You Won’t Believe What Changed One Woman’s Mind About Taking a Career Break
TraLiza King wasn’t looking for a job when she began interviewing at PwC. TraLiza had made the decision to take a career sabbatical and was one month into it when several of her former managers encouraged her to have a conversation with the folks at PwC. King knew it was an opportunity too good to pass up.
As a result, she’s now been with PwC since May 2017. As a manager in their Tax Reporting and Strategy Practice, King and her team focus on technology, strategizing on what tools can be used to help to reduce risk and increase efficiency. And it’s as much the stimulating nature of the work as the community she saw at PwC that led her to return to the workforce more quickly than she’d anticipated, she says.
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“What drew me in was, honestly, the people,” she says. “I was completely wowed by the people. I felt so much warmth and so much of a community… I’m not even sure ‘community’ can articulate the warmth in the recruiting process. And, I could really feel a sense of people loving what they do.”
King is particularly grateful for Colleen Wright, the recruiter with whom she worked: “She made sure that I didn’t get lost,” King explains.
It’s no surprise that King felt well-supported and excited during the interview process. Wright — who recruits for PwC’s Innovation Practice and hires software architects, developers, data scientists, and tax reporting and strategy professionals, among other areas — explains that PwC wants to have its interviewers represent the diversity among the company’s employees. (If this sounds like an interview process you could get behind, you’re in luck: PwC is hiring right now.
The firm’s commitment to an inclusive workplace is clear not only to prospective hires, but also to current employees. PwC collaborates with local organizations to host blind spots/unconscious bias training and networking opportunities.
King adds that Teresa Peacock, PwC Tax Partner, who leads blind spots training sessions in Atlanta, “is cutting edge” in the way she approaches gender in the workplace and that she encourages women to pave their own paths.
King recognizes how this training has specifically influenced her work process: “When I meet someone new, I pause. I don’t try to make any judgments. ‘Seek to understand your peers before you’re trying to be understood,’ is one of my mottos.”
Another aspect of PwC’s culture and operations that impressed King from the outset was the firm’s focus on technology. While there’s a lot of technology to learn, PwC makes it easy by offering resources like PwC Data Analytics and Presentation Skills course on Coursera and digital upskilling and learning assets that enable employees to see areas where they can improve.
“You can really get your hands dirty,” King says. “And these [technology tools] are not just in the hands of specialists; they’re in the hands of your everyday [employees like] tax professionals. More and more people are getting comfortable with the technologies that are used in some of our largest-scale projects.”
Moreover, PwC’s Data Analytics and Innovation Practice is running a series of Data Analytics Academies through which they go to their clients’ offices and train their employees on how to use the latest technologies. “We are also training our internal employees on these and other technology/data analytics tools,” Wright says. “Our workforce is going to be ready to meet tax challenges quicker based on the use of technologies.”
If PwC sounds like an ideal place to start or continue your career — and to get particularly tech-savvy, too — don’t wait around. They’re hiring now!
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