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Knowing what you know now, what would you tell your younger self? Time goes so fast! I remember always looking forward so much to the next phase of my career, but it's important to also enjoy where you currently are, learn as much as you can, and enjoy the relationships you build early on.
Why did you join Rödl & Partner, and what has kept you here? Many of you know that I was a Rödl boomerang, starting with our firm as an intern but then leaving for a couple of years to eventually come back. I didn't appreciate the unique nature of our firm or client base until I left. I love the entrepreneurial nature and opportunities for advancement we offer here, and I also enjoy that our clients really appreciate the services we provide them.
Which of the firm's core values do you associate with the most and why?
(ACHIEVE: Accountability, Competence, Humility, Integrity, Efficiency, Veracity, and Excellence)
Accountability. It is essential for us, Rödl & Partner, as a service provider, to build trust not only with our clients but also among colleagues for sustaining long-term relationships. Persevering faith in integrity is important and fundamental in the accounting and finance industry. Driving accountability inside and outside assists us to grow as an individual and as a firm. Clients tend to be more willing to inquire and consult with us and appreciate our work. Colleagues will progress better in the professional field and work better as a team.
What advice do you have for new staff accountants at the firm?
Develop good communication with your manager. Be clear what you are expected to accomplish as assigned tasks and make sure you receive assistance if needed and always meet deadlines. Always ask questions and understand what you are doing instead of simply following what others did in the past.
How do you feel like your experience at Rödl & Partner has prepared you for a Manager position?
Managing multiple projects simultaneously, looking for efficiency, process improvement and collaboration with other teams to deliver exceptional client service were the great experiences to enhance my knowledge and skills to serve our clients and support team members.
If you are new to the public accounting industry, realize the differences from where you are coming. Even from the similar industry, it is important to keep an open mind, accept differences, adapt and stay engaged. It is also important to stay focused on clients. Our core business is built on taking care of clients. High clients’ satisfaction is the key brand differentiator. Lastly, enjoy your journey. You have great opportunities to grow in this firm.
What is your biggest success story in your department at Rodi & Partner?
Shortly after I joined the firm, I was given the opportunity to co-produce and instruct a live webinar along with one of our partners at the Charlotte office. The webinar was targeted to members of the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Southern U.S., Inc. Preparing the webinar and participating in it was not only a refresher of technical knowledge, presentation skills, and teamwork at its best, but it was an important exposure to a large audience of potential clients. The webinar was an enormous success with positive feedback among the audience who participated live and those reached subsequently when
the webinar was published on YouTube.
Opportunities to grow and reach your professional and personal goals are endless and are only limited by you. Look for opportunities to make a difference by doing a bit more of what's expected. Be proactive by offering your help on new projects, continue learning and enhancing your technical skills. Do not forget the importance of interacting personally and professionally with your peers and supervisors. Discover efficiencies in what you do every day and share with your team. Seek and embrace feedback as a way to identify your strengths and weaknesses. Find an area of your daily work that you love and that will motivate you to approach your day with enthusiasm. Strive for quality on everything thing you do. Venture outside your comfort zone and cultivate perseverance and resilience. These actions will fuel and propel your career to unimagined levels.
Accountability. Besides the skills and knowledge obtained over time, being held accountable for my own work products result in more critical thinking on whether my work actually solves the problem at hand. Our work centers around the needs and wants of our customers who rely on us for accuracy. Holding myself accountable increases the quality of my work as I can directly observe how impactful my work is for our clients.
What are your goals for your first year as a Manager? Training the next generation in our Transaction Services practice while making sure that we maintain the same level of quality and team spirit as our team size increases. Organizations thrive the most if employees feel a sense of appreciation and trust. Employees who feel appreciation and trust are in turn more willing to go the extra mile for the benefit of the entire team. On a professional level, growing further into the role of the go-to person for our clients, not only for our “bread & butter” due diligence projects but also for complex transaction structuring matters.
