Yesterday (2/3/26), I was fortunate enough to speak on a career panel at Paradise Valley Community College. The theme of the day was accountants working in industry, forensics, and those running their own firms. Here are a couple highlights I enjoyed talking about and hope the students found useful.
On technology
- Yes, using AI is a necessity at this stage, but there are lots of privacy concerns. I did offer up a nugget that you can make an airtight LLM by running it locally on hardware that is only on your onsite server - this would be a good way to get the benefit of using AI without worrying about the security risk of data leaking, even if your plan prohibits your data being trained on.
- Two things can be true: I think Excel is wildly overused, and in the next 3-4 years I hope to see accountants use proper programs and tools instead of using Excel as a Swiss Army knife for everything. Having said that, I told students that if you want to be immediately useful and contribute as an accounting professional, get good with Excel because you will certainly be using it in the workforce.
On career advice
- Students today have more access to information than any other generation before. They are constantly inundated with opinions about what's the right path, the right tool, the right AI model, and so on. It's important to be solid on the foundation of whatever you're doing... AKA know your debits and credits. A successful accountant isn't just someone who is a QuickBooks wizard; rather, a truly successful accountant is someone who knows their debits and credits, T-accounts, and technical accounting guidance. This allows them to be tool-agnostic, and instead of being held captive by a particular tool or software, you can focus on solving the actual problem for your employer or your clients.
- I emphasized at the end that when you enter the workforce, just be Relentlessly Useful, show up and give good effort, and have a great attitude. At the end of the day, we're all human, and people want to work with people who are kind and fun.
Thank you to Lynn and Judy and the rest of the PVCC team for having the other panelists and me there. And of course, thank you to the students who came out and asked great questions to make it interesting and fun!
-Bennett