I spend about 2,400-2,500 hours on work each year (including PTO). However, you will notice very few posts or mentions of my work. I enjoy my job, but you will notice that the things that matter the most to me are my family and so that is what we write about. However, I enjoy so many of the things about my work. I enjoy the challenges of solving problems and puzzles. I also really enjoy the people that I work with. I have been working at Eide Bailly for almost 10 years (10 years in January).
I have been promoted from staff to senior, to manager and to senior manager. I'm proud of all the things that I have accomplished. In the last couple of years I have started to feel much more unsettled about exactly what I have wanted to do with my career. I could stay at Eide Bailly and work to try and become a partner or I could take a job in "industry" as a Controller and try to work my way up to a CFO position. I've had quite a few conversations with Shantel and progressively we have felt more like I should explore my options in industry. However, I have wanted to make sure I found a really good opportunity. I did not put significant effort in over the last few years (2018 and 2019) and did not really find anything that fit.
This year I began to really feel much more anxiety about the career. My goals are really just to be able to take care of my family and maintain really good job security. I've had a few opportunities come to me over the years and had never really pursued and of them really hard.
This year I started to really feel two things. 1) I don't think I'll have the opportunity to make partner. Being a partner requires a lot of business development. In particular, we just had two people (who I'm good friends with) promoted to partner with 1 partner retiring. That meant there was good work to be able to pass off to them. However, we don't have any partners retiring in the near feature now, which means we really have to bring in enough work to promote another partner. It also means that next partner will really need to be able to bring in a lot of work. Business development and bringing in new jobs is not something I've been very successful at so far, even with people who know me and I should be able to get to work with us. With people I don't know I'm not the best at making those kind of connections and selling myself in a convincing way. 2) I am not sure that I would want to be a partner. Business development is not something that just goes away after you make partner, it is something you will be doing constantly. That does not really provide me a lot of interest. I'm not sure I want to just continue to do the same jobs over and over again either.
As I have pondered this, I have become increasingly uneasy. Slowly, I've felt the stress about this decision build. The alternative options is to go get a controller job. However, I have not felt great about that option either. I'm not sure I would truly enjoy the position and career path. Not feeling totally prepared to jump into that change has made it hard to leave public accounting, even if I have started to feel like I need that change. I have felt increasingly stressed and frustrated. I have been praying to try and seek Heaven's help. The first thing I have asked is particularly help to have the opportunities that I need to come to me and the second thing I have asked was to know what I would want to do.
During the April General Conference President Nelson opened conference by saying this:
"The purpose of this and every general conference is to help us to hear Him. We have prayed, and invite you to pray, that the Spirit of the Lord will be with us in such rich abundance that you can hear the messages that the Savior has especially for you—messages that will bring peace to your soul. Messages that will heal your broken heart. Messages that will illuminate your mind. Messages that will help you know what to do as you move ahead through times of turmoil and trial."
I felt inspired that as I would study the words of the prophet and apostles from the April conference that I could be blessed with the messages that would bring me peace, illuminate my mind and help me know what to do to move ahead. I tried to pray and seek guidance with each conference talk I read, especially hoping for guidance in my career. While I felt my Heavenly Father's love, I continued to feel more despairing and stuck in regards with what I should do with my career.
It was just before the next conference that I started a fast about my career. I had not felt much direction, but as I fasted and was praying I had a very clear answer come to my head as I finished my fast and was praying. The very clear answer was, "be patient." It was not spoken out loud, but it was so clear in my mind that it felt as if it were.
With that, I tried to keep moving forward with faith. I'll come back to this in a minute.
This last 3-4 months has been extremely busy with work. In fact, in September and October I worked as many hours as a typical March/April busy season. It has made it stressful and I feel like I have not done as much as I want to take care of my family. Fortunately Shantel is patient and kind and understands that I am trying to take care of our family and sometimes that requires a lot of work.
One of the things I have enjoyed most over the last year and half has been a project to develop a new client website/portal. In April 2019 I was asked to be part of an "innovation team" to work to identify what we wanted out of a new client website and document exchange portal. We met about once a week and then had a big in person brainstorm in August 2019. We did some early sketch out designs and I came up with this for a landing/home page.
