting job, like on work day four, every month we were gonna work till 1 a.m. So we we knew that ahead of time, we planned for it, we had fun doing it. ah you know it was It was hard and exhausting for sure, but but you know it paid off. I think that, especially in public accounting, I only worked in public accounting for two years, but I feel like I learned like five years worth of work in that two years. yeah yeah um And then in in my future,
00:16:38
Speaker
positions I just, you know, every time you work hard, you you learn a lot and it it sets you up for a future of ah good opportunities. um So, you know, I feel like people told me this all the time, but like, you you have more time when you're younger than you do when you have a family. um It doesn't feel like it until it's kind of in hindsight, but you have a lot more time on your hands. So it's the best time to kind of dive in and really, really work hard.
00:17:07
Speaker
a hundred percent 100%. Do you have any moments as you look back on your career that are are kind of proudest accomplishments, ah or maybe you and your team, you and or your team did something that was awesome or anything that you you still look back on and it makes you smile or it makes you light up because you're like,
00:17:24
Speaker
can't believe we did that or that was a really fun experience with that team um so yeah does anything stand out to you as yo career of just proudest moments with your team. Anythi you light up because because it was just that much fun or that much um you know, a challenge that you were able to overcome anything strike you but that
00:17:48
Speaker
I'm going to go more on the fun side. I've worked with a team at my previous job in the oil and gas company. The team that I worked with was just amazing. I feel like I learned so much from that team. They worked together so well. No one was trying to beat the other person out or outshine someone. Everybody just wanted everybody to do well and they supported each other.
00:18:16
Speaker
I just learned so much from that. like I learned that you you can work that way and it can work really well. um You don't have to compete. you know you can You can kind of all do well. And then you know not everybody really wants to keep growing in their careers. Some people just want to do a really good job in what they're doing. And some people want to grow. So you don't you just don't have to compete with everybody. And I learned that at that job and have carried that with me. um And that was a really good experience.
00:18:45
Speaker
And I'm still really good friends with all of those people. I love them dearly. They're just good people. Yeah, that's awesome. And out of curiosity, how do you recall how that culture was set?
Building a Supportive Team Environment
00:18:57
Speaker
um Like, was that one person from above? um Or are they just really good at hiring more team players? Like, what like like what what might you be able to share? Or what did you learn of? like isn A lot of people would say they'd like to be involved in a place like that, but it can be hard to find. how do you How did you see that being fostered or how did you see that being graded? It was certainly that person at the top. um we We all just had a really good manager and I i learned so many management skills from her. ah She's just a great leader. She cares about the people that she works with and she wants them to care about each other. She celebrates things, make sure you celebrate things. and
00:19:38
Speaker
And she's careful in who she hires. And I learned that too. I'm very careful in who I hire. like I want them to be people that get along with people and that aren't going to be competing you know necessarily for that next role in stepping on toes. you know I want to hire people that like to work together. And she did that. yeah And I learned that from her, just like the interview skill of how you how you find people that will thrive in that culture.
00:20:08
Speaker
yeah is there is there any ah but Just because you mentioned interviewing and hiring people, or is there any question that you've learned from her that you are like, I always ask this now, or I always try to ask it in this way? Or is is is there any one tactical specific thing that you have specifically taken from her, more made maybe on the interview front to pick one arena that you're like, oh, I like how you asked that question. I'm going to steal that. I'm going to do that every time. Does anything stand out?
00:20:34
Speaker
but so um like a typical interview question, but she, and I don't know that it really pointed to their teamwork ability, but she always asked for like a few examples of weakness, not one, yeah like what are a few things that you need to work on? Um, you know, three to five. And, and just really believed that if you couldn't list those, then you really weren't very self-aware and you would be hard to teach and hard to develop. And I believe that to be true.
00:21:05
Speaker
I think self-awareness goes a long way. And I think maybe you know maybe they go hand in hand. If you're self-aware, then you also work well with others. hundred percent And just to pick on accounting, asset, liability, lingo, right? Like anything you're good at comes with, therefore, being an asset. It comes with its corresponding liability, right? To the person who's, you know, I am super detail oriented and I pick up all the little spelling and nuanced mistakes, like, great, like that that that's an asset, right? That also might be a liability because sometimes you might take
00:21:41
Speaker
50% too long to turn something in that's ready, or you might miss the big picture story of what's going on, and vice versa, right? If your asset is like, I understand the direction of where this is going, and I understand material like materiality thresholds, and i just I just make sure we get this thing done as quickly as possible. um ah You might be missing out on a couple critical details that might actually be more important than you think they are. So every every asset comes with its corresponding liability, not just on a balance sheet, but with people's skill sets also.
