I recently hosted a group of Gatton students at Yum where they were able to hear the career stories and advice of some senior Yum employees in a variety of functions. I came away tremendously impressed with the engagement and commitment of the attendees which further reaffirmed my belief in the quality of students Gatton is producing.
I graduated from UK in the Fall of 1990 with a BS in Accounting
I knew going into college that I wanted to do something with numbers so it came down to engineering or business. I had taken an accounting class in high school and it was always just something that clicked for me. So, I landed on majoring in accounting and stuck with it throughout. I have heard it said before that accounting is the “language of business”. I have certainly come to appreciate that over time as I have interacted with so many people through the course of my career that started in accounting and leveraged that knowledge to make their way into very senior Finance roles not specific to accounting. Personally, though I have always had some accounting responsibility at Yum, I have been able to use my accounting background to have experiences in virtually all Finance functions of the Company throughout my career.
I actually graduated from UK in the Fall which made the end of my time at Gatton a bit different in that all of my friends still had a semester left. They returned to school after the break while I started a full-time job at KPMG the first week of January and was sent to Detroit (not great in January) for training. Plus, I spent a good part of my last semester studying for what was then the November sitting of the CPA exam. While I got a quick start on my career, as I look back I regret not enjoying that last semester of college more.
I think I would tell students to build a resume that sticks out. That can happen through educational activities, work experiences, volunteerism or anything else that an employer would find interesting. Not only do those things give your resume a little more cache, they can serve as interesting things to speak to in an interview. I would also say that a lot of success in this world is around who you know and being in the right place at the right time. So, it is important to always make good impressions, build a network and be a continuous learner.
I serve on the Dean’s Advisory Council for Gatton, which is a great way to stay connected to all the great things that are happening at the College. It is very rewarding to see the progress the College has made since I left and things are definitely on the right track. I also recently hosted a group of Gatton students at Yum where they were able to hear the career stories and advice of some senior Yum employees in a variety of functions. I came away tremendously impressed with the engagement and commitment of the attendees which further reaffirmed my belief in the quality of students Gatton is producing.