The core value that most resonates with me is definitely humility - the solid foundation of all virtues. For everything I have accomplished at the firm, I owe a debt of gratitude to my colleagues, and I must thank them for helping me get here. I always have been able to ask for help or advice. Five busy seasons at Rodi & Partner exposed me to a variety of complex projects. I was able to expand my knowledge in various fields because I have been very fortunate to learn from some outstanding colleagues and I am looking forward to the challenges ahead.
Don't be afraid to ask questions and push yourself to learn new things. Always be on the lookout for new opportunities and projects to get engaged with. When you keep pushing yourself to learn, especially when you start finding answers for yourself, I think the job is more rewarding.
Take responsibility for your development, and don't be afraid to fail. Embrace a learning mindset and be open to continuous learning and professional development. Your team is your support system, and you should learn as much as possible from their experiences. Build strong relationships with colleagues, seek feedback, and act on it to grow and improve. Embrace technology and innovation, and don't be afraid to make suggestions when you identify room for improvement. Finally, remember to balance work with your own well-being to sustain your energy and set yourself up for long-term success.
Integrity. While our profession has standards for ethical behavior, it is impossible to legislate or demand integrity. However, when we strive to create an atmosphere of integrity, we build trust on our teams and with our clients, which has a tremendous impact on the culture of our work. Individuals with integrity are trustworthy, reliable, and have a strong sense of accountability for their actions; each of these traits are of great significance to me and I hope to exemplify them before my team.
I have worked with many successful managers and leaders during my experience so far at Rödl & Partner, so I have peers to look up to and learn from. My leadership skills have improved during my time as a Senior Associate as I have taken on more responsibility and led engagements. I know I have support and encouragement from colleagues as I move into this Manager position.
What are your goals for your first year as a Manager?
My goals are to be a strong, positive leader for my teams and a trusted, caring advisor for my clients. I aim to improve my interpersonal and leadership skills as well as my technical knowledge to best serve the firm with my colleagues and my clients.
Every beginning is hard and there is a lot to learn. My advice is to be open to new challenges, to research solutions independently and to ask for assistance from supervisors and team members where necessary.
All of these are important and relevant core values, but the one that stands out to me is Integrity. By consistently providing our services with integrity, we can successfully grow relationships with our clients as well as within the company. Without trust, success would not be achievable.
The firm's core values that I associate the most with would be humility and integrity. I feel without integrity, everything else would fall apart. We always must be self-aware, value others' opinion - we don't always have to agree, but we do need to respect them. As a team, we can stand together. I am always willing to gain knowledge, change to become most efficient, and always do what is right.
How do you feel like your experience at Rodi & Partner has prepared you for a BPO Manager position?
I feel my experience at Rodi & Partner has prepared me for the manager position in many ways. I've learned how to identify what questions need to be asked and answered, given the level of knowledge provided. I've accomplished this by preforming monthly reviews, learning where to look to get the answers, and collaborating with my peers for additional insights. This has prepared me to do the best job possible.
I associate most with efficiency due to the nature of our work. Efficiency enables us to manage deadlines, handle complex tasks, and deliver accurate services to our clients. This value leads to improved client relationships, professional reputation, and personal well-being while ensuring the highest quality of service. Of course, all core values are important to succeed.
As an accountant, precision and continuous learning are vital. Nobody expects you to know everything from the start. While working on a task, ensure that you always understand what you are doing and why. Collaborate actively with your co-workers to tap into their experience and insights. Seek feedback and do not be shy to ask questions. Always remember that your contribution also is part of our team's success.
Every day is different with new situations and new challenges. You might be completely overwhelmed starting out, but don't panic. Always ask questions if you need help or if expectations are unclear. Also be patient with yourself in the learning process. Experience will teach you things you didn't know to ask.
What are your goals for your first year as a Senior Associate?
My main goal is to keep growing and learning, and to ensure that an appropriate amount of development is undertaken, not only technically, but also in management skills and personal development. Additionally, I want to be a valuable resource for younger staff and clients and continue to be a person that my coworkers can depend upon.
