great well thank you and welcome everyone and thank you for attending our webinar we are excited to have you for the IMA student series accounting and finance professional panel this is the seventh time that we have held a panel session like this and each time the turnout has been wonderful and we're excited to have you students here with us today we are looking forward to the discussion I always look forward to see where the discussion goes from what we have planned just based on what questions come in so this is usually a very fun and relaxed hour that you'll spend with IMA so this session is being recorded and we will send out the recording after this panel event and we will also be housing it on our YouTube series everyone should be muted upon entry but we encourage you while you're attending this webinar to ask questions using the Q&A function there will be some questions that we will be able to answer directly and then for others we're going to save those questions for the end and some for our panelist right before we get started we would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor for today's webinar glime exam prep glime exam prep has helped accountants pass millions of certification exams since 19 74 blme is an IMA strategic partner the exclusive course provider for the IMA CMA scholarship program and a proud sponsor of this webinar glim is familyowned and operated from the beginning and glim is committed to helping you pass your CMA exam and Achieve professional success my name is Mary Patterson and I will be your host and moderator for tonight's webinar my role with IMA is the academic business development manager I'm your point of content for everything academic related to Ima please write down my email and honestly you might not think of a question during this panel event but a day from now two days from now two months from now if a question comes up please feel free to reach out to me all right let's take a look at today's agenda I will be giving a quick overview of IMA and also the CMA and fmaa certification then we will get right into the panel discussion where I will be asking our panelist several questions at the end we will take some time to take questions from the audience throughout the webinar our team will be monitoring the Q&A if you have questions for us or the panel put them in the Q&A box and we will try to answer them as we go we also wanted to take a minute to share how far along this webinar Series has come as I said this is our seventh installment of the student series we received such great feedback on this program which is why we continue to hold it we are always trying to improve so be sure to fill out the feedback survey at the end of the webinar if you'd like to have the playback recordings from previous sessions you can visit ima's YouTube page and watch the other six previously recorded webinars in this series you can scan the QR code on the screen and it will take you right to ima's YouTube page that is where this recording will also be uploaded once we get a chance to make a few edits I just wanted to highlight a few of the profiles of the panelists we've had in the past to give you an idea of the broad range of positions available for accounting and finance graduates this doesn't include all of our past panelist but we wanted to highlight a few companies in titles so just looking at this screen we've had a panelist from Amazon Dell Technologies Nike Microsoft barstol Sports so the panelists that are joining us today are in good company and we love adding to the people that help speak to you the students all of our panelists have their CMA and some also hold other credentials like the CPA we we always try to find a nice mix of companies and panelists for you to hear from so let's start first quickly with some information about IMA IMA is a global association with more than 140,000 members who are accounting and finance professionals working in business our organization has more than 300 professional and student chapters located in cities and campuses around the world by joining IMA students and professionals have the opportunity to not only network with accounting and financial Professionals in your local area but it also opens the door to network with professionals from all over the world IMA offers resources for accounting and finance Educators as well as three globally recognized certifications with the addition of the fmaa certification along with the CMA and CF CA IMA is reinforcing its position as the foremost Association for professionals working in accounting and finance roles in Industry this slide highlights the three certifications offered by IMA today's webinar will focus on the fmaa which is our newest certification and the CMA which each of our panelists have and we'll be talking to you about how it has helped their career as you can see by looking at each of the certifications IMA is there for accounting and finance Professionals for every stage in your career Journey I'm going to give you a very quick General overview of what the fmaa certification is since it is brand new the fmaa instills the fundamental knowledge and competencies in accounting and finance allowing students and professionals to Showcase their expertise to employers and build a foundation to expand their skills this certification was developed to address Market needs based on the input from the market the fmaa certification was developed with five key content domains General accounting and financial management that covers things like accounting terminology debits and credits te accounts and adjusting entries there's also financial statement preparation and Analysis that's dealing with asset and liability evaluation basic financial statement analysis and profitability ratios the fmaa covers planning and budgeting so budgeting Concepts and methodologies and cost management and performance me metrics such as cost measure measurement Concepts variable and fixed overhead expenses performance measurement and then also because uh IMA takes ethics so seriously there is some professional ethics the reason why I we tell you about this new certification is because as you can see on what's tested this is all information that you're probably doing right now um in a lot of your classes so you are primed and ready to sit for This truly at any stage in your early Ed accounting education I get questions from students about well what is the FM AA certification the exam format is it is a 2hour exam with 80 multiple choice questions there are no eligibility requirements so this is an exam that you can take while you're in school the exam preparation time is approximately 50 hours and the exam is starting to be given in March 2024 so basically tomor no two days from now people can start taking the fmaa I forgot that it's a leak Year all right let's move on to the CMA which is what most people