Path to Prosek: It's Never Too Early to Change Your Path - From Big 4 Accounting to PR

How can a person know everything at 18 and nothing at 22? From Taylor Swift’s Nothing New.

Eighteen-year-old me had thought I knew the exact path my career would take – from scoring well on the Connecticut high school accounting exam and starting my freshman year at Bentley University, a business school known for their accounting program, she thought her career path was set.

She would never have predicted the predicament I would find myself in at 22, only eight months into my accounting career. After finishing my first busy season as an audit and assurance assistant at one of the Big 4 accounting firms and studying for (and failing) multiple CPA exams, I no longer knew what the rest of my professional life looked like. Was it too early to not like the industry I studied for years to enter? Was it too early to completely reevaluate my future?

Eight years and a master’s degree later, I’m able to say that while I may not have seen these changes coming, I know I took the right risks and made the next best decisions for myself at each turn.

Major Choices & Job Offers

After realizing AP biology wasn’t my strong suit and dreading every calculous test, becoming a doctor or engineer seemed out of my wheelhouse. I was lucky to have an array of business courses available to take at my high school, and each year, I was unexpectedly placed into an accounting class, when the business law class I signed up for didn’t fit into my schedule. I loved the teacher and found the material (basic addition and subtraction) to be enjoyable. The teacher of this course really encouraged me to pursue public accounting as a career.

Once I decided on an accounting major, Bentley University was the perfect fit – right outside Boston (a city I grew up loving and visiting – go Sox and Celtics!), and a perfect-sized campus.

Throughout my time at Bentley I took an array of business classes, from my core accounting major classes to marketing and HR law electives. As I studied each semester, I assumed it was normal for major courses to be the most challenging. I thought everyone got their worst grades in the classes for their major – I was wrong, and my transcript would show that maybe the media and communications electives I loved doing work for, and ultimately aced, were much more my speed.

By the time I finished my sophomore year, I had already secured an internship with a dream firm for the summer after my junior year, which would lead to a full-time offer. The job was extremely well respected, with great pay and benefits; at the time there weren’t any downsides.

However, I never got to test the waters of what audit was really like with a full-time internship due to COVID. At no fault of anyone, my internship was two weeks over Zoom – a very different version of working in audit to the real thing. Once I began the job after graduation, the rose-colored glasses of entering the workforce wore off quickly.

While I made lifelong friends and learned invaluable skills for the workplace, my first audit busy season was a real wakeup call that accounting was not where I was supposed to be. I was unhappy, and I couldn’t imagine myself in this field in even five years, let alone for the length of a career.

180 Degree Switch Across the Pond

Once I finally understood that I couldn’t stay in the accounting world, I drove home from Boston to Connecticut on a Tuesday night. I threw my bags down, gave my dog a hug and kiss, and collapsed onto the couch with my parents. They asked me what was up, and I immediately burst into tears. I am fortunate to have parents that supported me, and I never wanted to let them down. In the moment, I felt like I was doing just that.

Telling them how I felt was the best thing I could have done. My dad immediately told me he never saw me as an accountant anyways (which would’ve been helpful to know years ago, but I appreciated it nonetheless). I was so privileged to have parents that supported me in making this change, that at the time felt like a complete 180 from the degree and job I had.

Realizing I was in the wrong field was easy. Planning what I’d do next was the hard part. Without my CPA certification, most other accountancy roles were out of the question, granted I wasn’t thrilled to even consider them. It seemed ridiculous to apply to other jobs in unrelated fields. The idea of graduate school quickly rose to the top of my list and once ‘London’ and ‘grad school’ clicked, I had my heart set.

Yet, I had no idea what exactly I wanted to go to graduate school for, or what I wanted to do after I finished my degree. The idea of working in project management for entertainment or sports was what I decided on, not really knowing what that meant. I spent weeks researching programs and revamping my resume with that in mind. City University of London offered a program in both media and communications, where most programs were one or the other. It was the perfect choice.

I was accepted and began my program across the pond six months later. Knowing nobody in London, I started over. I went to classes about social media marketing and the history of communications. I wrote a dissertation on social media and the influence it has on the public’s view of women celebrities (aka Taylor Swift). I applied to over 50 jobs in the city and worked as an intern fully in-person at a classical and contemporary music PR firm. On top of that, I traveled around Europe and explored London as much as I could.

Finding a New Path at Prosek

While I may not be an accountant anymore, one of the greatest strengths I gained from attending business school is the power of networking. Without networking, I can’t say for sure that I’d have spent the last year at Prosek.

As I finished my dissertation, I began looking into the top PR firms in NYC. Prosek, to no surprise, was on every one of the lists I found. I was drawn to Prosek after seeing that the firm was the perfect combination of both of my degrees AND had a growing sports practice.

I ran to LinkedIn and messaged an SVP at Prosek who went to the same graduate school as I did. She agreed to a call, and from there, I began the process of interviewing and thus accepting a position as an Apprentice at Prosek.

In many cases, I would have hesitated to go back to the beginning, but I welcomed the mentorship and learning opportunity. As some points it was humbling, but this last year has been one of the most encouraging years of my life.

Trusting Your Gut

I’m sure the thought of quitting a job and moving to another country on a whim sounds like fun (or crazy), but that decision wasn’t an easy one to make. There were so many details to consider, but the content wave of relief I felt once I’d accepted my place at university and officially shared my two-week notice helped calm any nerves or second guessing.

The grass is not always greener, but for me it was. Not only in my professional career, but in my personal endeavors. If I hadn’t trusted myself, I would never have lived in three cities in just three years. I would have never written my first (or second) novel manuscript. I would have never found a career in PR.

My time at Prosek has felt like a complete restart. While it hasn’t always been easy, I am so grateful for the place I am in now compared to where I was three years ago.

While 18-year-old me would be very surprised, I know she would be thrilled that I work in NYC, at a company founded and run by a woman, and that I get to work in a field I never even considered. She would love that I am still passionate about writing and sports, and would get to apply those passions to my work. She would be so proud of the risks I’ve taken to get where I am today, and would be excited to see me follow my path to and at Prosek.