Merissa Lambert, MBA

I would have to attribute my success to myself. I saw early on what life would look like if I didn't have myself together. I grew up with an alcoholic mother, and eventually I was in foster care, group homes, and independent living. I was a young teen mom, and I saw my family have nothing. I'm the first one in my family to actually go to college, the first one to graduate. I actually graduated high school early so I could just jump ahead. I got emancipated from the state when I was 17, and I just saw what life looked like if I let life happen to me. I made a decision early that I was going to do something better. I was going to give my kid a better life and give them something to be proud of. There were a lot of times growing up where we would have those conversations in class, like career days, where people would talk about the dad that's a firefighter or the mom who's a manager somewhere, and I was like, my mom does drugs, my mom drinks. I'm one of eight children, and out of all 8 of us, I'm the only one to go to college. I'm the only one that owns my own home. I'm the only one who is essentially successful. A lot of my siblings either have multiple children, some of which they don't have custody of, or they're alcoholics and drug addicts, so unfortunately I don't have any contact with my family. It's definitely hard, and I always get that question, like, who do you look up to, and who made a big impact? And I'm like, myself, honestly.

The best career advice I received was to do what makes me happy and to take my time off. It was very much about understanding that at the end of the day, mental health matters, and if you're not at your best, then you can't perform at your best. That comes with mistakes, that comes with issues, that comes with resentment. So it was definitely about taking your time off, going away from work, getting yourself right, so when you come back, you're ready to hone in and focus. My old CFO, who I loved, was very much about reminding me that at the end of the day, your work will still be here. It feels like it's a revolving door, you always have something to do, so don't carry that when you leave. That was probably life-changing for me, because I was very caught into the go-go-go mode of it, and I kind of lost my focus. She had to put things in perspective, like, hey, work will always be there. Jobs will always be there. But at the end of the day, you have a certain period of time with your kids. You are one person. Mental health matters. Take care of yourself, take care of your family. And in turn, it just makes you a better employee.

I would tell young women entering accounting and finance to stay focused and don't go after it for the money. You definitely have to go into it for the love of it. If you go into it after the money, you're going to successfully climb the corporate ladder, but you will be absolutely miserable. Going into this field, you have to love what you do. You've got to have a passion for the numbers and reconciling and figuring out where all the pieces go. So I would definitely say to make sure that you're going into it because you love it, and not just for the money. Also, if you don't have the right mentor, you're going to get stuck. A lot of the entry-level positions in this field don't pay the best, and there are a lot of higher-ups that are gatekeepers. They don't want to give that information because they want to keep it for themselves, as that comes with job security. You definitely have to align yourself with the right mentor who's going to be able to teach you. Absorb as much as you can. And then I would definitely say after the first couple of years, find another position that levels you up. Otherwise, you kind of get stuck where you're at. Put 2 years here, learn everything you can, level up somewhere else for another 2 years, because otherwise you won't get ahead.

The biggest opportunities in accounting and finance right now are that it's an ever-growing field, so there's always room. There are always accountants that are needed, there are always analysts that are needed. If people could get into those fields, it would be awesome. I would definitely suggest being a dual person so you don't get stuck in one position. There are so many opportunities out there, especially if somebody has a CPA - it's endless. As far as challenges go, I would definitely say that starting out, if you don't have the right mentor, you're going to get stuck. A lot of the entry-level positions in this field don't pay the best. And there are a lot of higher-ups that are gatekeepers. They don't want to give that information, they want to keep it for themselves because that comes with job security. So you definitely have to align yourself with the right mentor who's going to be able to teach you. Absorb as much as you can. And then after the first couple of years, find another position that levels you up. Otherwise, you kind of get stuck where you're at and won't get ahead.

The values most important to me are integrity and ethics. You definitely have to have that, especially in my line of work. If you don't have that, and you don't have principles, you essentially don't have anything. I think that's a huge thing. And then also, just treating people how you would have wanted to be treated. I've had bosses and CFOs who were very rough, and finding out that their home life wasn't the best, so they would take it out on their employees. As I'm moving forward, I don't ever want somebody to feel how I felt in those moments because of me. So it's very much about treating people how you want to be treated, and then also just having your own moral compass, your own ethics, your own set of boundaries. Because like I said before, you can kind of get lost very quickly in this world.