00:22:10
Speaker
And knowing those can also help a lot with teamwork because like you may be really good at big picture and this person on your team may be really good at details and together you are like a power horse. yes And so it's a it's an important thing to know and to be willing to share.
00:22:28
Speaker
even in an interview. Yeah, exactly. Awesome. um And as you look back on your career, any, any, uh, any big fork in the road moments or any moments where you're kind of like, Oh, not really sure this is where I want to be.
Unexpected Opportunities and Career Growth
00:22:42
Speaker
Um, or any moments where maybe they didn't feel like a fork in the road at the time, but you look back and you're like, Oh, I could have gone down path X or path Y I didn't realize how important choosing You know, for example, moving from your at that oil and gas company, moving to that more finance FP and a related role. We didn't realize how important that was at the time, but like that set off a whole new direction. So I guess are there any times in your career you look back of like, that was a pretty big fork in the road moment. And I'm really glad I went left instead of right. And maybe she didn't even realize it at the time. Does anything stand out for you? Yeah. So actually, a few years ago at this at this company, we had a new CEO start and he kind of
00:23:22
Speaker
set aside time to have lunch with a few people, just get to know them that worked here. And he asked me at that lunch if I ever wanted to be CFO. And I'd really never even thought about it, but I said, yep, I think that'd be pretty cool. You know, maybe down the road, like 10, 15 years. That's just where my mindset was.
00:23:44
Speaker
at the time and he kind of took it and ran with it. And I really had no idea that that was coming. Yeah. Um, so I think he was looking for someone that was ready to fill that role. And I would say at the time, based on my answer, I definitely didn't feel ready to fill that role. But, um, as, as things progressed here and I could tell that it was moving here, I, I felt like they were going to help me help me be ready. yeah Um, you know, sometimes you can just,
00:24:13
Speaker
rely on what people believe you can do um and and and force yourself to believe in it too. Yeah, um especially if, like you said, there's a support system there. There's other people you can learn from. You're obviously showcasing that you're willing to put in the work and you're listening to podcasts on your own to go learn the lingo that you need to go learn. So I'm sure there's a little bit of You know, Brittany isn't just defining her role as I do X and only X. You're obviously putting in that effort that then makes people say, I'd like to get, I might like to give you more because I can tell when, when you're, when you're expected to learn, you're going to do it. Right. And you're going to apply it and you're going to keep growing and getting better. Yeah. And that's another thing you brought back to one of your first questions, but.
00:24:57
Speaker
how you know you're doing well at something is by being given more. The number one way you know is if you're getting more thrown at you, it's because you're doing a really good job. That's 100% correct, yes.
00:25:11
Speaker
Um, on the other end of the spectrum, any, any tougher times you look back on your career, um, you know, maybe you made a mistake and there was that like butterfly moment of like, Oh my gosh, what did I just do?
Learning from Mistakes and Networking Importance
00:25:21
Speaker
Am I going to get fired? Um, uh, maybe it's just being in a funk for six months and not knowing how to, how to kind of come out of it. But, but yeah, any, any, any tougher times in your career you look back on. Um, and how did you, how did you get out of that tough time? Like what, what got you to the other side?
00:25:37
Speaker
ah to allow you to continue to progress and and take on these ever increasing and more fun roles that you've you've taken on since then. Yeah, so two things actually pop into mind. One is there's been many times that I thought I could get fired um because well, one, I'm just pretty hard on myself in general. So whenever you know the team makes a mistake or I made a mistake and we have an error and we have to go fix it, you know I think, oh, this could be it.
00:26:05
Speaker
like get and good getting in a lot of trouble for this one, but I've always just believed a lot in owning up to your mistakes and telling people how you've learned from them and how you're going to make sure it doesn't happen again. So that kind of popped into my head. Like there's always going to be moments like that in your career. um And then I did, I did go into consulting one time just for a couple of years. Um,
00:26:33
Speaker
And i I think that was something that I didn't really understand what I was getting into. um And I thought, gosh, I don't know what I'm going to do with this. you know I feel like I made a bad decision with with where where I came to work. And that was just for a little bit of time that I felt that it ended up being a great place to work. I made really good contacts there and ended up actually being hired as a consultant at the oil and gas company that I had left.
