Kayla Nguyen

Ms. Judy Jandera

Certified Public Accountant (CPA)

KPMG

13 November 2019

15:00

Interview Assessment #4

KPMG is an international network of professional firms providing services such as audit,

tax and advisory. They operate in 150+ countries and territories, with more than 200,000 people

working in their firms worldwide. It stands alongside Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and

PricewaterhouseCoopers to make the Big Four accounting firms. In my fourth interview, I had

the pleasure of speaking with Judy Jandera, Director of Accounting Advisory at KPMG. In this

interview I learned more about the devotion it takes to become an accountant and was provided

with the reality of corporate accounting.

Back then, the CPA exam was not divided into separate tests in which you could take on

later dates, but all four parts were taken at once. So, when studying for the biggest exam in a

public accountant’s career, Ms. Jandera essentially gave up her life for 6 months and studied for

hours. She recalls taking her CPA books to a NASCAR race and going over practice tests and

exams while her husband enjoyed the race. In order to fuel this sort of determination one has to

become a CPA, she emphasized the importance of passion in the career. One really has to enjoy

accounting in order to be in it because the work hours and workload can easily be a deal-breaker

for a lot of people. Ms. Jandera stated she could think about accounting day-in and-day out and

even while sitting in a restaurant she finds herself thinking about their accounting habits. Other
than the high pay, without a passion, there is no way to compensate for the high hours and high

stress that are attached to this accounting ‘package.’

Finally, this interview served as a foil to my third interview, where Ms. Mensch only had

private accounting experience. Ms. Jandera started in the corporate realm and stayed with it. Her

duties include going into companies and helping them with accounting related problems,

adopting new standards, reporting, bankruptcy procedures, integration accounting, financial help

for selling, etc. With this in mind, her endeavors are very ‘project-based.’ I noticed she used the

term ‘projects,’ rather than clients. I am not aware if this is a corporate tendency, but I found it

interesting as shows the disconnect between corporate accountants and their customers. Ms.

Jandera also revealed why most people tend to go private and that is to have power and control.

It does not necessarily have to be motivated by the desire for money. Unfortunately, it takes a lot

of time to build your own business because of the need for a clientele, whereas corporations will

almost always have clients.