Accountant

Carmen Zapata

Senior Accountant, Treasure Valley CPA
Bachelor’s in International Business
Spanish and English

Question & Answer

What made Carmen choose this career and why was it a good fit for her?

“Accounting just makes sense, there is a set of rules. It’s just like math 1+1 = 2 and whatever language you’re going to be working on that doesn’t change. With other jobs and other careers there were a handful of theories and it depends on how it is applied […] in accounting the math is always going to be math […] I like that part of accounting where you can find an answer, it’s a puzzle sometimes.”

What does Carmen find the most enjoyable or rewarding about her job?

“I like the puzzle that challenges my mind and makes me feel like I accomplished something. The other part of what we do here, meeting with clients, I do enjoy the part of educating the customer. There is a lot of misinformation, unfortunately, out there about what taxes mean and don’t mean and when you do owe and when you get money that having some say ‘ ‘oh now I get’ [or] ‘that’s why that is’,  that is probably the most satisfying socially.”

What does Carmen find the most challenging or least enjoyable about her job?

“Staying up with the latest because with taxes things are changing and sometimes even before we know it and sometimes if we don’t stay on top of it we don’t know until after the fact […] the unknown and having to communicate that with our clients, I don’t like that that much.”

How much and what kinds of experience does someone interested in this field need to compete for entry level positions, in Carmen’s opinion?

“I would hope for somebody who has some basic knowledge ‘in’ the importance of tracking your expenses. Getting that concept of what can be deductible and what can not; and being able to have that initiative of why does this not make sense, what are we missing, that part, somebody that has that initiative. The rest of the things can be taught, just like in school there are a lot of things that when you are going for your degree there is the theory and the application is completely different than the theory was. If you don’t have that initiative to want to understand why this looks this way, I would at least for an entry level look for somebody to have that hunger for that. If you just want to enter data there’s a space for you but your not necessarily going to be as successful as you could be.”

How is proficiency in another language useful or important in this field?

Proficiency in another language is very useful, even if you don’t speak the client’s native language. Having the experience with another language and another culture allows you to understand them and their cultures.

How is the ability to communicate and work with people from different cultural backgrounds useful or important in this field?

Being able to communicate with other people from different cultural backgrounds has given Carmen and the company Treasure Valley CPA the opportunity to have more business. It has given them the possibility to serve more than just two markets.

What are some other skills that are important for success in this field?

Carmen emphasized on the importance of social skills; communication, patience, etc. Having these social skills will allow you to understand the clients better and help them understand what is happening during their tax preparation.

What did Carmen do to prepare for this field?

Carmen attended the College of Idaho and earned her bachelors in international business. She worked many different jobs, but the majority of them stayed within the accounting field. Besides internships, work experience, and college, she gained a lot of knowledge from her high school experience. In high school she learned how to do taxes by hand. She started with her own, then her mothers, her mother’s coworkers, and so on. This helped her gain insightful knowledge into the world of taxation, and tax preparation.

What languages does Carmen speak? Did Carmen have the opportunity to study abroad or spend time in a language-speaking country

Carmen speaks Spanish and English fluently. If she had the opportunity to learn another language she would learn French and Portuguese.

Reflection

Carmen is a senior accountant at Treasure Valley CPA, where she has dedicated 15 years of her experience. She graduated from the College of Idaho with a bachelors in International Business. Before and after graduation she worked in accounting related positions which led her down the path of tax preparation, which is the field she has been fulfilling for more than 20 years.

Throughout the interview process with Carmen, she was very willing to help and advised me to always grow and look for new opportunities within my field. I learned a lot through her advice for my own current and future work life. She was very transparent in skills that new professionals would need to start a career as an accountant.

About the author

name: Viviana Arellano

institution: Boise State University

I was born and raised in Nampa, Idaho. I will be graduating from Boise State with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration and Spanish. Along with a minor in Accountancy and Spanish for Business; which will be accompanied by a certificate in data analytics. I have loved my journey through the Spanish classes offered at Boise State and have really enjoyed learning more about the culture through literature.