recognize when they think about IMA in The Institute of Management accountants so with this slide I'm going to provide you with a highlevel overview of the test topics and of course you can find more details about this on the IMA website the CMA exam is composed of two parts testing your fluency in both accounting and finance the exams are each four hours in length starting with 100 multiple choice questions and concluding with two essay scenario scarios which are like many cases part one of the exam is called financial planning performance and analytics and it has six sections it will cover things like financial statements budgeting process variance analysis and best practices in internal controls and data analytics a lot of what you'll be seeing in this part of the exam will come from your cost or managerial classes and your intermediate Financial Accounting class part two is called the Strategic financial management it also has six sections and you'll see that it includes more Finance related topics this section will cover things like financial ratios risk and return models variable and fixed cost best practices in Enterprise risk management Capital budgeting techniques and ethics so hopefully these topics all sound familiar to you because the content covered on the CMA exam is very relevant and I'm sure our panelists would tell you that it is important to have a Mastery of these skills when you start working couple things about the exam is that it can be taken in any order so if you are a finance student you might feel stronger to take maybe part two first um I know especially when I deal with my accountants you all really love to follow the rules so you like to start with part one and then then move into part two again with the CMA you can take this exam while you are still in school um but this would be an exam that's going to be later in your educational career usually after your junior year of studies and your Advanced accounting classes so again this just highlights the different certifications whoops that we have um and it shows you how it fits in with who can take the different parts of the exam or different certifications and as I said all of our panelists they have their CMA so that's where they are as young working professionals another thing that I always like to tell students just as a benefit from IMA being a student member of IMA is that you can take several of our courses at no cost the two courses we are showing here are two of our more popular courses we have our data analytics and visualization fundamental certificate and our robotics process automation RPA series these courses are meant to give you some foundational understanding of these topics what's also nice about them is that when you complete each course you will receive a professional certificate from IMA and a digital badge that you can add to your LinkedIn profile in addition to these courses we have several free courses available to students in technology and Analytics soft skills and more to become a member it is just $25 and both of these courses along with others help to build your knowledge and skill set that will set you apart from your peers so we hope that you do take advantage of this of these courses if you decide to become student member of IMA uh another event just for the students that I want to make you aware of before we get into this panel set discussion I want to let you know about another panel that we have planned next month um today's panel discussion will involve young professionals and getting their aspect of their career now this panel session will focus more on I don't want to say that they're old professionals because they're not but professionals that have been working in industry for more than 20 years and I think both events will give you great insight to how rewarding a career can be in accounting and finance and you could register using that QR code um again we have someone from Microsoft Johnson and Johnson and Starbucks and then lastly please mark your calendars and check with your school and accounting department for funds to send you to our student leadership conference in Anaheim California next November so mark your calendars for that so I've talked enough I think it's time for us to finally get into and meet our panel so for today's for today's webinar we have a fantastic panel of accounting and finance professionals joining us to share their insights and experience let's get started and meet our panelists and you will notice that they are all CMAs so first we have Megan mordi who is a finance director for Johnson and Johnson next we have chrisy Louie Christie is a senior director of financial analysis and planning with ipot TV our third panelist is Mason busy who started his career with beckon Dickinson and is now a full-time NBA student at NYU and finally we have Drew chansy Drew is a senior financial analyst with Habitat for Humanity so that's our panel everyone give a wave I'm going to stop sharing my screen real quick so we can have our panelist be more front and center okay and making see that you came back I think we lost you there for a second so let's I was out for a minute area just kicked off my internet so apologies connections sporadic I'll tell you what so I'm in Pittsburgh so we sent them your way those are some nasty storms so yeah all right let's get into our panel discussion all right the first question for our panelist are would you briefly describe your career after graduating undergrad provide some details about your current company and your responsibilities within your role so for example I'm sure everyone for the most part is familiar with Habitat for Humanity but might not necessarily understand the role that an accountant plays with the company so Drew you can talk to us a little bit about your career we'll let you kick this off sure thanks Mary so my name is Drew chansy um as Mary mentioned I'm a senior financial analyst with Habitat for Humanity International and um so I started out my career in the nonprofit industry after graduating from Oklahoma State University with a bachelor's degree in accounting and so um prior to serving with habitat um I was had the opportunity to sered with two separate nonprofit organizations primarily on the accounting side I'm in my first role had an opportunity to work directly with the CFO of the organization on financial reporting and um also had the opportunity to undertake some project management responsibilities which was a great opportunity for me in my second role prior of joining habitat I served a Director of Finance for a nonprofit organization here in the Tulsa area and um was responsible for all the accounting finance and human resource functions of the organization and in March of 22 I earned my CMA and that was a month before I joined Habitat for Humanity and in my current role I support two of habitat's um programs