I associate the most with Integrity. I think integrity encompasses the majority of values we strive to achieve on a daily basis, as it is important as part of our work as well as on a personal level.
I hope I will be able to assist younger staff with the different challenges they face as part of this job and provide useful feedback when needed. I also expect to be able to continuously gain more knowledge in all the areas I am working in.
My advice to staff accountants would be to understand why you are doing something. Before starting a task, ask yourself why you are doing what you are doing. If you do not know why you are doing something, ask someone that does. It will further your understanding and will enable you to ask the
right questions. Instead of simply finishing tasks and re-producing work papers, you can now have educated discussions with superior about a topic and learn even more.
My goal is to become someone that others, staff accountants and superiors, but also clients, can rely on. I am targeting to organize myself more effectively, to balance my workload, so I can achieve this goal.
Accountability. Watching how managers, AP, and partners doing their work, I can feel how accountable they are and how much they value accountability when providing services to the clients. Those in return affect me to be accountable and try to get work done in advance. We have group meeting and discuss about projects status on a timely basis to make sure we can have things done timely.
What challenges do you expect in a Senior Associate role?
The transition from Associate to Senior Associate means that I will take more responsibilities, not only the technical wise but also needs to help with other Associates to grow and have better time management for different types of tasks.
What is your biggest success story at Rödl & Partner?
That I've met my team and been able to work with the most knowledgeable people I know! Also, that I was able to balance my work, life, and study & pass the CPA exam with my team supporting and motivating me. Studying after work was one of the biggest challenges, but now it's my biggest success story at Rödl & Partner.
Don't get frustrated, and don't try to spin your wheels when you're stuck. Just ask your team members, they should have quick answers. Also start and finish your CPA exams as soon as possible if you're still planning!
How do you feel like your experience at Rödl & Partner has prepared you for a Senior Associate position?
In the Global Mobility Practice, working at Rödl has provided me with the widest horizon—task wise and topic wise. Both, my partner and manager have great expertise that goes beyond Global Mobility. Their knowledge increases the knowledge of our entire team. This motivates me to continue growing my technical skills while taking on this new position so maybe one day I can follow in their footsteps.
Observe. Ask questions. Research. Prepare suggestions for solutions when you reach out for support and discuss those. Don't be afraid of making mistakes—that's what reviews are for. Proper documentation (phone protocols, notes/references/research results with sources to document how you came to your conclusions).
The diversity and volume of work I have been assigned to the first three years of my career at Rödl has helped me learn to manage my time well and kept me humble. Time management is critical with the many different assignments we all manage in our day-to-day responsibilities. Maintaining a healthy level of humility encourages me to properly research positions to be taken both from an accounting and tax perspective so that I do not create risk for the firm and also makes my supervisors’ lives easier by presenting well thought-out positions. I do this knowing the positions taken will need refinement at times, but it increases my knowledge base and builds trust to allow me opportunities for further growth in my career here.
Be a sponge and always take a pen and paper with you when attending a meeting no matter who called the meeting. You will never remember everything that is discussed in a meeting and the ability to jot down notes is critical to you getting back to your desk ready to tackle the task that has been assigned to you. It also shows those you are meeting with that their time is important and all of our time is, so it is important to consistently relay that message. Being a sponge is interrelated to the previous point because while there will be times where you can soak in advice in an impromptu discussion at the coffee machine or an activity outside of work, the majority of what you learn will be obtained through being attentive and taking good notes whenever you are meeting with your colleagues.
I associate the most with excellence. I think this core value is very important since I am always eager to provide our service at the high level of professional standards to our clients.
I expect to be faced with more opportunities to be the leader. Since I am confident with my gained experience and there are my colleagues with tremendous collective knowledge who I always can rely on, I would continue to learn more in this new step in my career.
Priscilla Dowling
CPA
Partner
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