Accounting and Job Search Advice

On this week's episode of Real Work, Real Life, I’m talking with Annie Yang. Annie is employed full time as an accountant, but also has a side gig doing similar work for other clients. Annie also helps job seekers land positions quickly, so we talk a lot about strategies there. If you’re currently on the job hunt, check out Annie’s website, which you can find linked in the shownotes. Annie is one of so many people out there that don’t just do one job, they have lots of plates in the air, and Annie seems to have found a balance that really works well for her. If you liked this episode, you might also enjoy my interview with Allison Rothwell, an Administrative Assistant, Actor and Declutter Coach, you can find that here:  https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/declutter-coach-administrative-assistant-actor/id1673653251?i=1000615992179

Annie’s website: https://www.annieyangfinancial.com/

If you like the show, please rate and review on iTunes and Spotify  (linked below) and please share with a friend! You can also follow the podcast on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Tiktok. And if you’d like to be interviewed here, or there is a particular job you’d like to learn about, please reach out at realworkreallife@gmail.com.

iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/real-work-real-life/id1673653251
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Cp0w2BjOtS8NWfj0NhmIg?si=ece5b6ad45274b73

Transcripts are now available here: www.realworkreallife.com 

Transcript

Annie Job Search

[00:00:00] Welcome to real work real life, where I talked to real people about what they do for work and what that means for their lives. Today. I'm talking with Annie yang, any is employed full-time as an accountant, but also has a side gig doing similar work for other clients. And he also helps job-seekers land positions quickly. 

So we talk a lot about strategies there. If you're currently on the job hunt, check out Andy's website, which you can find linked in the show notes. And he is one of so many people out there that don't just have one job. They have a lot of plates in the air and any seems to have found a balance that really works well for, if you liked this episode, you might also enjoy my interview with Alison Rothwell and administrative assistant actor and declutter coach. So let's get into it. 

Emily: right. Thank you so much for being here, Annie.

Annie: Emily, thanks for having me on

Emily: So what do you do for work? 

Annie: full time. I'm officially an accountant for my W2 income, but I also have a side business where I do serve clients that are similar [00:01:00] to my boss, so real estate and property management, but I've been deviating at the same time. Now I'm helping job seekers land job offers in only five days because there are a lot of layoffs happening.

So that's pivoting and transitioning into.

Emily: Oh my gosh. Okay. That's so interesting. can we talk a little bit about how you sort of got into your initial work and how you transitioned to grow your side business as well?

Annie: Right, so initially I was actually working a whole string of minimum wage jobs and I got a online bachelor's degree in communications and then coming out I was working at Domino's Pizza making 7 an hour. So I was basically making less than before I went to college and I was really upset and then I did eventually get a bookkeeping job for 13 an hour.

But when it was time for me to leave, because I was moving from Texas to Boston, I found out that my replacement who claimed she was more competent than me and knew QuickBooks and everything. Which I [00:02:00] later found out when I was training her. She knew nothing. She was getting paid 17 an hour. So at that point, I was like, wow, just because someone was more confident than me and claim to be competent as well.

She was getting paid more. I was really upset, but I learned my lesson. I learned that. If I wanted to do the things I want to do, I have to be more confident. So when I moved to Boston, I said I have a new life here. Nobody knows who I am. I can create the identity that I want. I'm just going to go after the things I want without caring what anyone says.

So I started applying for accounting jobs with no accounting degree. No accounting degree because I was really good at managing my own finances, like, for our household. I can work on a minimum wage budget and still save 25%. Like, we can make every penny last. Right? And so I said, if I can do that for myself, I can do that for a business.

And so that's why I started applying for accounting jobs. I landed my 1st, accounting job in 7 days, the manager at that place was toxic. So, 2 months later, I was applying for jobs [00:03:00] again and I got an offer in only 6 days and then 1 year later, because we were saving to buy a house and I realized that.

we wouldn't meet the income requirement for a mortgage, so I, we could budget and make sure we stay on budget and save up to 20, 000. we're going to hit that. No problem. But the income requirement was a different story. I was getting paid 45, 000 and based on the. Debt to income ratio for mortgage, it would have been, I would have needed 70, 000.

