Her Story
About Nicole
Nicole Blankenship serves as Tax Lead Assistant at Intuit, focusing on the TurboTax portion of the business. She has been in the tax field since 2015 and in her current leadership role for three years, supporting peers with program and tax questions while occasionally assisting customers directly. Nicole earned a BA in Photojournalism from Central Michigan University in 2008 after beginning studies at Western Michigan University. She maintains her PTIN annually and is studying for her EA credential. Nicole credits her success to strong people skills, emphasizing quick, accurate, and efficient communication to build lasting client relationships. She values loyalty, mutual respect, growth opportunities, and feeling rewarded and listened to in her work. As a single mother, she appreciates the flexibility the role provides. Nicole notes that tax law changes require ongoing education but enjoys the continuous learning, including the integration of AI tools into tax preparation.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Nicole
01What do you attribute your success to?
Bottom line, I would say people skills. You need to know how to communicate well with people and the more you're able to do it quick, accurately, and efficiently, the better and stronger the relationship can be. As a tax preparer, you could see 100 people in a day, but sitting down with each customer, hearing out their story, knowing who they are, that really makes a difference. It's making yourself unique and special to create that connection.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice is no advice at all. Trust yourself, trust your instincts, trust in what you feel is right. From a high school self-discovery class, it stuck with me over the years. If I ever get in a tough situation, I stop and think, trust yourself.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Do it, do it, do it, do it. As a single mother raising two daughters, this career has given me flexibility to be with my children in the summer. It's a dream job that lets me be a successful career woman and successful mom. Intuit has Intuit Academy where you can take classes and there's a job waiting. Even if you don't think you're good with numbers, try it. There's growth opportunities and always more to learn.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The most challenging is tax law. It's by the book, and every year things change so we have to continuously learn and educate ourselves on the new laws. Since I've been doing taxes, we had stimulus checks. But I enjoy that it's a field you continually learn and grow in. AI has become a big part, and we implemented a whole AI area into doing taxes, which is a nice tool and I see a bigger future with AI.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Professionally, feeling rewarded for what you put in, paid well, listened to, growth opportunity, mutual respectful agreement. It ties into personal relationships too. Loyalty is huge. Intuit has provided all of that, valuing being stronger together, listening, gathering ideas. Loyalty means if I'm loyal to you, I'm not going to talk about you behind your back, but telling people positive things.
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