which are focused on providing Capital to low-income communities one of those is an international program which is the microbuild fund and that is focused on providing micro Finance Loans to allow individuals to build homes and then the other program is the new market tax credit program which is a US program um again focused on providing Capital to low-income communities and so in both of those roles both of those projects I helped support the financial compliance and financial reporting functions um as in as we work to serve out the mission um there so I think that's a little bit about my career I'm sure a lot of professors listening they heard things they're like yes that's what we're going over we I've talked about this in class so that's great Megan I'll move over to you so same question could you briefly describe your career after graduating undergrad and I know you have kind of an interesting um story for your undergrad so thanks Mary yeah I joined um I graduated from Penn State about 12 years ago now uh with majors in finance and biology so I've been in the workplace for a while um after graduating I joined our J&J fldp our finance leadership development program um completing two one-year rotations in what was our consumer sector as well as our pharmaceutical sector um those were two very different rotations one was quite strategic and the other was pretty technical um on a side note highly recommend the program so if anyone is interested in learning more please reach out and um but I've worked with J&J for my entire career so I'm currently in my eighth position serving as the finance director for the medch Innovation team um the current role can be segmented into three main areas of responsibility the first would be leading the financials for the um EU MDR program which is the European me European Union medical device regulation um that's essentially a set of regulations that really ensures consistently high level of health and safety protections um for citizens using our medical devices um the second part would be Innovation portfolio management so that um is essentially leveraging financial analysis tools to drive our R&D pipeline investment decisions for the Medtech sector of J&J and then the third is a little bit of a catch all of strategic initiatives various workstreams like RIS profit Improvement uh Business Development activities and others so I've been in that role about four months now still new enjoying it so far um but hopefully uh hard to summarize 12 years briefly so hopefully that captured the gist of my time at J we'll get into more details with that but people didn't hear that correctly I think you are probably our first panelist where part of your undergraduate you were what a biology major and finance is that correct yes I I did both I started off with Finance because I liked math I liked analytical um figures and I always had a passion for biology so I decided to do both and try to find a career where I could combine both backgrounds and that's what led me to J&J you were the perfect candidate for that probably all right well we will move now to chrisy to tell us about your career since graduating um hi everyone I'm Christie um Seattle base um I currently work at ipot TV as a senior director of fpna um I'm probably the oldest amount of panelist today I graduated a long long time ago more like two decades for my undergrad so if you asked me my first job was actually a teller that is so unrelated to anything I'm doing right now uh I've tried like cross Industries I work in accounts payable accounts receivable all the positions that you can think of and but my ma my undergrad major was in finance so uh I like around maybe like six to eight years ago I finally got a chance to you know um transfer from public accounting but not big four but a Fortune 500 company and to back to a senior Financial Analyst job and I really loved it um I I like making impact so I think Finance gives you a little bit more like like opportunities to make an impact throughout the organization than uh regular accounting I mean accounting is important like because like they Safeguard the accuracy of the data so Finance can be the end consumer to like consume the accurate data to do all the necessary analysis and Reporting so I see both accounting and finance they are like this they go hand inand so um it's not really about you know like I like accounting is better or Finance is better um for CMA I got my CMA probably seven to eight years ago got my CPA 10 years ago um if you ask me like if those credentials actually help me getting into the positions I would say not so much initially um because like people it actually helps you also it can hurt you as well if I'm being very like honest uh it helps you because people think that uh you know you are more educated you have more credibility because like those credentials are very hard to get um at the same time people look at you differently they will hold you like to a higher standard um so it's both pros and cons if you ask me to be very blunt with that um so far I think the CMA um it's it's more relatable to the job that I'm doing because finances involves a lot of analysis and a big part of the CMA curriculum is about variance analysis and financial statement uh you know reporting you know looking at different numbers and stuff so I think it's definitely a a good route to pursue and the last thing I want to add is that um if you're working full-time which I was working full-time when I was doing my CPN and CMA it was extremely difficult um so I would highly encourage students if they're still in college and then they want to start the CMA you know credential earlier uh please do so because once you get into working a full-time job it's very challenging to uh you know manage both the CMA um like you know prepping and your full-time job yeah I hope that helps yeah and Christie you might have said this already but can you tell our students what ipot TV does sorry I missed that so um like uh probably most of you guys have heard about um uh a media research company called nilon it's been around for many many years it's the biggest and ipot is actually a startup which has been around 10 to 12 years is um and then we're actually going against nelon and the exciting part is that uh around two years ago around the time that right before I joined ipot we actually got a serious defunding from woman sex uh for $325 million so it's actually a preo startup so if anyone wants to work for a startup like they don't mind doing the grinding they don't mind being in the Creator mentality then startup is for you but if you want more structure more work life balance startup is definitely not for you you're doing a lot of different rules great let's move on to last but certainly not least Mason same thing for you so what's happened since you graduated undergraduate awesome thank you