Amber M Parker

I would partly attribute my success to my parents, since they pushed me to where I am. They did not want me to get lazy or give up all the time. I didn't always like to admit it, but now I realize they really helped me succeed. I have come so far from kind of struggling in elementary school to now being a young adult getting ready for the future and already ahead of multiple things. They taught me certain life skills and the importance of being independent. Being independent is what makes me successful - being independent enough to pay off my car insurance, to have my own bank account, to go to my own appointments, and to make long drives and talk to people on the phone without any help. My parents got me to where I am today through pushing me and teaching me independence.

The best career advice I received is that you cannot really cut corners or try to recalibrate what you're trying to do. You want to have a set time, you want to have a set goal. In the real world, there's a lot more stuff you have to do, and you need to take a lot more time out of that. I learned this in my marketing internship when I kept changing my ETA for my arrival times, and I had to be informed that if I could just make a set time when I was going to arrive, it would be easier and would help us get a lot of things done. Also, not to cut corners, and to just take your time on a lot of stuff. That is definitely good career advice.

I would say find something you feel that you have a purpose for, and it's okay to try new things. There's always going to be a day where you will be frustrated with how certain days went, such as when what you planned didn't go right, or you made a big error and you're down on yourself, or you had to get disciplined by your bosses or get humbled, and there are times that it does not feel great. But at the same time, there is always a purpose as to what happens. When I first started at Otterbein, I started out as an actuarial science and math major, but I eventually had to learn that I really overextended myself too much and I needed to downsize. I realized I can't do everything, but there is another career that I could find a purpose for. After I changed my major, I realized there is a purpose for me in that field, even though I didn't get everything I wanted and not everything worked out. It doesn't have to just be a career-wise purpose - it's also for other experiences. Over time with other experiences, you can combine them in accounting. I interned as a marketing intern, and people won't always count that as accounting experience, but to me, I felt like I did get accounting experience. I was able to shadow other departments and learn what accounting was like in the library. I was able to learn a lot of new stuff, so there's always a purpose for something.

The biggest challenge is trying to work my way through into building an accounting career. The way your accounting career begins is they do want you to have adequate experience, and a huge majority of jobs want you to be certified, which not only involves you going to school but finding the experience. That's a huge challenge, because then you have to do your own research as to how are you going to get from point A to point B, such as how am I going to get my CPA or how am I going to get certified, and how am I going to get to where I need to be in 10 years. It's a bigger picture. The opportunities for me are being able to use my free time to look up and do my own research and review what I learned in accounting. I do not always have to leave learning one and done. Big opportunities for me are to learn more, as well as to meet up with financial people. I know a gal who does accounting at my church, and I was able to meet up and have an interview with her and discuss what she does in accounting. I was able to learn a lot from that too, and it helped me to kind of connect a few things. The biggest opportunity is networking as well. Once you build networking, you meet people who not only you can trust, but that they can trust you, and they can refer you to something else. One of my friends, he's an accounting major, and he has gotten me together with a lady who works at a recruiting agency, so that way I have a lot of opportunities to get to.

The values most important to me in my work and personal life are productivity and communication. Productivity is especially most important for me. I want to be able to get as many tasks done as I can. I still cannot cut corners, but I definitely want to feel like I am working on something in a career, as well as working on something in my downtime. I like to use my gap time outside of a career to go shopping, or to meditate and reflect, or just relax. Being productive is a main foundation point for me. Being communicative is also important. Sometimes you need to communicate your thoughts and what you suggest in order for a result to happen. It's not always guaranteed to happen, but you will feel better that you communicated and you were able to get a response back.