Tuesday 9 August 2016

Do you Know How to Self-Market?

Do you Know How to Self-Market?

In the following post, Lewis Daidone discusses how accountants can improve their career prospects with effective marketing strategies. Lewis Daidone is a Certified Public Accountant and a consultant to tech companies and financial services firms.

In general, the qualities that make for a fantastic accountant don’t necessarily apply in the marketing sphere (except when determining marketing budgets). Accountants value the application of logic, while successful marketing is entirely dependent upon the ability to appeal to the often illogical habits of the consumer.

Because accountants don’t typically have the kind of fanciful disposition that can easily create appealing marketing campaigns, they aren’t very successful at marketing themselves to prospective employers and clients. If you have solid accounting credentials, it may seem like a tidy resume and social media page should be enough to broadcast your strengths to your potential targets. Unfortunately, this isn’t enough. Here are a few tips that might help you effectively demonstrate your value.

  • Don’t sell your job title—sell solutions. Your knowledge of GAAP isn’t as attractive to potential clients and employers as your history of successfully facing challenges and providing effective solutions. Describe exactly how your ideas and innovations have added organizational value and benefitted previous clients.
  • Make your passion for your career evident. Even if you became an accountant because you’re good with numbers and it’s a solid career track, those perfectly reasonable motives won’t sell your ability as much as your excitement about your job and your future will.  
  • Emphasize your stellar interpersonal skills. Accountants have an unfortunate reputation for being introverted numbers-crunchers who are happier sitting alone at a desk than giving a presentation in front of an audience. Networking and relationship-building are hugely important professional skills. If you have fantastic customer relationship skills and possess the ability to influence people, you will be an extremely valuable acquisition for any organization.
It seems counter-intuitive to try to make your accounting skills sexy, but if you want to compete, you’ll have to make yourself and your brand irresistible. 

Lewis Daidone, a certified public accountant, works as an investment management consultant with BlackRock.  Learn more about him by visiting this blog.

Monday 8 August 2016

Accounting Mentor Programs Part 3: Recognizing a Well-Structured Mentorship Program

Accounting Mentor Programs Part 3: Recognizing a Well-Structured Mentorship Program


In the final post of the mentorship series, Lewis Daidone discusses the importance of finding a high-functioning mentorship program with clear objectives. Lewis Daidone is a Certified Public Accountant and a consultant to tech companies and financial services firms.


Although mentorship programs are definitely becoming more common in the financial and accounting sectors, not all programs are created equal. Here are a few indicators that you’ve found a well-constructed and effective mentoring program.
  • Goals are thoroughly defined. “Mentoring” can be a vague concept. When businesses treat mentoring programs like a cross between an introduction to the company culture and a probation period, they are failing to exploit their full organizational resources. Look for a program that has specific objectives. Does the company want to encourage cross-departmental familiarity? Does it want to give new hires the tools to pass the CPA exam? Does it want to optimize team-member performance?

  • Timetables are set and maintained. One of the most common reasons mentorship programs fail is because of a lack of commitment to any set schedule. (This is particularly true during tax season, where offices get hectic.) There should be consistent meetings between the mentor and mentee throughout the duration of the mentorship. Furthermore, there needs to be regular benchmarking of achievements, so that progress can be assessed and challenges addressed. If there is no adherence to any schedule, it is likely that the program is going, or has gone, stale.
  • The mentorship program is organization-wide. It might not be reasonable to expect every senior-level employee to mentor another employee, but everyone in the entire company has to be accessible to the mentorship program, and offer guidance when necessary.

  • The program has strong oversight. The management team should make its interest in the success of the program evident by involving itself in its operations.


Mentorship programs can be a boon to both companies and individual employees. As workplace expectations continue to develop and industry practices continue to innovate, mentorship programs will become indispensable in helping organizations meet diverse challenges.

Lewis Daidone, a certified public accountant, works as an investment management consultant with BlackRock.  Learn more about him by visiting this blog.