From An Accountant By Name To An Accountant By Practice: The Story Of Muindi

By Teresa Mulomi

I love numbers more than flowers or chocolate.

I am a natural problem solver, and it, therefore, comes as no surprise that Mathematics was and still is my favorite subject.

When everybody else was having a hard time with algebra and calculus, I was having fun crunching numbers and always topped my class.

Come time to do my degree, I chose Accounting in a heartbeat because I knew any course with problem-solving at its core was the right fit for me.

Again, I breezed through my graduate program acing my Cost Accounting, Managerial Accounting and even Auditing classes with ease. I managed to get a cumulative GPA of 3.7 out of 4:0 and in my head, I thought I was set to have a bright future in the Accounting field.

Was I wrong!

Irrelevant Work Experience as a Bank Teller

My first job after graduation was as a bank teller in a bank.

Apart from cash handling, my role was mostly customer-oriented.

It involved handling basic transactions such as cashing checks, helping customers with bank deposits and withdrawals, processing loan payments as well as marketing and cross-selling other bank services.

Even though I gained a lot of people-handling skills, the experience I gained was not particularly relevant and related to the tax and audit domains that I wanted to define my accounting career.

The Nightmare Begins: An alien to Corporate Finance

After 5 years in the banking industry as a teller, I decided to make my next career move and transition into corporate finance.

I applied and got a job as a Tax Accountant.

And this is when my nightmare began.

In this new role, I was charged with the responsibility of processing tax returns, preparing tax reports, researching and evaluating difficult tax issues and offering advice and direction during audits.

I was lost! I was clueless! I was highly unqualified!

Nothing in my previous background as a bank teller had prepared me for tax accounting.

The little knowledge I got from my graduate program was outdated and inapplicable to the current industry trends and changes related to taxation.

I was no longer the smart mathematics geek I once was but a confused, clueless tax accountant who had no idea how to get her job done.

It didn’t take long before my bosses noticed I was struggling and I was quickly let go.

Back to square one with CPA classes

After being fired, I had no source of livelihood but I was determined to restore my past glory.

I went back to school to do my CPA hoping it would empower me with the practical skills I needed to thrive in the tax and auditing field.  Even though I gained the skills to become a great controller, there was still a wide gap between my theoretical knowledge and the practical accounting skills demanded by employers and clients.

Getting connected to the right Practical Accounting Training

Processing payrolls was a challenge for me. I had not gained the mastery to navigate QuickBooks with ease and I found filing I-TAX returns to be extremely time-consuming and grueling.

I kept searching online and offline for a course, training, seminar, workshop…. anything that would enhance and expand my hands-on accounting knowledge.

I was almost giving up, when I came across the 5-day Practical Accounting training offered at Corporate Staffing Services.

At first, I was a bit skeptical because I thought 5 days was not enough for me to master such complex accounting aspects. However, I took the leap, paid and joined the class.

Honestly, it was the best decision I ever made.

In one word, I would describe the training as simply Outstanding!

The training was based on proper, perfect, up-to-date accounting strategies and the trainer presented complex accounting topics in a simple, straight forward way that was easy for me to grasp.

I am now not just an accountant by name but by practice!

Setting up my accounting firm

Soon after the training, I landed a job as a payroll specialist largely due to the Practical Accounting Certification I got at Corporate Staffing. Thanks to my newly acquired skills, I was a top performing employee in my workplace and I was quickly promoted to the financial analyst.

After two years, I quit my job and I am now running a successful accounting firm with 27 employees.

Are you having difficulty processing payroll, navigating QuickBooks or filing returns?

Or maybe you need to update your theoretical knowledge to reflect the practical accounting skills that employers and customers demand in the current marketplace.

You too, like Muindi can turn your story around. Enroll for the Practical Accounting Training here.