Mary uh so yeah I graduated undergrad 2021 uh from Washington University of St Louis I majored in finance uh kind of similar to Megan uh I joined an flp program directly out of undergrad so uh Finance leadership development program I I knew I was interested in finance I just didn't know where I wanted to work in and corporate finance is a very wide umbrella there's a lot of different positions inside of there uh so I like the fact that I would be able to rotate and see a lot of different um parts of the company and work with in different functions so I ended up working uh in two different functions for for three separate teams uh first one being fpna uh similar to uh Christie as well I mean uh to break down fpna it's forast planning and Analysis so uh what we're doing is we're building out the budget helping out with the forecast they're going out then comparing actuals to that budget so how we performed versus how we thought we were going to perform uh and my job kind of consisted of three things first I was uh building out the income statements and the p&l models p&l is what the income statement is for those uh variance analysis meetings that we were having with these large business unit leaders and then I was compiling that analysis and that commentary and pushing that out to our corporate team then our corporate team would trickled that down to our earnings reports uh Beck and Dickinson the team that I me the company that I was working with is a medical device manufacturer so it's also similar to me Megan in the med tech Med device uh space uh and I like really three things while working in FP one I got a really high level view of the business uh and I could see how the real world events were tying into affecting our p&l like how this was during covid so how the supply chain effects of covid were actually throwing off our our gross profit uh I I learned a lot of technical skills in Excel and the p&l and I was able to work with a lot of senior Business Leaders that had a lot of experience in the industry uh my second position was on the accounting side so the other point that Christy was talking about uh I was working in Revenue recognition so kind of working to see how uh the contracts that we got from these specific hospitals built up into the revenue line our p&l I really like the technical accounting skills that I gained there I was working on a team full of CPAs so I was kind of able to pick their brains and while I was actually on this team is what inspired me to get my CMA because I wanted to upscale my uh technical expertise uh so I really under I like that granular level insight and kind of after I finished the FP program I took a step back and I really like the rotational aspect of the program and the problem solving that it presented which inspired me to want to pursue a career in Consulting strategy Consulting to be exact uh so uh in order to do that I I ended up enrolling and applying into NYU Stern I'm a first year student and I'll be going into Consulting for an internship over the summer so and Mason correct me if I'm wrong I think Beck and Dickinson they even helped pay for your CMA and maybe MBA or did I get that incorrect or you wish they did second part first part is true yeah so rever yeah they they paid and sponsored me both uh they paid for my training like uh the specific software that I use and also to take the exam so very fortunate for that but taking like what chrisy was saying taking it in undergrad because it was a lot working and also St c yeah there's one thing students you get from this and you're inspired to get your CMA I think all the panelists would agree do it while you're still in school take advantage of that I hate to tell you that you'll never get as much time as you have when you're still in college so embrace it while you have it um okay I'm going to go move on to the next question and some of you did touch on it but I want to highlight it a little bit more what motivated each of you to pursue a career in accounting or finance and ultimately what led you to pursue the CMA certification so Mason I think you kind of talked about it do you want to just reiterate sure yeah I guess I'll takeing you in a step back so uh my mother Works in uh uh she teaches so she teaches at moral college she teaches entrepreneurship and small business management so from a very young age I was kind of getting spoonfed a little bits information about business so I like to say that that kind of planted the seed for my overall interest in fin business uh however my motivation for the cmaa kind of one it was the perfect opportunity my company sponsored me to take it so I was extremely fortunate for that so didn't have to worry about the cost uh second I really wanted more context into like the why of what I was doing so like why I Was preparing these deliverables why I was building out these models and the CMA was perfect for that so as I'm setting that I'm like able to apply what I'm learning to like what I'm doing on the job so for example Revenue recognition is a portion of I think part one of the CMA uh so as I was studying that I was like okay well now I can see directly how that's applying to like the the general entries that I'm I'm doing on the job and then third I I'd say also probably most important is that it was a great signaling of the hard skills that I learned for my future employers so specifically during recruiting like this past uh year I was able to to refer to the CMA as like that was what like culminated my experience back at Beck and Dickinson like that was like what what I have to show for it and it was a good a good touch Point that's like okay this is something hard that that he's done so it was a good refresher in my skills as I prepare for my NBA cool all right Christy same same to you what finally made you get the CMA and uh the CMA I I guess it's like um don't take don't quote me on this like never uh I I think it I'm just like an outlier like a weirdo I think uh because um I I got my CPA and I was actually thinking about other credentials um I I was under the impression that the more credentials that you get it's actually easier for you to get promoted I had that impression so that's not the perfect reason to get a CMA uh but at the same time I do think the CMA it's like the exam materials it's actually super useful I I realized that after I got the credentials uh but um you know just not the perfect reason to started so not a good example here all right Megan how about you um we already touched on the fact that my background is a little bit atypical so finance and biology is what led me to J&J I think um and wanting to find a career where I could leverage both those skill sets so when I was at J&J I first did an internship in finance um and that really I was exposed to the finance org where the late leaders there really are Business Leaders with Finance expertise