00:27:03
Speaker
and then went back to work there full time in a very different position with a very different team that the team I talked about earlier. um But yeah, I think you have to recognize those moments where you're not really on the path you want to be on. And it's hard. It's hard to decide where to go next. One of the best things you can do is stay in contact with people that you've worked with throughout your career that love their jobs.
00:27:30
Speaker
um it may be something you would never want to do but they really like their job and Just stay in contact with those people and keep talking to them and you kind of learn, you know how they got to a position that they really like and how they got on that career path and a lot of times they'll even have contacts that can help you and something that sounds more interesting to you and And it's just you know, my parents always said growing up network network network and um So true, like they kind of hammered it into us, but it's also fun just to keep up with people that you've worked with in the past, yeah but you can learn a lot from them and and, you know, get a lot of opportunities from that as well. A hundred percent. and And on the network front, I'm going to come back to you mentioned in in your current role, right? You were you were ah somebody reached out to you or who reached out to you. um It's very easy for people to just ignore all of those.
00:28:30
Speaker
Maybe, could you help, could you help me talk through that particular example of why did you pay? I'm guessing you've had plenty of recruiters reach out about their thing. Right? You probably ignored many of them. Maybe you've had conversations that led nowhere, e etc.
00:28:44
Speaker
um But just because you mentioned network, network, network, you never know where these lead, could you help? What, what stood out about that one? Did you already have a relationship with that recruiter recruiter? Did you already know someone who kind of worked in more private equity family office? And that was interesting. I guess what, what made you, what made you learn more or go deeper on that one inquiry that came into you? So that would, that would be an example of networking. Um, this was actually my recruiter from Ernst & Young.
00:29:13
Speaker
She was a campus recruiter there and um we had just stayed in contact. She actually recruited me into the consulting firm that I went to work for for a couple of years and then reached out. She and I both left that firm not not at the same time, but at different times. And she reached out with this. I think she actually messaged me twice.
00:29:34
Speaker
And the second time I felt really bad because I knew her and, you know, I didn't want to not respond. and And the first time I didn't respond because I didn't really think a family office job sounded fun. So the second time I responded, you know, just to kind of be nice and tell her, you know, I'm not interested, but she, she kind of thought like, I think you would really like this job. You know, she knew me, we knew each other well, and she was right. Yeah. So, you know, I took the interview. Yep. Awesome. So I just want to highlight that one more time. So this is someone you knew at EY at the beginning of your career, stayed in connection with and someone who you knew well, right? Trusted. i I mean, I'm assuming that doesn't mean you're best friends and you're going out every single weekend, but like someone you generally stay in contact with and you like each other.
00:30:23
Speaker
And that's how this opportunity surfaced. Someone you hadn't hadn't worked with directly in a long time, but it would help you kind of find some other roles in your career. um I just don't want to highlight, I just want to re-highlight that because I think it's something many people overlook of, you know, you have no idea how five, 10, 15 years down the line someone who you interact with and have a great relationship with might.
00:30:47
Speaker
force their way into your inbox with two invitations that are ignored to get you a job that you end up saying, I love this job. I just never know where that kind of stuff can lead. And that's just an amazing example of of how, again, network, network, network, keeping up relationships with people can lead to really great experiences for people. um One thing I also learned and in and networking, but whenever I did answer that yeah but message on LinkedIn,
00:31:17
Speaker
my boss at the time um and I were really close and I told her about it. I said, Hey, you know, I got this job in my inbox. I think I'm going to take this interview. I don't necessarily want this one, but I might, I might want one in the future. um And I think it's so important to kind of be honest with the people you're working with because
00:31:43
Speaker
Well, one, she helped me vet the job. you know She kind of asked friends and stuff about it, um what they knew about the family or the office and just helped make sure that it would be ah be a good place to work. yeah um And then two, had I done that the first time I left this company, I don't think I would have left because I didn't know what opportunities there were. And I convinced myself there weren't any really without asking.
00:32:13
Speaker
Um, and so I actually tell everyone that works on my team here, you know, if you're unhappy with something, come talk to me. Like don't, you know, don't just put out your resume and find a new job. You know, you may end up there and that's okay, but like, let's talk it out first and make sure that we can't shift something around here to get you what you're looking for.
