I studied accounting for a false promise.

“Accounting is the language of business.”

“Spend a few years in Big 4 and you can get hired into strategy and ops anywhere.”

The first one might still be true. The second one is definitely not.

I started in public accounting, hoping to learn enough about what makes a company tick by spending 60+ hour weeks in audit.

Then I looked at the people 10 years ahead of me – still doing accounting/audit work.

As I progressed from associate, to senior, then eyeing manager, the exit opportunities became more niche. The better I got in audit, the more people wanted for . . . internal audit.

So, I left.

Left Big 4.

Left New York.

Left accounting.

What paid the bills was short-term gigs from friends and family asking if I could take a look or help build something for them in Excel. It’s the tool I knew best.

A funny thing happens when you do something magical in Excel.

People take one look at it and right away find 10 more things in their business they could use your help with.

I went from auditor to quasi-business analyst (nobody really used the term “data analyst” then).

Almost accidentally, I began to pick up tools that helped me do my work. I needed tools that were cheap and didn’t require any changes to the existing systems.

IT and engineering, not interested in rocking the boat.

Snowflake, out.

NetSuite, out.

Alteryx, out.

SQL, Power Automate, Power Query, Power BI, python, Airbyte – in.