We were very fortunate this week to be able to interview Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, the Immediate Past Chair of the American Institute of CPAs, for this episode of Life In Accounting, the Where Accountants Go podcast.
A Fortunate Turn of Events
Kimberly knew from an early age that she wanted to be a CPA. As early as 3rd grade, she realized that becoming a CPA would be a career that was both stable and financially sound. Due to a miscommunication though, she ended up attending a university that did not have a formal accounting major path available, so she instead majored in Information Systems Management. However, this path ended up to work out much better in the long-run. She still followed her dream and acquired the additional hours she needed to take the CPA exam, and now has enjoyed a career that mixes both her financial & accounting acumen with her strong background in information technology.
Failed the CPA exam at first!
We include this note as a motivator for anyone that has had difficulty with the exam. Kimberly was recently the chairperson for the national CPA association – AICPA – but believe it or not she failed the exam the first time. It doesn’t matter if you fail it once, or a few times even. Rather it’s important that you learn from the experience and you try again. If a goal is worthwhile, then it’s worth investing in. Kimberly very openly shares this ‘failure’ experience in hopes of inspiring those other individuals that are striving to pass the exam and realize that it may take a little more effort than they originally anticipated.
Soft Skills Are Important
With Kimberly’s technology background, you may find this interesting, but she stressed a few times how important skills like the ability to inspire and the ability to motivate will be moving forward. As more and more of our routine accounting functions are taken care of by AI, we will be left with the more exciting and interesting parts of our jobs – the parts that require people skills and judgement. Anything you can do to increase your abilities in these areas will be invaluable as you continue to grow your career in our ever-expanding tech-filled world.
If you enjoy this episode, make sure you visit these as well: Kurt Rathmann and Donny Shimamoto
To listen to the full interview, please click on the player below:
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