Paper for Interview Due Jan 10th PDF

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Summary

Conduct an interview with a woman and explain why you decided to interview them, How you know them, and how they have influenced you. What stands out and or surprised you about the interviewee's career path or experience, What and How can you apply the interviewee's experience and advice to your own...

Description

I chose to do my interview on my friend Kelly Stinson. I met her back in June of 2018 here at Mount Mary University. We met in a statics class and hit it off. We had every class together up until she graduated last May because we are both Accounting Majors. Both of us share a lot of the personality traits which makes it hard to usually trust others and let others in to our inner world. Her dominate personality and strong perseverance to succeed is what keeps me going to focus on goals and know that I will make it in this world to be the best person that I can. Deep down she is the most kind and giving person and will always have my back and I am eternally grateful. There is nothing that I wouldn’t do for her and she for I, we may not be blood related but she is family to me.

Kelly is a Senior Accountant at CLA for a very large health care client. She really doesn’t have a typical day. Her job covers a variety of different tasks such as monthly journal entries and reconciliations, financial reviews payroll tax compliance, client meetings, and various types of trainings. Of course there are also the various tasks that are randomly assigned to her that she takes on assigned by her team.

She started her accounting career for a small IT Recruiting company where she started with accounts payable, accounts receivable, and payroll. Kelly started her education while working there and attending UW-Milwaukee and graduated with her Bachelor’s of Science in Accounting in May 2020 from MMU. It was a long road and a lot of long hours of dedication. She told me her proudest accomplishment was her education while working full time. Kelly attributes her accomplishments to her hard work and perseverance. This again is why I admire her so much. When we were talking about what she would have done differently she didn’t hesitate with her

response she wished she would have gone to college right after high school instead of taking time off.

I asked Kelly if she ever experienced the imposter syndrome and she came right out and told me that she has always been able to do whatever she has set her mind to and she wasn’t going to let anyone or anything stand in her way. She also made the comment that she has felt insecure at some jobs, but they just weren’t the right environment. I asked her how she overcame her insecurity and it was by choosing a field that she was comfortable in, getting a degree and working hard to excel at what she does.

When discussing gender in playing a role in her career she didn’t feel it had anything to do with it. Her advice for you women entering the workforce is to do your job, don’t get caught up in gossip, and let your quality of work speak for itself. She also would encourage them to have open communication with their supervisor if they want to advance and find out what skills are necessary to do so.

We talked about if she felt if women had been supportive or held her back and she said she had some extremely supportive women who helped in teaching her how to do her job and be great at it. On the flip side she has also had the women who are more interested in cutting down others to make themselves feel better. She explained about a supervisor that didn’t like her and the supervisor would make rude remarks toward her in front of her peers. Instead of getting upset, Kelly would just redirect the conversation to whatever they were working on. Eventually Kelly left that job because she was miserable, but the supervisor was fired shortly after for her behavior.

I asked Kelly if she feels that women are judged more harshly than men and have to work harder to prove themselves and then I asked if she judge. She responded that women are guilty of judging each other, and in her experience its always the women who are doing the judging. She said she has only judged people when their behavior is consistently negative and they have not been part of the team her team. She doesn’t feel that men judge women like they used to. When she was in her twenties she worked for a business as a receptionist and the owner and his son treated her like she wasn’t a very intelligent person. Kelly was very bold and told them that she didn’t appreciate being treated different for the position they hired her for and that the employees and the customers were happy with her professionalism.

I asked if her company had transparency of pay or some form so a person would know how much a position paid and if not what are your feelings about it and why? Kelly explained that they don’t have that specifically but they have a program tor their employees to create the careers that they want. Not only does CLA provide training for the areas that they want to focus on they also help those who are looking to work outside of the firm. She said sometime people are paid for the work they do and with the resources CLA provides, it is fairly easy to do well if you put in the work.

My final question was where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years? In 5 years she wants to be in a Director role at CLA for multiple clients and have more student loans paid off. Her 10 year goal was to have a house up north and enough time off to enjoy it.

I learned that I definitely want to be part of CLA. I believe that because of the drive that I have I would love to be part of that company. They seem to put a lot of effort into their employees and

believe in them if you put in the effort. I am determined like Kelly and have the same can do attitude so I feel they would benefit my career like they have for her.

What stood out to me was that I never would have guessed Kelly to ever have any insecurity about anything. She is so strong willed, determined and has never let anything stopped her from doing anything. Then again if a person is not comfortable in an environment it makes it miserable to get up and go to work and be productive. She has always made the best of every situation but I can understand where she is coming from. If I wasn’t comfortable in a work environment and I couldn’t take it anymore and I have tried to do my best to change the situation I too would have moved on.

This was a great experience to get to know more about her career and her position at CLA and her past experiences. We don’t usually talk about these things because work is a topic we don’t discuss when we are together and hanging out. I’m glad she shared her experiences with me so I could learn more about her career path and know that I always have her experience and words of wisdom to guide me....