I Left My Accounting Job to

Pursue My Passion for Teaching

By Pamela Lloren

"Although I came from a family of teachers... I believed I would never follow in their
footsteps. Ever.."

Thirty-six pairs of eyes watched perplexed as I started writing journal entries

related to our topic for the day, Accounting for Inventory, on the white board. It
was my second year to discuss the topic but it felt like my first time again. The
audience was different. My approach of illustrating the topic using Ricoa Flat Tops
was new. I took a mental note to use this new style next school year since it made
the students more attentive.

You guessed it. I am a college lecturer. A teacher. But I didn’t start out as one.
Teaching was the last profession I considered growing up. Although I came from
a family of teachers – my lolo was a teacher and two of my titos were teachers, I
believed I would never follow in their footsteps. Ever.

I was set to become a CPA lawyer, a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and lawyer
combined. I was going to conquer the corporate world. So when I chose my college
course, I went for accounting courses. But when I failed to make the cut for the
prestigious BS Business Administration and Accountancy (BS BAA) course at
University of the Philippines Diliman, I got in through BA History. I quite enjoyed
my freshman year but I realized that if I did not proceed to law proper after
graduation, I’d end up becoming a teacher. No way! So within a year I shifted to
my first choice, BS BAA.

Four years and one board exam later, I finally became a CPA. I just needed to study
another four years and review for and pass the Bar exam to get the coveted title of
attorney. But after a moment’s thought, I no longer pursued a career in law. The
blood, sweat, and tears of BS BAA was enough for this life time.

To practice my profession, I became an auditor. I enjoyed the learning experience.

I thought I knew everything about accounting, but I was wrong. The real world involves
so much more: not every circumstance has a fixed set of assumptions, and not every problem
has only one solution.

But I couldn’t survive the long and late hours and traveling from Fairview to
Makati every work day. I decided to go into my own practice.
I had a few friends who needed a bookkeeper and someone to manage their taxes
and other government requirements. It was fun at first. I owned my time and I can
manage the work pace – cram and be stressed or start early and be less stressed.
But I was lazy to get new clients so my business did not take off.

One thing that did grow big rapidly was one of my clients—Human Nature. Human
Nature was a startup when I was hired on a retainer basis. If I remember correctly,
I just had to come in twice a week to do bookkeeping and other accounting work. I
again had so much to learn. I actually felt like I was growing with the company,
experiencing all the milestones and the growth pains. It inspired me to give back,
to help using what I knew best.

Because of the company’s resolve to help our partners grow and my wanting to
contribute, I was sent to our branches all over the Philippines to teach accounting
and the use of a computerized accounting system. That was when the teaching bug
bit me, bit me hard. I found it challenging to breakdown topics into interesting
bite-sized chunks. I felt the joy of seeing the spark of understanding in a learner’s
eyes. I found humor when needed during a session when I was never known to be
funny.

When I went back to the realities of accounting work, it didn’t hold as much joy as
it used to.

The repetitiveness and the routine wore me out. The issues and challenges bogged me
down. My drive was not as strong. The desire to teach gnawed at me.

Then, I found a break. A college friend who was teaching at UP Diliman told me
that I could actually teach if I was interested. I grabbed the opportunity and was
accepted as a part-time lecturer. At first, I was excited. Then it hit me, I didn’t
really have any teaching experience. When I did trainings, I didn’t give quizzes or
computed grades. At most, I handled ten learners in one session but a class would
normally have thirty to forty students.

My first semester felt like a disaster. The class schedules were after lunch and ran
for three hours. My topics were heavy on audit and IT concepts, which are hard to
appreciate if you haven’t worked yet. An anonymous student actually summed it
up well (or poorly?) – “Your subject is like a bed. It’s nice to sleep in.”

I’m in my third year of teaching. I still get negative feedback (they're quite an entertaining
read) but it is outweighed by my determination to impart knowledge, to dispel fear about
accounting and to inspire the right attitude towards learning.

I know I still have a long way to go to become a great teacher but I’m willing to
take this path wherever it may lead me.
Looking back at my journey, I went from dreaming of becoming a CPA lawyer to
becoming an accounting teacher. It was full of unexpected twists and turns but
everything that I went through prepared me for my role.

For those who find themselves thinking about shifting to a different profession,
stop thinking about it and go out and try it. You don’t need to resign and shift
careers immediately. You just need to take baby steps first. Trust me, you just need
to start by trying.