1. What are the most challenging and rewarding aspects of your job and why?
The most challenging aspect of my job is managing the workflow from clients. For those who do not work in public accounting, it may come as a shock that some clients do not always provide requested documents or information when they say they will. Or the information provided may not meet your needs. I’ll schedule out the coming months of client projects I am responsible for, but in reality that schedule goes through many adjustments as the weeks pass. The key is in effectively dealing with the little hiccups in workflow so that they do not snowball into a giant mess. The reward is in successfully managing that workflow, through lower stress in the day-to-day aspects of my job, and the positive feedback from clients in meeting (or exceeding) their expectations.
2. Who do you look up to or admire in business and why?
Bill James, baseball writer and statistician. I have been an avid sports fan nearly all my life and someone who really enjoys analyzing numbers. The rise of sabermetrics was a perfect complement to those interests, and something that broadened my perspective [about] success or failure. Bill’s work was focused in baseball, but the underlying ideas incorporated in sabermetrics have applications in many areas outside of sports. Additionally, Bill being a baseball outsider (someone who was not a professional player, manager, etc.) was an added bonus. I’m sure many of us, myself included, have had new ideas receive resistance because one does not have the traditionally accepted background or experience. Never dismiss an idea just because of who proposed it; rather, dismiss an idea if you can provide adequate reasoning for why it would fail.
3. What has been the high point of your career so far?
It is a reoccurring moment over the years, but the high point for me is when you win over a client who doubts what you can do for them. The first instance of this I always go back to was when I was just over two years into my public accounting career and I was put in charge of a large audit engagement due to the in-charge person leaving the firm and me being the most experienced staff person with the client. I was in charge of four staff and spent a few weeks leading the team through completion of the audit. After the firm had issued the audit report the partner on the engagement took me aside and told me that during planning discussions the client was pushing to have someone else with more experience in charge of the audit. The partner had to persuade the client to give me the opportunity and ultimately the client was very happy with how the audit went and I stayed in charge on that client’s audit in subsequent years.
4. Thinking back on your career, what advice would you give your 21-year-old self?
Stay at my undergraduate school longer. I was an undergrad at UNLV when I was 21, so present day me would really push the idea of sticking around campus longer. Go after some master’s degrees or a PhD, if needed. Las Vegas is not the worst place to have to spend your 20s. Embrace the ability to wake up at noon on weekdays without repercussion. There is no rush in getting into the workforce. Actually, I’d pass that advice on after giving myself some really solid stock tips since present day me has the benefit of knowing how things played out in the markets years beyond when I was 21.
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5. What would you say are the best things about living and working in Dane County?
The balance in size Madison has between a small town and a big city. Madison is not too small (good dining options, a major university, and an airport) while at the same time not a big city (with considerable traffic, poor air quality, and a high crime rate). Madison is the smallest city I have lived in to date, and I enjoy the novelty of being able to drive across town in 30 minutes or less. Also the weather in the spring and summer is quite pleasant. I am going to ignore that whole deal from late November through the middle of March.
6. Do you have any secret talents or abilities that people would be surprised to discover?
Drawing and painting. Years back I mostly worked in abstract and my style was greatly influenced by German Expressionism. I have since embraced the use of color and dabble in a broader spectrum of styles. Before I settled on pursuing a career in accounting, I strongly considered going to art school. I received a statewide award for one of my drawings in high school, but I ultimately decided against art school as I figured I could do studio art on the side or later down the line.
7. What are your guilty pleasures?
That’s easy, card games and semi-obscure music videos. From a young age I took to playing different standard 52-card deck games, like war, cribbage, hearts, spades, poker, etc. Eventually that morphed into a blackjack hobby — coincidentally while I was a college student in Las Vegas. Among my blackjack playing highlights was playing at a table where all five players were dealt a blackjack on the same hand and the dealer did not get one. Calculate the odds of that happening — I did. Also, the variety of people you can meet while sitting at a blackjack table at 2 a.m. is impressive. In regard to music, I listen to a wide range of genres. Thanks to advances in technology it has become increasingly easy to unearth music videos long since forgotten, or rarely seen to begin with. I am not interested in music videos that aired on MTV or similar [stations] in the past; rather, promo videos, live performance videos, and other moving picture with song treasures of (hopefully) unintentional comedy. Bonus points for how uncomfortable I get viewing the music videos.
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