(Insert sketch)
Over time I became one of the three leaders of the innovation team. Near the end of the year we finally presented to the governance committee our ideas about what needed to be included in this new site. With that, our innovation group shut down and they started working on the project. A few of us, including me were brought over as super users or champions to help when the project team needed input. Eventually I became the lead champion for the assurance side and another person became the lead champion for the tax side. We started attending more and more meetings and eventually became part of the project team. This meant that I was a key player in deciding what features were important and representing the entire audit department in making key choices and setting priorities. It has given me the chance to interact with key personnel across the firm and has been a really neat experience. I have learned so much about developing a new technology and how it interacts across the firm. I've been able to be part of big decisions and really be relied upon to help make the project successful. When we launched in September 2020 I received a message from our Chief Practice Officer which said:
Insert message from Ross.
Here are a few screen shots from the pages.
This firs tone is a screen shot from a demo they gave us of salesforce communities.
We were asked to come up with some idea for what it might look like for us. I sketched out an idea and then Shantel helped mock it up in photoshop so we could make a visual of what we were thinking.
These next one is from the webpage that has been developed.
I feel so connected to this project and have loved working on it. Since about August I have spent about 10 hours a week for this in meetings, doing testing, answering e-mails and now assisting with training. It has been a fantastic experience.
Of course- it is also part of the reason I have been so busy, adding 10 hours a week to the work I was already doing was a lot.
So that brings me back to the answer from Heavenly Father - Be patient. Within just a couple of weeks of the answer to be patient, I got a call from our Direction of National Assurance - Scott Philips. He was calling to invite me to do a 3 year rotation with our National Assurance Office (I still keep working from my Lehi Office). This is an incredible opportunity and a huge deal. I was thrilled. I have thought this would be something I would love, but did not know that I would get the opportunity. It is not something you really apply for, but instead they look across the firm and decide who they think would be a good fit. It is a huge honor just to be considered. I felt so peaceful and happy and grateful to the Lord for providing this opportunity. Shantel and I both thought and considered if it was right and we both feel really good about it.
I will begin in January. My time will be dedicated about 75% to the national office and 25% will be to retain client work that I had previously. As a member of the national office and I will on doing engagement quality reviews of other partners work, helping implement new standards, helping train staff, and helping new office join Eide Bailly among other things. I am really excited for the opportunity.
I think this will be a really good fit for me and a great next step. Even if I don't know what will come after, I am grateful that Heavenly Father hears my prayers and is aware of me and my family.
It is interesting because even as some things did not work out, the Lord prepared a way for me.
One of the opportunities we had last year was a chance to apply to go and do a 2 year GASB fellowship in Norwalk Connecticut. I would still work for Eide Bailly, but would be 100% working for the GASB. I have always thought I would love to go and work for FASB or GASB and help write the audit standards and this seemed like a perfect opportunity. Not many from Eide Bailly applied and I felt that if I did apply, I would have a really good chance to get the position. However, as we prayed and thought about it, it just did not seem like the right thing to do. There were many reasons for this, but in the end, we decided not to move.
Looking back I am so grateful that we did not go. One of the things we would most have wanted to experience would have been living on the east coast and seeing so many different things. I would have started in January 2020. With the pandemic hitting in mid-march, we would barely be settled before being stuck at our house. The best case scenario would see us unable to do all the things we would have wanted until at least July 2021. In other words, we would have moved far away and still not been able to enjoy the experience. In addition, I would have missed the opportunity to become a key member of the project team for My Eide Bailly. I also then would have missed the opportunity to work for the National Assurance office. Those two things are a much better fit for what I want and will be better for our family.
I am so grateful for the help in finding what is right for our family.
In January I will have been at the firm for 10 years, 2 1/2 at Hansen, Barnett, & Maxwell and 7 1/2 at Eide Bailly after the merger.
When I started my salary was $43,000 and a $1,000 bonus my first year. Now, 10 years later my salary is $110,000 with a bonus of about $8,000 to $10,000 a year. It is incredible to see how I have been blessed with such great financial blessings to be able to take care of my family. I know that my success has been through God's help and blessings. He has put the opportunities that I needed in front of me. For that, I am grateful.
I am certain that there will be more uncertainty ahead and I'm not sure where things will go after my three years at the national office, but I know that Heavenly Father knows me and that I can trust in him.
Last, I should mention how grateful I am for the support of Shantel. She is always by my side and helping me be successful with my job and take care of so many other things for our family so that I can make sure to earn money to support us. I am grateful for you, I love you Shantel. She could go and have an incredible career working in so many different places, but she has chosen to give her time and effort to teaching our children and caring for them and I am so grateful that she has chosen that and does such a wonderful job in our home.