so that made me want to join J&J Le post background kind of that mindset and the ability to kind of positively impact patients lives um so when I joined J&J went it's FP program and that's when I was first introduced to CMA um it was highly recommended by some of my mentors there our financial incentives at J&J to kind of get that certification and I thought it was a really nice way to build on the corporate finance knowledge and get a bit deeper into accounting because undergrad I took two accounting courses so J&J has a finance function we don't have separate accounting and finance teams and the expectation that you're able to kind of know enough to be dangerous in both skill sets so I felt like that was a really good way to give me confidence right entering my career that I had the right U financial management skills to be successful and really took the certification to be a well-rounded Finance leader I'd actually have a little bit of a different perspective where I enjoyed studying while I was in the FP program the reason being I found that the content was very relatable as I was on boarding at work I almost had the reference material and I could apply the skills real time so I was probably one of those rule Breakers that I took the second part first uh because that was directly transferable to the role I was in and then the second role I had was more technical accounting I took the first part of the CMA um so I really just felt like it was a way one I mean I was fortunate right I I was able to study during the Summertime by the pool and that was my fun weekend activity but I could then apply those Concepts real time while I was at work and um yeah it worked out pretty well for me so Megan you just admitted you like studying and I mean I yeah as evidenced to by like the double major I love to learn so I'm a little bit of a nerd like there's nothing wrong with that and then we love Johnson and Johnson is a big supporter of IMA and the CMA so it's not surprising in that program that there were plenty of people that encouraged you to do that and then got it in the meeting earlier this afternoon yeah perfect and Drew how about you and and I also want to say drew you're also studying right now for the CPA correct yes that's correct okay yeah good you know what made you get it the yeah so I think I think it was a little bit of a mixture of what Mason and Chrissy said in the sense of I wanted to continue to develop professionally mainly from kind of my knowledge set so I wanted to so I started the CMA studying for the CMA exams about five years after I had finished my undergraduate your underr was in accounting right yes that's correct yeah so there was quite a bit that I had studied and undergrad that I wanted to refresh myself on and and kind of revisit and so that was part of the reason I wanted to do the program and then I think I what I realized was I was kind of at a point in my career where I wanted to have um sort of an external proof of the knowledge that I had acquired throughout my career so far so um I think being able to um both better myself by studying for the exam and um to pass it and show myself that I knew that material but also as I was was I'm looking to continue to grow my career to be able to to um to say that I'm a CMA and and I think it has benefited me a lot so far in my career great um so I'm gonna ask if and I'm putting you on the spot a little bit but for our panelist can you give us an example of specific CMA Concepts and skills that you have used on the job so Megan our our studious person can you start kick us off yes I can uh bear in mind I took the CMA 12 years ago so the order of my coursework might have changed a bit um but think I mentioned earlier I did the CMA when I was in the FP program um so my first rotation within that program was focused on strategic planning new product development valuations and then ultimately I was responsible for influencing decision making for the consumer sector leadership so that was very transferable to part two of the exam for me or some of that valuation strategic Finance Focus um and then the second rotation I had was when I took part one of the exam um and that was within fpna so I think Drew mentioned kind of what the fpna function is a little bit or or maybe Mason as well but it was more accounting heavy so I was doing bit more planning budgeting p&l analytics um and that was relevant for me at the time to part one um and and again just kind of taking those exams as I was on boarding to those roles really just helped kind of double down on the content um and then I still continue to leverage the concepts throughout my career I do still have the study materials somewhere in my office here that once in a while I'll pull out and reference so definitely transferable to corporate finance from my experience perfect and chrisy how about you since you're doing so much in this startup so yeah I I do like the startup environment um quite a bit Yeah like basically for like cm a lot of the variance analysis especially when you're supporting like sales people um you know Topline growth um I remember one part of it about like uh whether is uh whether it's a priz like like mix or like a volume mix which part of it is contributing more to the revenue growth that's very relatable um and I like how much like recently the IMA chapter has done a lot for the students that like have other you know courses for students to take just like the two courses that you just mentioned at the beginning the analytics it's actually a big part of fpna there are a lot of um fpna is very broad you have to be like you know well versed in accounting um you know with numbers data analytics sometimes you know data mining as well so I really um think um CMA has evolved a lot and served a lot for the community yeah great um and then Mason how about you yeah so I guess I was taking my CMA while I was in my Revenue recognition role so that was something completely new to me I majored in finance I didn't really have much accounting knowledge so working on a team of CPAs I wanted to kind of prove my my uh knowledge base really quickly so the CMA actually helped with that part one actually has a as I mentioned before Revenue recognition portion uh so I could I felt like after I took especially part one I could more confidently answer a lot of the ad hoc requests that I get from other functions asking about why we can't recognize Revenue like even though we've received payment for it and understanding that's like a deferred revenue versus a revenue question uh and then second in fpna uh it also helped me see the big picture and like connect the work that I was doing in Revenue recognition back to fpna uh like for example I think cash cycle is a portion of the second part of the exam so understanding why like we want to lower our cash cycle so bring in uh Revenue as quick as