Good morning.
During this year, I’ve been writing about attracting the next generation of accounting professionals and some of the challenges when it comes to retaining those starting out in the profession.
I recently had a conversation with Kathryn Kaminsky, vice chair, U.S. trust solutions co-leader at PwC, about this topic. Kaminsky says CPAs need to champion the profession and be even more intentional in telling their stories.
As for Kaminsky’s story, “I'm not the typical accountant,” she tells me. Kaminsky was a history major in college, and working at a camp led her to accounting.
“I lived in Ottawa, Canada, and believe it or not, they used to call it the Silicon Valley of the North,” she says. Kaminsky would spend one half of her summer working for a company in a customer service capacity helping clients by answering software questions, and the other half as a camp counselor.
A visit to the campus recruiting center would steer the direction of her career. A recruiter explained to her: “My skill set of working in corporate and being a camp counselor actually worked really well for being an auditor,” Kaminsky recalls.
“When you think about a camp counselor, you’re taking care of people, you’re giving them direction, and you're helping mentor them," she says. "And that's a lot of what we do at the firm.”
Kaminsky would go on to have a more than 30-year career at PwC, and along the way earned a CPA. “I grew up in the audit practice and I spent a lot of time in financial services, and the fact is, what we do matters,” she says. CPAs build trust in the information that drives the capital markets, according to Kaminsky.
But while the accounting workforce is projected to grow by 4% from 2022-2032, it may not be enough, Kaminsky says. Accountants can play a role in helping to increase the pipeline of CPA candidates by communicating to young professionals how vast and differentiated the profession can be.
“The world is changing so quickly,” Kaminsky says. ”Whether it be sustainability, or AI, the future of what we do is really exciting.” And that includes exploring technology in new ways, she says.
“The job of a CPA is not just about number crunching,” Kaminsky says. “It's actually, how do you lead teams? How do you have discussions with clients?”
“There are incredible leadership skills that you learn throughout your career at PwC that we probably don't promote enough," she says. "Like having hard conversations. That's a leadership skill whether it be with a client or with a team doing talent development, and that's all part of being a CPA.”
Kaminsky says that she’s visited college campuses along with her co-leader Wes Bricker, and Tim Ryan, U.S. senior partner at PwC, to tell their stories. And in April, PwC held Destination CPA, a new, three-day in-person immersive experience for accounting students and future CPAs from across the country who have an internship offer with the firm. Over 90% of attendees accepted their offers to join PwC, according to the firm. And there are plans to host the event again in 2024.
“I think they started to learn, but part of it was also adding some fun,” Kaminsky says. Like a round of "Family Feud" around questions that you’d find in a CPA exam, she says.
“I think there's so many options that come with earning a CPA,” Kaminsky says. “And you can take it with you wherever you go.”
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