00:32:37
Speaker
Yeah. That's a hard thing for people to like, has anyone taken you up on that either here or prior? Yeah. And and three people actually at the top and and and what what has that resulted in? Has that resulted in, for example, they want to build skill X and they weren't sure they were going to be able to get it. And so, Hey, it still took, um'm I'm going to make up a scenario like, Hey, still need you to do your current job, right? For six more months. Cause that's what we hired you to do. But now that I know that you want to do more of X, like, yes, we'll start to get you in on that side of the house a little bit more in six months.
00:33:07
Speaker
Again, I'm making up that scenario, but what what what what maybe has that resulted in when people have taken you up on that?
Managing Stress and Workload Effectively
00:33:13
Speaker
um So one person came in to tell me she was quitting because she was just really overwhelmed and stressed. Yeah. And and I said, you know, well, first of all, why don't you take a couple of days off, you know, think through it and come back and tell me, like, what's overwhelming, what's stressful? Yeah. um Like, let's talk through what it is and figure out, you know, how we can tackle it.
00:33:38
Speaker
so So she did, she took a few days off, came back, we talked through it. you know she ah We came up with a plan. you know I told her, you're going to stop working at this time every day you know for a little while. And if something doesn't get done, like and can maybe it's late. you know Maybe someone else picks it up, but like we'll figure it out.
00:34:01
Speaker
and her manager ended up taking on a little bit of work and kind of helping her just prioritize. It really wasn't an issue of too much work as much as it was prioritizing and understanding like where to spend your time and how much time to spend on this task. And she said, um she said another year she ended up moving to Taiwan. Totally random, but she but she stayed and she was happy she did. And she actually sold us um contract work for us off and on. So awesome we still have a really good relationship.
00:34:35
Speaker
Awesome. Um, so that goes to show you've done it now in both regards, have some people do that to you. And even you take that up the chain and, and multiple instances, it can work out really well. Assuming you've got kind of that culture of teamwork and trust and, you know, you got to recognize the environment you're in some, some places that might not be true. But if you're finding, you're finding good people with those types of a culture, um, yeah, know I'm sure it worked out better for everybody for her, for her to have that door that you allowed her to open her to walk through it.
00:35:05
Speaker
then you both realize, actually, it's not necessarily an overwhelm. It's maybe a priority. Let's help you with priorities. And then she sticks around for another year. um And then she realizes that she can trust people, go say, i have I have a problem. I'm not sure how to solve it. I need help. People offer help. It's an amazing experience. like yeah We should all be so lucky to be able to do that. Yeah, and I think if you're if you're managing a team and that's what you want, you just have to be explicit about it.
00:35:33
Speaker
You can't expect people to just blindly trust you. yeah um you know But if you let them know, then and they they're more likely to take that risk. And turnover is terrible. I mean, it's hard to train people. It's hard to lose people. So the more you can do that, the better off you'll be.
00:35:48
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome to transition to from, well I mean, that was, that's also awesome. ah But to transition to like, Hey, weird, wild, funnest, craziest stories in business. This is just always a fun question I ask folks of does anything stand out to you as you look back in your career that makes you kind of go.
00:36:08
Speaker
I still can't believe that happened. um And that could be, again, crazy, weird, funny, um fraudulent, i meal whatever, right? Like, does that anything stand out that you're allowed to share? Maybe even if there's no names involved, right? Does anything stand out as you look back on your career that kind of makes you go, I still tell people about this, or I still laugh about this, or I still can't believe that thing actually happened? Does anything stand out to you? What what really comes to mind is really just the more difficult things that I went through, um our teams went through. I mean, one was the merger that we worked on when we were in audit. I mean, just how we got through that, I can't even really fathom. It was just so much work and it was all new to everybody or everybody that I worked with on the team, like they had never audited a merger before. And then, and then in my kind of corporate accounting life, private accounting life, it's been accounting software transition. oh gosh
00:37:06
Speaker
i I've now been through two and um there are a lot ah lot of work and they're pretty grueling. And so, yeah, I would say that kind of comes to mind. I don't i don't have any fun fraudulent stories for you, unfortunately, but.
00:37:22
Speaker
um Well, maybe there's a separate one. We take years and other people's on the accounting system, yeah ERP, whatever they are, trend like transitions of, all right, what are the war stories? What are the things that you wish you would have known? What but from you know system X to system Y, because that feels like one that if you've never faced that before,
00:37:41
Speaker
Man, is that potentially really scary? And why not learn from people who've already done it? Because yeah, it's not the most fun thing in the world. So yes, I can hear why that would be wild. um Couple more kind of rapid kind of quick hitter questions as we just keep rolling along here. um When did you knock out your CPA?