possible and delay our payments as long as possible uh and why that's good for our income statement so that was those are I guess I guess i' say those two were the the the main two applications great and then Drew how about you I think the the main one that comes to mind is kind of on the financial reporting side of things so um you know I'm not sure which section it's included in but you things like the statement of cash flow and revisiting some of those items have been really helpful in the roles that I've had there have been a few items that have been you know as I was studying in you know I changed roles I think during the duration of my study period And so my responsibilities kind of evolved and there were things that were included I was like oh this is interesting but I'll never need this and sure enough at a later role I have needed it um you know especially working for a global organization um things like currency exchange um which is included in in the study materials has been really relevant so great and one thing that hopefully the students picked up up on and I've heard I think almost all of you say in some capacity but getting the CMA gave you confidence and it really showed you that you understood it and that you could speak to it I know Christy you kind of touched on this and from other panels that I've done I I've realized that a lot of people who are working in management or corporate accounting or corporate finance with the CMA they're always explaining the numbers and the reason why to other people and I think chrisy you kind of mentioned it with sales where you might be looking at reports and information but you have to tell marketing why certain decisions are being made and you're not always dealing with someone who is numbers based but when you're a CMA you're the one that's actually taking all that data and information and then helping that company to make those decisions to move them forward and I think um that's one of the great things about having the CMA um so I'm gonna this question so what is something because again these are students and they're they're starting to learn about you know what's their first job going to be or what does it mean to work in accounting and finance um but what if something you didn't realize you would be doing a lot of in your career that you never would have guessed as a student so Chrissy I'll put you on the spot for this one sorry um sorry I was like answering a question which you mind repeating that again oh yeah the one you didn't realize you would be doing a lot of in your career when you were a student um I guess it's actually not so much related to the credentials but it's actually dealing with different personalities um a lot of it it's like uh sometimes like uh we might tend to put a lot more focus on the numbers and on the credentials but at the end of the day it's actually working with different personalities um especially for me I I'm I'm Asian I grew up in a different culture that I would have a different communication style like to meet that is obvious maybe to someone else it's not obvious uh then it's being able to make sure people understand what you're trying to say that's would help you um move up faster and then be more successful um because at the end of the day fpna a big part of it it's actually influencing uh behaviors and uh you know um promoting like efficiency within the organization especially in a startup everyone is fighting for resources you only have a small pie um you know how how do you you know navigate through that um I think that's the part that I'm still learning until today yeah how about you drew I think one thing that I've been uh kind of surprised with is the sort of overall shift from inperson work to remote and hybrid kind of the um so my role was fully remote and whenever I was an undergrad I never would have thought about having a fully remote role so I think that's just been a little bit surprising to see but I believe it's one of the strengths of the accounting profession is that um you know we're one of the number one uh types of roles that you can work remotely and there's a lot of benefits that come with that so I think that was something that I just never thought of in undergrad was that that would be a Poss ility interesting all right how about you Mason similar to kind of what Christy's point was saying like as a student I was really focused on the technical skills so like hard skills like accounting Finance Excel uh didn't realize how that's just one part of the equation and arguably the smaller part of the equation than the soft skills so like networking coffee chats uh and after working I realized how important that was not only in like just making yourself feel more comfortable at your job but like establishing kind of who's going to get that next movement uh up in the hierarchy so recently I've been making a lot more of a concentrated effort to have to network when I can and to have con copy chats with people uh that I'm interested in like just picking their brains uh want to just expose yourself to more uh more of your interest but also uh it shows people that like it's a better way of connecting and these are businesses where it's like big on connections uh so although some hard skills like the CMA and like Excel are really important the soft skills shouldn't be overlooked yeah and honestly when I've been working with students for a number of years and I I've also been working it is a skill and when you talk about a skill it's something you have to work on and I think a lot of times when I talk with students they get nervous about networking and I say it's not easy for any of us you know even someone like me that likes to talk or do presentations like this it's difficult but you just have to keep putting yourself out there talking to people talking to your students getting involved um in clubs on your campus like these are all going to help build those skills and just the plug for IMA I talked about courses that we have we have a lot of soft skill courses as well so that's I love that you guys have brought that up and then Megan how about you what's something you didn't realize you'd be doing a lot of I might give two answers okay that's a low I think we're still from a business lens I think coming out of college I was pleasantly surprised by the immediate impact that you could have on the business um as an example I think a role that we had within a portfolio financing in our pharmaceutical sector I was responsible for shaping the entire pharmaceutical Outlook spanning p&l balance sheet cash flow pipeline valuations for a fiveyear Outlook a 10-year Outlook in a 50 billion plus business so I think that to me was like I thought you had to be much higher up in the organization right to be able to have that experience and that skill set and I think some of the things that make you successful in