It’s no secret that I love KPMG, the company I work for, and that I want to have a long career here. I am excited to announce two big changes coming for me, and MAN am I excited/nervous/happy/anxious. I have been feeling allllll of the feelings right now, especially as July 1 has been approaching.
On-call what?
So you’ve heard of travel nurses – nurses who travel around the country for fairly short term assignments based on where there is a need. I’m going to be doing that, but for accounting, and more specifically – auditing. I am in no way comparing my job to the life-saving work that nurses do, just the nature of the program. [I pass out at the sight of blood so power to all my nurses out there for doing a job that I could NEVER do!]
What in the world?
Yes, you understood that correctly. My company has a program that I applied for where I will be traveling around the country for the upcoming year to work on different assignments where there is a staffing need. I will be a traveling, “on-call” accountant. In the business world, there are transactions happening on a daily basis, many of which, we never could plan for from the auditing perspective because things can be so fast-paced in nature and happen at a moment’s notice. Often, some form of an audit is required for these transactions and our people are already booked on other assignments. That’s where I come in.
How in the world…can you swing this?
“Don’t I have other assignments to work on in Norfolk?” Yes and no. Over the past several years, I have worked on several different engagements but spent a large portion of my year on one engagement. In December, my world was turned upside down a bit when that job came off of my schedule. It opened months and months of my time, so I had to take a step back and take a good hard look at my options and my career. I started researching and saw that the applications for this rotation would be opening soon, with the program starting in July. I took this opportunity to my mentors and some of the partners within the firm and everyone was on board. In March, I submitted my application and in May, I found out that I was selected.
Why in the world?
“Do I really want to travel and be away from home for a year?” No, I don’t. It’s going to be really hard to be away for that long. I’m going to live out of a suitcase, I’m going to miss my boyfriend like crazy, I’m going to miss out on fun things and probably have major FOMO at certain times. BUT…I remind myself that it’s only a year, I’m going to be home most weekends, and it’s going to fly by. And the opportunities that I am going to have from a career perspective are priceless.
Promotion Time
My second announcement shouldn’t come as a surprise for anyone who is familiar with the workings of a big four company in public accounting. At all firms, there seems to be a pretty structured promotion track, and as long as you are performing well, you typically are promoted after a certain number of years with the firm. The last promotion I received was from associate to senior associate three years ago on July 1, 2015. At the time, that was a big one, but it built on my role as an associate. Over the past three years, I’ve gotten comfortable. While I’ve learned a lot each year and taken on new and different responsibilities, my overall key responsibilities were the same. Now it’s time for my next promotion – manager. This is going to be a huge change in both the expectations and my responsibilities. When I found out I was getting promoted, I was so excited and so proud of myself, but as July 1 gets closer, I have felt this weight bearing down on me a little bit more than I expected.
So why all of the emotions?
It’s scary doing so many new things at once. As if the new responsibilities as a manager aren’t daunting enough, on top of that, I’m going to be working on engagements I’ve never worked on with people I’ve never met, possibly in industries that I haven’t worked in before (I mean, Virginia isn’t exactly loaded with oil and gas or tech companies) or on transactions I haven’t experienced before. Yikes! I’m going to be pushing myself mentally with every single assignment during his rotation, but oh the things I’ll learn! [[For my readers that don’t work in accounting, you might be thinking “but isn’t it all the same?” I WISH! I can’t even begin to explain, but I will add that even in my five years with KPMG so far, I have learned something new every. single. day.]]
So that leaves me here, today, on June 30th, mentally preparing for tomorrow, the big day. Will I feel different when I wake up? Doubtful! Do I start working tomorrow in this new role? Heck no! It’s a Sunday and I’ll be catching a flight to Punta Cana in the morning for a MUCH NEEDED week of R&R with Brandon before I embark on this next adventure. ✌🏼✌🏼
Stay tuned for more updates on my travels because you best believe I’ll be taking advantage of my time in new places as much as I can! Next work stop: Houston, Texas. See you in a week.