00:38:00
Speaker
um you know Did you do it when you were in school, when you were full time working, some hybrid of the two? And then what would you recommend for folks today who are going through that CPA experience? So how how did you tackle yours? and And maybe based on lessons learned or how you saw other people tackle theirs, what would you recommend?
Advice on CPA Exam and Work-Life Balance
00:38:18
Speaker
Like what is the ideal approach to knocking out that CPA exam? Yeah, I feel pretty strongly about this recommendation. I took um took it during college and I just really don't know how anybody does it any other way. I mean, um some people don't have a choice. Like I was very fortunate, you know, I was in a five-year program and I I went to UT, I was in the MPA program and I had a really good counselor that really helped me figure out how to work my way towards my last semester of my fifth year being pretty light. um and So I
00:38:56
Speaker
I took a light load that semester and I studied for the CPA exam and I treated it like a nine to five job. I just went to the library at nine o'clock. I went to my classes in between and then I left the library at five o'clock and just studied every day and just hammered through them. And I, you know, in my professional career, I've worked with so many people who are working and studying and oh, it's just so hard. I really don't know how they do it.
00:39:25
Speaker
So I would highly recommend doing it before you start work if you can if you can plan on that. Yep. Awesome. I have heard that universally. um Once you start working, it's tough. So if you can just take advantage of that time, even if you don't want to in college and you think that summer is going to be really fun or that last semester can be really fun, ah that fun quickly dissipates once you're working and studying for that exam. And most people wish they would have just knocked it out when they had the chance.
00:39:51
Speaker
Yeah, but I would also add that that was the funnest semester of my college career. So you can do both. You had both. You knocked out this hard hard exam and you also had the most fun of your entire college career. that's like I've never heard that be said before. How could that possibly be true? Well, I think it's just because I did it nine to five. So at five o'clock I was free every day and and I still did whatever I wanted. like it was yeah It was just a lot of fun. OK, I think you have the best answer to this question that I've ever heard that like I not only knocked it out, but I also had the best time of my life while I did it. Yeah.
00:40:24
Speaker
ah And maybe this is that's going to be your answer to this question, too. But if you had ah the number one piece of advice, say, for folks who were maybe in their last year oh of school to to get their accounting degree, or maybe in their first year of the working world, um as you kind of look back on your career, and I'm sure you have have some of those, like, oh, if only I knew this then, I would have done that differently, right? We all have those moments.
00:40:48
Speaker
um If you had that number one piece of advice that you look back on now and give to yourself, say in that last year of college, that first year of the working world ah that might be applicable to all those hundreds of tens of thousands of people who are in that same experience today, what what advice would you give? wow Well, you know, I don't think I thought through very much in the beginning. I think I was in the MPA program at UT and I just you know You go through recruitment with big four, and then you pick big four, and then you go big four. And um it turned out to be a really good experience and a good path for me. but But I don't know that I gave a lot of thought to the path forward from there. So just thinking through it a little bit more, you know five, 10 years down the road, kind of what do you want to do? And then to just be really curious in every job you have. i think
00:41:41
Speaker
If I go back to that job I had right out of public where I thought it was really boring, I i think some of that I brought on myself because I don't think I was curious enough about the numbers I was looking at. They were just numbers on a page to me instead of something more. And so I think i think you can kind of make the most out of any role you're in if you just ask questions.
00:42:04
Speaker
100%. Agreed. You can go make any job or any story interesting as you're beating it up from every angle. Like, why is revenue this? Are we hitting our targets? What was our revenue projection for the year? Did we hit it? um Where's our growth going to come from over the next three years? And I'm only picking on the revenue line of a P and&L that you're looking at, right? You could beat up all the other line items too, if you really wanted to. um And knowing what you know now, like, would you still go down the accounting CPA path again? Yes.
00:42:35
Speaker
yeah There was a time when I would have said no. But today I would say yes. um Awesome. And it's but especially with the the exclamation point that you just stated that you love your job, right? Like that helps tremendously. And again, sometimes I just want to highlight this for for folks mid-career, early, wherever it may be. sometimes some you know Sometimes this is a wavy, crazy line that it takes of, are you liking your job? Are you getting skills? Are you enjoying it?
00:43:03
Speaker
Sometimes you got to put through some a year six months two months, whatever it is of something that's just hard it's grinding and not what you want to be doing. um But sometimes that does really help you set up, especially if you're proactive you mentioned being more thoughtful about being like where do I want to take this question we transfer that to I don't want.