that you touched upon Mary right it's being able to visualize explain the financials to various functions that may not understand Finance but do it in a way that can help bring the right stakeholders together and inform that decision making so that was cool to see early on and then I think the second is probably around people leadership I think the amount of time that I see spent on people leadership mentoring recruiting I think for me that's one of the reasons I like working at J&J because of that men's focus on people development um and I'd say early on in my career I was a beneficiary of that right I was fortunate to have a number of sponsors mentors that really helped me navigate right that transition from college and now I like to think I'm trying to pay that forward as a people leader um very involved in pen State recruiting efforts as an example and and teaching courses there so I think those are probably the two things I was not expecting at of college yeah um so I I'm looking at some questions that are coming in one question that I noticed someone was asking about Excel skills and that made me think so for students if you were you're talking to students right now was there any class that was extremely beneficial to you in undergrad or any class that you're like oh I could go back and do it again I would take that class and it would really would translate to your uh career so whoever wants to answer feel free to speak up come on Megan you're my education girl is there any mine's a very probably simplistic one I um a lot of the classes that I took undergrad were geared towards um more Wall Street right and I think taking a class that was Finance 305w for me was it was a corporate finance introduction class and I think that was the most beneficial because it opened my eyes to what a career in corporate finance could look like introduced me to uh discounted cash flow model valuation that um yeah kind of led me to take an internship in finance for the first time so for me that was probably the most beneficial or most memorable one anyone else the one that comes to mind oh go ahead Mason I was just gonna say I guess recent memory uh so management communication would probably be like my most class in undergrad it was like taught us how to write and create a uh a meaningful email one that can actually influence people and persuade people these are like kind of things that you're expecting to know in the workforce but like they don't really teach you like in the school is like how to actually communicate with people like effectively once you arrive in the workforce uh and then I guess onto the question of uh Excel I'm actually in a class now on my NBA program called financial statement modeling so if they have that version of a class at the undergrad level highly suggested it's like purely all in Excel your uh modeling out the income statement for a company similar that you do for like a valuation course so how you suggest any course that's that's like that visibility anyone else I did see a question that I'm going to put out there um it comes from Stephanie and she says panelist in your opinion what do you think is the most important aspect to consider when choosing career path in the vast accounting field so you know any insight like how did you get into industry I know chrisy you started in public accounting Drew you work for a nonprofit so if anyone wants to give some insight into that I'll say it again real quick um what do you think is the most important aspect to consider when choosing a career path or how did you choose it what did you know you wanted to go into industry so by Bice maybe I guess what I did is take the opportunity under grad to try different things right if you can do two internships in very different fields then you'll get to understand what areas you're passionate about and what you want to pursue fulltime um I actually mentioned I did write biology undergrad and my first job was in a um an R&D lab right I was doing cell culture development scale up for an ecology drug and I loved the work I actually did it two summers and then I found that a lot of my colleagues were aspiring to um almost move out of the lab so they could help deploy resources to those in the labs and prioritize and make those business decisions and like that kind of sounds like Finance at some sense so then I did a internship in J&J finance and then when I was in J&J finance my supervisor sent me over to the R&D organization so I could learn about clinical trials for a day so I felt like through those different experiences was able to kind of cultivate what a longer term career could look like for me um because right there's so many things you could do with accounting and finance so as much as you can now use your undergrad opportunity to test and learn do case studies on campus to maybe learn at different companies um go to Career pars and just talk message people on LinkedIn but yeah use this time now so that you can figure out what you want not that once you start a career you're set on it forever um but this is a good time to kind of shape that anyone else Drew how did you get into a nonprofit like Habitat for Humanity yeah so I kind of intentionally went into the nonprofit industry just because it was something I was passionate about but I think from a higher level sort of the process that I went through somewhat unconsciously was to kind of look at the different domains of my life sort of the different areas both my professional my personal just sort of all those however you kind of divide that up and um I B basically evaluated different paths and kind of like Megan was saying sort of different options and I think that's where it's really helpful to try different things out and I found what I felt like was the best that fit that would make me successful in each of those areas so I kind of defined what success looked like to me in each of those areas and then chose a path that I felt like would um kind of lend itself towards success in those areas and I think there that's Megan said you know exploring those different internships doing um as much as you can see what the different areas are look like but also sort of doing that introspection and saying um here's what's important to me here's what I'd like to do in my career and try to find that alignment where possible and that's I sort of did that exercise over time and and that's where it led me in the nonprofit industry yeah great anyone else want to chime in one thing that I will say just from working with students and this is what I think is great about accounting and finance it's not just accounting and finance but think about what actually what motivates you or what's your interest if you're someone that enjoys music and that's your passion guess what they need accounting and finance people in the music industry um you know there's there's so much data