So I needed a 25 K pay raise and I was like, there's no way my employer is going to give me that. So I went on a new job search again, and I got a new offer in only 5 days. And that guy offered to pay me 80 K.

Emily: Wow. So that first foot in the door as an accountant with no, you know, formal accounting training, can you talk about how you made that happen? Because I think the lots of people have that experience where even if they have a college degree in something, it can be really tough to get that first job.

Annie: Yeah, I, what I did was I applied to 50 [00:04:00] jobs a day and I just said, I'm just going to keep applying to 50 jobs a day until somebody gives me an offer. So, even if I have an interview, I'm scheduled for an interview or like, they verbally say you're hired. Like, I'm not going to stop applying for a job until someone gives me a written offer that I can sign and we know the start date and everything.

Right? Like, I don't take the maybes and things like that as like a yes. Yeah. It's in the bag. It's not in the bag until I actually start working. Right? So I just, I use the easy apply button. I made a targeted resume for the title. I think staff accountant. Right? I just made a targeted resume and then I just use the easy apply button on indeed and zip recruiter.

And I just click apply, apply, apply, apply, apply, apply, apply. I did not make a tailored resume for each individual application and I just waited until people called or emailed me back.

Emily: That is pretty amazing! Did you sort of somehow list your personal experience with personal finance on there? [00:05:00] Or did you just sort of, yeah.

Annie: so it wasn't just that bookkeeping experience that I had. I did also write a book called 1001 ways to save money. So apparently that's the reason why I was getting so many calls is because they called me in and then I would point out. I said, I don't have. The formal qualifications, like, I just want to make sure you guys don't overlook this.

If you look right there at the bottom of my resume, that's right in front of you. Like, I have a bachelor's degree in communications and so you might think I'm not qualified. So I just wondered why I'm here. Like, why did you even call me in and then they said, well, it also says right under the education line that you're author of 1001 ways to save money.

Is this a legit book? And I said, what do you mean by legit book? Like, what does that mean to you? And they said, can I buy a physical copy on Amazon? I said, yes.

Emily: That's a, that's a book as 

Annie: Yeah. And so they were like, then, yeah, it's a legit book. And I was like, okay. And I asked them why is this more impressive than the four year degree?

Because that book took, it's a list. It's [00:06:00] literally like a one gigantic listicle. Right. And that project took only three months from start to finish, like starting to write to full on publishing. You can buy it on Amazon. And they said, this shows that you have discipline. Yeah. We're looking for someone who has the discipline and commitment to start something and see it through until the very end.

And everyone has a college degree, but very few people actually have the discipline to sit down and write a book.

Emily: Yeah. And three months is a lot less expensive in both time and actual money than a four year degree in accounting. So that's pretty, that's pretty amazing. I mean, I think that's such an interesting backstory and also just the applying, you know volume over quality of applying that just eventually someone is going to give you a shot.

That's really fascinating.

Annie: only need one person to say yes,

Emily: right. Yeah. Do you have anything else to add about that first job search that you think, you know, people might be interested to know, or they could use in their own job search?

Annie: not the [00:07:00] first one, but I can share about the third one when I wanted to make the jump from 45 K to 70 K. Like I wasn't desperate. I, I said, you know, I could take my time. This search could take a year because I was already employed there for a year. And for a mortgage, you just need to show two years of employment.

Right? So I, I basically, I was like, I have like a whole year to figure this out. So I wasn't desperate. I was just like, let me just dip my toes in the market And see where this takes me. And when I was applying, I did have this 1 recruiter. He called me up on my 2nd day. So day 1 was a Monday. Day 2 was Tuesday of my job search and he called me and he asked me.

Well, what's your desired salary? I said 70 K. and then he said, you're not qualified to make 70 K. Because I've been a recruiter in the accounting industry for the last 10 years. I've seen everything. I know what I'm talking about. I'm well experienced and people like you, you're not capable of making more than 55 K.

Emily: Wow.

Annie: If you're lucky, if you're really lucky, [00:08:00] I could push it through. You can maybe make 60k if you're really impressive, but you can't make more than 55k. And I was like, okay, well Vaughn, that was his name Vaughn based on my experience, employers care much more about character about your ability to follow instructions or meet expectations and deadlines and being able to learn something and shown only once.