00:43:23
Speaker
I'm glad I did that. I know I could survive that. I don't want to do that again. Here's some of the things I do want more of next. And oftentimes there's this, you know, doesn't always have to be the darkest before the dawn, but oftentimes there's these hard experiences that help pave the way for kind of things that you really want to do. um And if you don't go through the hard, you're not necessarily going to come out to the other side with the opportunity to do the other cool stuff that you really love.
00:43:50
Speaker
um And that definitely I've seen it. You've seen it like that's definitely a real thing. um yeah there's There's really, really nothing in life. That's just a linear progression up. No, ah not your career, not your family life. You know, not college. Nothing is nothing. It's really that way. It's all pretty bumpy.
00:44:09
Speaker
ah hundred percent A couple more real quick
Leveraging AI Tools in Accounting
00:44:11
Speaker
ones. How, if at all, are you using AI your in your world today? That's something everyone's talking about, right? Like how are we using this? What's this going to mean for the future of accounting? I'm curious, how how, if at all, are are are you using that in a practical sense and in your for you or your team today? That's a great question. um I'm actually really interested in AI. I haven't found a great, applicable way to use it um regularly, but I also use it all the time.
00:44:39
Speaker
yeah I'll just kind of, you know. Maybe I've got questions on some tax. Rule that I don't know a ah lot about, you know, I'll kind of start with chat GPT ask like, hey, write me a simple memo on this. It'll write one up and then you can say, you know, show me your sources and then you can go to some of those sources and and read better information about it. um and It just kind of will kickstart your brain sometimes into the direction that you need to be thinking. I think that can be helpful. So I've kind of used it really to replace Google in a way. I just start there with everything. And I think um I love it. I think it's actually really helpful. I even used it um to write our maternity leave policy. Bullet pointed out what we all agreed the policy to be. And then just, you know, you can say,
00:45:36
Speaker
put this in a policy format, and it did. And then I even asked, um are we missing anything here? Like, is there something we need to address that we didn't? And ChatGPT came up with a couple of things that I added into the policy. So um I think it's awesome. I can't wait to figure out better and and more ways to use it in our workflow.
00:45:57
Speaker
Yep, OK, awesome. And is there, out of curiosity, are are and any any messages for the audience? Or are you hiring? Or is there any any expertise that you're looking for? Or like how how can others potentially interact with this? And again, also, how how ah again, you've stated you love your job. I'd imagine many people are like, oh, well, I like like people who like their job. Maybe I want to work for someone who likes their job. like Again, are yeah are you hiring? Or any any messages out there for the audience? We are not hiring right now.
00:46:26
Speaker
Um, but we usually are hiring, like we hire quite a bit. We have a younger, a younger accounting team and when you're young and accounting, you're still figuring out what you want to do. And so, you know, not only do people move because they're moving jobs, but they move because they're starting a family and they're not going to, they're not going to work for a few years or, um, you know, maybe they move across the country to another country. You know, people are kind of in and out, especially when they're younger. And so we're hiring pretty pretty regularly, I would say. um And you know but I think it's a great place said to work. i don't need you know We kind of joke sometimes maybe it's not the best place to start your career um because there's just so much you can learn out there and make sure that this is the right ah right path for you. But um it's a great place to build a career for sure.
00:47:19
Speaker
Yeah, awesome. And then any last words of wisdom ah for for the audience, anything that you want to make sure you're able to share or or even go back and maybe re-highlight and re-share in bold, italicized, underlined, because it's just so important that you you don't want to just say it once. You want to make sure you come back and say it twice. So anything stand out that you want to add or re-highlight as maybe some words of wisdom for the audience.
The Power of Networking and Curiosity
00:47:43
Speaker
Yeah, I just think maybe the most important things you can do for your career or to network and to be curious. And you can do this hand in hand, you know, and within your network, ask people a lot of questions about their career. um So I think both of those qualities will take you a long way.
00:48:04
Speaker
Yep. Awesome. Well, Brittany, thank you so much for sitting down with us for cool careers in accounting. ah And it seems like you definitely have a very cool career in accounting. And anyone who says, unprompted, I love my job, that's always one that we love to hear because there's plenty of that in accounting. As much as people don't think it exists, it absolutely exists. And so thank you for sharing your story. Yeah, you're welcome. Thanks for having me.