analytics with Spotify and different music programs like really just think about what it is that interests you and then when you're a management accountant or a corate Finance person it's kind of what someone said earlier you're actually helping to do things for that company that are going to move it forward like you're actually making a difference within those companies so I think having that background in accounting and finance really does open the door to explore what it is that you want to do um so for the sake of time I always like to end on this question and I know we didn't get through everything but there was this was a great discussion to hear from all of you but what would your advice be to your younger self as a student or what do you want to tell the students as they are looking ahead to their future so Drew I'll start with you because you're at the top of my screen sure so I think I would encourage you to kind of do that that exercise I just mentioned of of determining what success looks like to you um but also sort of On a related note you know there's sort of a a saying that it's a marathon and it's not a Sprint and um I think that's I have to remind myself in my career is that that's true I think it's also you know sort of expand the metaphor just a little bit sometimes your career is also Triathlon it looks different at different times in different seasons so um I think just to determine what success looks like to you and then to just invest in yourself through things like the CMA and to just stay at it while all you're moving towards that measure of success right and Mason how about you you're talking to your former self what do you want to say yeah uh so uh kind of not to reiterate too much on what Drew just said but find out what you want to do early on uh try to understand the why of why you want to do it and explore so combining all those points and kind of to double click into one of the things that Megan mentioned was like LinkedIn and like the importance of like you can actually search by your school and look at alumni that are in the field that you're interested in and alumni are often more likely to speak to you and like have a set of a conversation with you and don't be afraid to like set up and have conversations with people that you're that are in fields that you're interested in and do that early on that's kind of one thing that I wish I did because that that can give you a good taste of what it's like to be in that industry or that field uh and then on a third note kind of like casting a wide net with the internships that you're applying to jobs that you're applying to uh you don't necessarily have to CH make that choice but it's always good to have that opportunity uh so that you can accept it uh if that's something if that actually interested you and you find that out later on great great how about you Christie um I would say um that like at during my time I don't think LinkedIn what's what's available yet so um I I would I would say that uh if I'm talking to my younger self again it's not to make a decision too early because a lot of the definition like what Drew and Mason mentioned like definition of success and a definition of success could be pretty fluid like during stages of life so um you know like don't be too hard on yourself and make a too early decision like you know I can only be in public accounting or I can only be in fpna some people might not even enjoy a W2 job but they can you utilize a CMA credential to open their own business and it's still providing you know the service still making an impact in the community so I guess it's like um being comfortable with you know changes it's actually it it's it will help you navigate yeah great thank you and Megan how about you final parting words what I would have told my younger self um so for me I think what I heard a lot was networking set up oneon-one all of that I think what I've learned throughout my career and what I wish I would told myself in the beginning was look for those authentic connections right don't connect to connect look look for who you resonate with leaders that you appreciate their style and as you go through your jobs it could be a former boss right ends up becoming a mentor and a sponsor going forward and being able to kind of maintain that Network I found really helps get your foot in the door right for new job opportunities because I'm thinking right Mason I know a couple of folks from J&J that went to BD that I was tring with not that I'm looking to leave J&J but like it is nice to just have that Network and hear about the various opportunities going um and then I think similar to what christe said in the sense of having a growth and learning mindset um because for me what I've seen is the role that you've entered doesn't have to be the same role that you leave at the end of the day so being able to go in looking for efficiencies process improvements for areas that maybe aren't as fun for you but use that to free up time so you can really focus in and double down on the areas that you're passionate about because my experience right that's where you're going to do the best work and really set yourself apart um so yeah thank the authentic Network and the growth mindset for me wish someone would told me that a younger me that 12 years ago I love it thank you so much uh for what you said and I want to thank our panelists uh they definitely gave a lot of great Insight you got to hear a lot about what they are doing with their companies can you see the glime on here is that okay um I want to thank our sponsor glime CMA review for sponsoring this web weinar and if you did enjoy this so I think a lot of what they said like I said every time we do one of these webinars just based on what I see coming in in the chat based on what our panelists say it takes where the conversation is that there's always seems to be a different theme that resonates um I highly suggest for you to attend our next um panel series again this is we have someone from Microsoft ebony Wilkerson she got her ma ma very later in life um hamans Ray who is the director of Finance with global supply chain with Starbucks Corporation and then Eric Leonard so vice president of Global Services with Johnson and Johnson and I think what in my parting words are going to be to the students so everyone on this panel Drew Mason Christie Megan they're IMA members everyone that's going to be on this next panel um with Eric hu and Ebony they are IA members and our panelist today said you know how important it is to build that Network that is what IMA is it is accounting and finance professionals who are part of this organization so I want to thank everyone for both attending this especially our panels and to glime and I'm going to leave my contact information up here especially for my students and the faculty if you want to reach out to me [Music]