Without being told over and over again how to do the job. I think those are far more important qualities than the piece of paper. And he's like, no, I think the piece of paper is the most important thing. And then I was just like, okay, well, we'll see. And then so when I got the offer on the 5th day on Friday, I showed him the offer.

I said, here's my 80K offer.

Emily: Wow. Oh my gosh, that must have felt good.

It did feel good. Yeah.

, so you have a full time job. Can you talk a little bit about, you know, a little more about what your side business does and sort of how that fits in for the full hours of your week?

Annie: Right, so the side business is basically exactly what I do for my full time job, but I just Serve [00:09:00] clients, instead of an employer, it's exactly the same thing. Everything is the same because it's just accounting accounting is accounting. So what I did was I automated much of my work in accounting. So, when I 1st started working there, I was actually 40 hours.

Like, there was actually legitimately 40 hours. worth of work. But then I was like, wait, why is everything in paper? So I, made everything paperless. And then I realized, wait, why are the forms people filling out? Why are those also paper? Like, when they fill out forms to give me information to process, I was like, why is it all paper?

And so I made jot forms. I went on jotform. com and I made those free forms for people to fill out. So then when they fill out the form, I get an email instead and I can process that faster, right? So all these different things, I, we were taking checks. The main way we were accepting money was check, so I would have to record the check and then deposit the check with the phone.

Right? And then, so I found this provider. I called, like, 100 different providers and I found this [00:10:00] 1 provider out of 100 that was charging the lowest of them all. They charge only 50 cents a transaction. So, someone now can pay us online and it only costs us 50 cents a transaction and we were processing a million dollars worth of transactions and we pay only 500 in merchant fees

Emily: Wow. 

Annie: a year.

Yeah, it is amazing. And that automated that took a lot of the time away from me doing accounting work. I just found a whole bunch of ways to automate every single aspect of my job. And then for the things that are really routine, like entering bills and data processing, I just. Yeah. Hired someone in Nigeria to do the work for me

for that part to do it on a daily basis.

It's like 1 hour. So she saves me 1 hour a day, basically. And I pay her less than what I'm paid. Of course. So I profit off of that. And then so everything I did at that job, I basically took it and use it to serve clients with my free time because I went from working 40 hours to working only 10 to 15 hours a week at my job.

Emily: Wow. And you, you said this before we started recording, but your boss is aware of this, right?

Annie: [00:11:00] Oh, yeah, 

he is well aware. 

Emily: Well, I mean, it does sound like you've saved so much for the company that I think you could still argue that your value is, more than worth

Annie: Yeah, and in the, in the 4, 5 years I've been there, I never asked for a raise, so I'm still paid the same. 80 K, despite all the inflation. And I, I think he's, he's well, okay with that. I'm the only person in the whole company that did not get a raise in the last 5 years. So that some people might look at that and go like, well, that sucks.

Right? But then I'm just like, but guys, I earn, like, not much for, like, 10 to 15 hours of work versus my, my coworkers. They're all still working, like, 40 hours a week.

Emily: Right. So, are you willing to talk a little bit about, so if you make 80, 000 doing this, what do you make generally or kind of a range of what you make on your side business?

Annie: I make 80k on the side.

Emily: Wow! Okay, and does that, how many hours per week do you find that you dedicate to that?

Annie: That varies because I could go well into the evening. I could stop working at 9. You know, this is, this is something you [00:12:00] build, like, for the long term. This isn't something you're just like, let me put only this many hours. It's just like, if I need something to be done and It needs to go out, like, I need to publish a YouTube video, or I need to finish this project where I'm analyzing AI headshots for people, which I earn affiliate income from.

So that's like, like, for example what I'm doing now is I'm helping job seekers land jobs quickly.

Right. And one of the important things is you need to have a LinkedIn profile picture that looks really professional. But I had people coming to me telling me I can't afford to pay 500 bucks for a photographer.

