Amy Ford, Gleim Instructor, Talks About Her Career in Accounting

Hi I’m Amy Ford, and I wanted to share with you a little bit about my background and how I came to be an accounting professor and an accounting professional.

So my story is maybe unique in that I come from a really really really small town and I know some of you are thinking, “Oh yeah, my town is not that big.” No, my town is tiny. 800 people – where I grew up, a very small town, very small town in Illinois, so farming community. My graduating class in high school had 35 people.Growing up in that environment really shaped the person that I am and the accountant that I am.

My dad tells a story of – I was in kindergarten everybody’s learning like the alphabet and you know basic words and then when you get to math, you’re learning your numbers maybe like one plus two, and my dad was like no no no, you were learning your multiplication tables when you were in kindergarten. And I always laugh because I really don’t remember that at all, but it just kinda reminds me that you know, from a very young age, I was good at math, and that sometimes is something that women aren’t as strong in or women aren’t as promoted in kind of those stem activities, right? Now, just because you’re good at math, is that going to mean you’re going to be a good accountant? Not necessarily. There’s so much more to being an accountant, and that’s we’re growing up in a small town really shaped the person and the communicator and the manager and all those other skills that are necessary to be successful in business.

So being from a small town, you got to be involved in a lot of different things. So, for example, growing up I did all kinds of different sports. I played softball. I played basketball, volleyball. I ran track. I’m not really that great any of those things; let’s just be honest, but when you’re from a small town, it takes five people to play basketball. There were only six of us in my whole class. It’s an experience that you don’t always get to have when you’re in a large community. How does playing middle school basketball make me a better accountant? Well, I was a part of a team. In business, don’t we have to be parts of a team? Working together, communicating, working towards a common goal? So being part of a sports team when you’re 12 years old helps you develop skills that you need later in life.

All through middle school and high school, I was a cheerleader, and I laugh doing the Gleim Instruct Videos. I tend to smile a lot and I think that that’s just because I was a cheerleader.

I had a lot of great cheerleaders in my life too. I’ve had educators from elementary school all the way through college who helped me and I think my teaching style takes a little bit of each one of those people. So I had a lot of great women who encouraged me to sit for the CPA Exam. I can still remember sitting in a professor’s office and saying, “I don’t know if I should do this. I don’t know if I can.” She looked at me, and she said, “Amy, you can do this.” That was a really pivotal moment in my life. You know, yes, you can do this, you should sit for the CPA Exam.

Now, here’s a little fact that you might not know. I am a first generation college student. Neither of my parents graduated from college, but it’s a little apprehensive going in as a first generation college student. That’s where having your advisers, having peer groups, getting involved . . . so when I was at the University as a student, I was so when I was at the University as a student, I was active in Beta Alpha Psi. Now, that’s the professional business fraternity for accounting and finance professionals. I was the president of Beta Alpha Psi, and that really gave me a lot of involved on campus, so I always tell people when they’re, when they’re looking at college, get involved.

Now that goes beyond the college years, so this is all building up to this atmosphere of if you’re active, if you’re engaged, if you’re involved, you’re volunteering, when you get out of college and become a young professional, or like me, I’m not quite a young professional anymore. I’m more like an average professional, I’m not an old professional. I wouldn’t use that at all, but seriously, you you still engage in those outside activities. Now where has that taken me? I help a local not for profit organization with some of their accounting. Hey, I’m helping people. I’m helping with accounting. Those are my skill sets. It’s really enjoyable. I volunteer with my children’s activities because you know, I’m in that small town.

I’m still in that small town, by the way, can you believe that?

So, I attended Western Illinois University in So, I attended Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois, and that’s actually where I teach now today. So I took a traditional path. I went in right as an accounting major. I always knew I wanted to be an accountant. So I took a very traditional route. I had to have the 150 hours that was the choice that I had to make as I was planning out my college career, so I got my undergraduate degree in accounting and then I stayed for my master’s degree.

I have a Masters of Accountancy as well from Western Illinois University, and within a one week time period, I graduated from the University with my master’s degree and sat for the two day, that’s like 16 hours all four parts on my first try and I was a CPA.

So after that, I had my CPA, I had my Masters in Accountancy. I went to work at a mid-sized accounting firm in public accounting. So I worked as an auditor for several years, about five years as an auditor in a public accounting firm, and out of the blue, I had a phone call from the University that they were needing an instructor, and it was like July and they needed an instructor in August, and so you know I went back and I thought, what do I really enjoy, what do I enjoy most? You know, I like accounting and this is what I always tell people. I like accounting, I like debits and credits, I like numbers, but I love teaching. So if I get to teach accounting, it’s like the best thing in the world for me, so I’ve been teaching at Western Illinois University my alma mater for 13 years now.

You might also say well wait a second, when did you get that CMA? Well, I was back at the University teaching. I was teaching managerial accounting, and I was like, wait a second, what’s the CMA? Certified Management Accountant? Maybe I should learn about this. So I started learning about the CMA exam and I thought, you know what, this is a great certification. I think my students, my students should be taking this exam. So in order to mentor my students, in order to help other people, I thought you know what, I’m just going to take the exam. So a lot of years after graduating and going to school, I was teaching accounting, and I sat for the CMA exam, and so I’ve been a CMA since 2011.

When I was working in public accounting, I had a baby in the middle of busy season. I know, I didn’t plan that very well, did I? But it was all good. You know, I was very supported. I actually worked under two female managers. These two women, you know, shaped my career and they were both moms, so it was really great to work in public accounting where they understood if I needed some flexible hours or I needed to work from home, and they love to see baby pictures too, so that was okay too.
Now that I’m at the University, that work-life balance continues to be something that I have to balance. I have teaching, a full time job as teaching, I have my students, and I have my family, and I have my volunteer activities, and it’s really hard to say no, it’s really hard for me to say no, and so I have had to find that because I’m very analytical, there’s only so many time spots in a calendar there’s only so many time spots in a calendar and you have to make sure that you plan for time that’s downtime. You know, you can’t fill every spot with every possible activity.

So the message that I want to share with you is that to be successful, it takes a lot of different characteristics. You it takes a lot of different characteristics. You have to be able to communicate, you have to be a member of a team, you have to make sure that you’re balancing your work-life balance.

Think about the steps. Did I get here in a day? No, I’m getting old, it’s been much more than even a few years to get to the point where I’m at, but it’s important that I think about each step along the career path and how that’s going to build your skills. So this job is building the skills for the next job and that volunteer activity that you’re working on, that’s giving you skills managing a team so that when you’re ready to manage a team in your workplace environment, you’ve got some experience. So make sure that you take each step along your career path and build those skills to be a successful accountant in your future.