Stacy Kildal – 2014 Most Powerful Women in Accounting

Twitter: @StacyKildal; @QBShow

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Click here to see the other honorees
of the 2014 “Most Powerful Women
in Accounting” awards.
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1. What advice would you give to female college students about the opportunities for women in the accounting profession?

   Same thing I would tell anyone: you have to make your own opportunities – most of them are more about being persistent, confident and having the ability to set goals and follow through with making them happen.

2. What advice would you give accounting firms on things they could do to better retain and advance more qualified female staff?

   I would give the same advice about hiring anyone – male or female. Be flexible in hours; not everything needs to be done between the hours of 9-5. Allow work from home. Be respectful of family and personal obligations. My favorite advice about hiring is something attributed to Richard Branson: “Train people well enough to they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”

3. Do you think that there is still a glass ceiling in accounting firm senior management and partner levels, or that the profession has moved to a mostly gender neutral state?

   Since I’ve never worked in a firm, I can’t speak to this question. I can only speak to my own experience, and that is to say that in everything I’ve decided to do with my career, the fact that I’m a woman has never crossed my mind as an issue or kept me from doing something.

4. How have you managed to balance your professional and personal life obligations, whether that includes family, etc?

   I hate this question. I think the idea of work/life balance is a myth; a way for women to beat themselves up for not living up to unrealistic expectations about what they should be – whether those expectations are from internal or external sources. It’s taken me a long time to realize this, and get to a good place in my head about where I am in my career, the fact that I’m NOT the kind of mom that has dinner on the table every night or makes it to PTA meetings (which is OKAY) and to realize that my marriage is great, not necessarily because of TIME, but because we talk and make the most of each other when we are together.

5. How mobile are you regarding your work? How have mobile devices and apps impacted your productivity and work-life balance?

   VERY. I travel quite a bit for work, so being able to work from anywhere is essential in running my business. Mobile devices have completely transformed how we run Kildal Services and The QB Show, but allowing us the freedom to work whenever, however we want. Or, on the flip side – to be able to set it aside but still monitor and deal with an urgent matter if necessary.

6. What single piece of technology could you absolutely not live without, and why?

   My iphone! I can do everything from it – QBO, QB Desktop via my UniData hosted account, payroll. Email. Banking. Google drive. Play 2048.

7. What is your favorite professional mobile app, and why?

   It’s not an app, but right now I’m loving my Pebble watch. It really allows me to minimize distractions. I can see the messages, emails and other notifications as they come in, but don’t have to always have my phone in my hand to do so. Which lets me to choose what I want to or can deal with  in the moment.