So when I was on a show talking about this problem, the host told me, you know what my niece did, she used an AI headshot. You might look into that. And then, so I was like, okay, well, if I'm going to recommend a product to someone, I have to use it myself. Right, so I, just like when I was shopping for 100 payment processors, I made a list of every single AI headshot company.

That I found on Google, and then I priced everything out and then I even like, recorded [00:13:00] myself trying out the service. And I uploaded those to my YouTube channel. I, I must have spent like 1, 075 of my own money just testing everything. And then I found the, the 2 best ones on the whole Internet. It looks really realistic.

You would fall for it. And then I, I earned affiliate income from it. I earned 10, 000 from. From affiliate income, and that project took me 25 hours. So, I basically, I researched 20 of them, each 1 took an hour to upload and make the video and things like that. And then the, the last 5 hours was spent compiling the article and the list of, like, the links that people can click on and the coupon codes, things like that.

So, it's like a total of 25 hours, but I will continue to make money from that forever.

Emily: I think that's in kind of thinking about some of the side gigs, side hustle jobs. the thing that's important to think about it from what I've seen is that it does actually take a lot of work, especially [00:14:00] to get started. And it's enough that. A lot of people won't ever do that. They could, but they won't like that 25 hours was a big.

commitment of time and energy on top of someone else's full time job. But if you're successful at it and you're good at it, it can be this kind of long term income stream, which is so cool.

Annie: That's right.

Emily: So thinking about that, we don't have to get super detailed into the numbers, but of the 80, 000, what are the different streams of income that make that up and which are sort of larger and smaller?

Annie: The accounting clients, I think would make up 50 percent of that then because I make YouTube videos, you know, Quicken Loans. Quicken Loans pays me to make first time home buyer videos.

Emily: Oh, cool. That's awesome.

Annie: I make 500 a video. I do 3 of them a month.

So I make 1, 500. It's not a lot of time because it's been, I take only 1 hour.

I use chat to PT to write the script. So that takes 10 minutes. I submit the script to them to check fact, check and edit and everything. And [00:15:00] then it's I put on my makeup. So that takes time, but I put on my makeup every day. Nowadays. And then it takes about 30 minutes for me to record that script in front of the camera, then another 30 minutes to upload it and send it to them.

So it's really like, maybe like a 1 hour thing for 500. So that's another income stream. There's the affiliate income I'm talking about. I earn YouTube ad revenue as well. The payment processing company that I found that charges only 50 cents a transaction, they were like, hey, we'll give you affiliate income, like a cut. A cut out of every transaction, you cannot believe how much money there is to be made in this. I actually have not made a lot of money. Because like, at 1st, I was earning like 6 a month from that. But then all of a sudden 1 month from 6, it jumped to 30 or 36 or something like that because they must have gotten like a really large client that.

Processes a lot of transactions,

like a lot of them,

because what I earn is I earn a percentage of every [00:16:00] transaction that's processed. So, it's not like this 1 time, like, I sent them a client, it's like forever, like, so long as they stay in business and their clients stay in business, I get a cut of every transaction.

Emily: Wow.

Annie: yeah, so. I mean, those are, I guess, my various streams of income. I'm book sales as well. People do buy my book. I get. Monthly royalties from Amazon.

Emily: Yeah. Wow. Okay. Quick question on the quick and loan thing. Did you reach out to them or did they reach out to you after seeing some of your other YouTube videos?

Annie: They reached out to me, so this is like, 1 of the things I talk about why it's so important to have a personal brand online and to share your expertise online publicly. They found me during the pandemic because I made a video. Just sharing my excitement about how I became a homeowner at 25 years old without ever.

Asking my parents for money, so I have never taken a dime of my parents money since I was 18. I always worked for it myself. My husband and I. We save, we work really hard and I, my friend, it was my friend who told me, [00:17:00] Annie. You must take advantage of this opportunity. You just got your 1st home. She said, buying your 2nd home.

Will never be like buying your 1st home. The feeling is completely different. So you need to record and tell people. How the experience was like, for you, and I was just like, so elated. So I shared that video, like, going from renting to owning my own place. And that company came across my video, then they reached out to me on LinkedIn and then they called me and asked me if I could make videos for them.

