By Vicky Cato CPA
Many professionals choose the path of least resistance; they base their career choices on their favourite courses in university. Not Vicky Cato CPA. When accounting challenged her, she faced it head on and achieved her CPA designation in 2020. Vicky is the CFO at PinkWood Ltd.
Well…I’m a CPA. It still feels surreal to say it! I work as a CFO for a manufacturing company in Calgary. Most days I enjoy my work.😊 Though, I never thought I would or could be a CPA.
Bad at math
I remember almost failing Math 20 Pure (Grade 11 math) and my teacher telling me that advanced math just wasn’t for me. She said, “I’ll fail you if you try to go into Pure Math 30. But if you promise me you’ll go into Applied Math, I’ll let you pass.” So I took Applied Math and started believing I just wasn’t good at math.
I wish someone would’ve told me I just needed to try harder and that I couldn’t get away with not studying in high school the way I did in junior high. I wish someone would’ve told me to ask for help and that just because something is hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it and learn to get better at it.
But no one told me that! So, I ended up holding onto that limiting belief that I was just bad at math. (FYI: You can be a good CPA and not be innately “good” at math.)
Up for the challenge
Despite feeling like I wasn’t “good” at math, I somehow found my way into studying Business Management in college. While studying business and later accounting, I still doubted myself.
In my first year, we had to take all four business electives (marketing, finance, HR, and accounting). I did well in all the electives, but accounting was the hardest—I found it tough right from the beginning—but for some reason, that motivated me.
In my other classes, I could work moderately hard and get an A. In accounting, I’d work my butt off and get a B or a C. So what did I do? I decided to major in accounting! Seems bizarre to think about it now, but I wanted the challenge. I needed to prove to myself I wasn’t stupid and that I could do this.
Failure x2
In my last semester at SAIT, I failed Intermediate Accounting 2. It was the last course I needed to graduate, and that failure was a huge blow. I registered to retake the course the next semester, but after attending the first lesson, I dropped the course because I was so terrified of failing again. The weight of my anxiety was crushing. It took me a full year to retake that course, but I did it and finally received my diploma.
I went on to enroll in the University of Lethbridge’s Bachelor of Business Management program, and in my last year, I had almost the exact same experience. While working full-time and attending classes in the evening, I took Advanced Financial Accounting—the last course to complete my degree program. You can probably guess what happened….
Leading up to the midterm, I could feel my anxiety creeping up and I ended up dropping the class. My fear of failure kept getting in my way. It took me another year, but eventually I retook the class, passed, and got my degree (with honours!).
Accounting was never easy for me.
In part 2 of this blog post, Vicky discusses how she found her way. Stay tuned.
The views expressed in this post are those of the guest writer, Vicky Cato CPA. Please refer to cpawsb.ca for the latest guidelines from the CPA Western School of Business.
