Her Story
About Valerie
Valerie Brooks serves as a tax technology consultant at Global Tax Management Inc, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She entered the field in November 2018 after graduating from Rutgers University with an undergraduate degree in accounting, initially working in general corporate tax services for two years before transitioning to the tax technology group at her first company for another two years. Brooks then joined her current firm four years ago, where she focuses on helping clients implement tax-specific software and improve technology processes to increase efficiency in tax departments. She earned a Master's of Accounting from Temple University and obtained her CPA certification during that program. Brooks attributes her professional success to consistently being reliable and dependable, putting full effort into her work, and building a reputation that earns trust from colleagues and clients. She values transparency and authenticity in all interactions, avoiding political games or superficial approaches. In her view, the tax technology field offers both opportunities and challenges due to its constant evolution, particularly with advancements like AI that require ongoing learning of new tools and methods. Brooks advises young women entering the industry to build solid connections with coworkers, as these relationships make work more enjoyable, provide mentorship, and help achieve career goals. She also recommends focusing on what is within one's control rather than overthinking external factors.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Valerie
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think in every step of my career, I've always been someone that's reliable and dependable, and I've always kind of put my all into the work that I've done, and that's just I've been able to my work has shown the effort that I've put into it, so people kind of just trust that I'm someone that's gonna do right by them based on the reputation that I've built over time.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I would say not to overthink things that are outside of your control and just focus on doing the best with what you can do right now.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
It's important to make solid connections with the people that you work with, because one, it makes work easier and more fun when you have people that you like working with and trust and can kind of be a mentor to you. And two, it'll help get you into where you want to be, and kind of accomplish your goals.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
My industry, because it's technology-based, is something that's constantly evolving. So right now, with AI, a lot of things are changing as new capabilities come out, so it's something that keeps it interesting, because we're always working with new technology and kind of exploring new ways to do things, but it definitely is also challenging, because we're always kind of having to learn what the newest thing is that's out there.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
One of the most important things to me is to always be able to be transparent and honest, just like myself at all times. So that goes into work and personal, but I would say like work-wise I never like to play any like political games or be kind of superficial about things, I'm always just as real as I can be in every scenario.
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