Emily: Wow. Okay. That's really cool. So you have a lot of different things going on all the time. Do you find it sort of hard to manage those and manage your time and have sort of the work life balance you want or do you find that it's manageable?

Annie: I admit I have stress. You cannot escape stress. I think stress is just part of it, but I now I have to take walks on a regular basis to get some fresh air because, you know, a lot of this work is inside my room here. But what I have to do is. [00:18:00] I constantly have to do list, but not just that on the to do list.

I'll say this task should take 30 minutes. Like, I write it on a to do list. This, this task should take 2 hours. Right? And then I have to book that into my calendar. So that I don't stress out over when it will be done, because the fact is, if I just follow the calendar and nothing on my calendars ever double booked, I might overbook.

Overbook by accident, you know, book too much in a day. But if I find that during the day, I feel tired, then I'll just move that activity to a different day on my calendar to, to take off some of that stress. So that way the work does get done and I don't worry like, oh, my gosh, I'm so anxious. This is never going to be done.

When will it be done? The uncertainty does not exist because it's on my calendar. If I just follow the calendar, then it will be certain it will be done.

Emily: Cool. That sounds really interesting. Could you walk me through your average day? 

Annie: Can share with you the average day of last month every month 

is 

different. 

Based on what I'm doing.[00:19:00] So I'm a little embarrassed to say these days I wake up maybe about AM

Emily: Nothing to be embarrassed

Annie: I'm not an early riser. I wake up around 10 uh, more like I wake up at nine, then I spend the one hour in bed just tossing and turning, wanting to get more sleep and not getting more sleep.

And then I'll actually get up, I'll put on my makeup, then breakfast. Right? And then, I start my work at 11 for my full time job so from 11 to maybe 1, then from 1 to 2, I eat lunch. I chill out. I surf the web. And then from 2 to 6, I do some more work. So maybe my job. It's a mix from 2 to 6 is a mix.

It's like, it could be my full full time job, or it could be my business from 2 to 6. Maybe sometimes pushing it. I end up 7 sometimes. Okay. Then 7 o'clock is dinner and then 8 o'clock and after is my time. So, that's like, I, I get to play piano, I'll surf the [00:20:00] web or, or something. Maybe I'll take a nap, like, the other day I still had to get my piano practice and it has to be daily.

It can't just procrastinate and. Put it all on 1 day at the end of the week, right? It has to be a daily thing, but I was so tired already at 930. I was like, oh, my gosh, it's 930, but I still have to get an hour of practice. And so I ended up taking it now from 930 to 1030. And then, so I got up at 1030 and then I practiced until midnight and then I went back to bed.

Emily: That's amazing. Well, I mean, I, I think what's great about that is that, a lot of different paths, you don't get a lot of say in your schedule. I mean, there's different schedule options you can pursue and a little bit on one end or the other, but it does sound interesting that it sounds like you found a, a full spectrum of a career that works for the schedule you like to have, which is like starting a little later, maybe going a little bit later and that you have a little more autonomy to decide. That's cool. Can you talk a little bit about how you help people with the five day [00:21:00] job search, and just any advice you have for job hunters? I'd be so curious to hear about that.

Annie: well, what I've been doing is, so I'm not, I haven't actually started charging people for helping them. I've always just said, you, you want information, you just buy the book. The book is like 18 like this book is going to change your life. It'll teach you how to make 50, 000 more. Right? But I found is like, people don't like to read books.

The average American reads only 1 book after they finish

school. Like a 

year, one book a year, one book a year. Yeah. So people don't read books. I have found, I was like, when I was earning 10, 000 from the headshots, I was like, so you guys are willing to spend 100 bucks on an AI headshot, but you won't spend, you won't spend the 18 for a book that can teach you how to make 50, 000 more.

Like, they won't do that. So what I realized is my friend told me, you need to make a video course. I was like, oh, okay. So, well, but so far, what I've been doing is I make these YouTube videos based on. I [00:22:00] coached, I think I've coached, like, 5 people for free and then what I did was I took. Very detailed notes on all of them, like, what their mindset issues were and the words they were saying to me, but I can't do this because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And then so I wrote down all of those blind spots and problems that they were having. And I came up with, like, a set of 36. So, overall, across 5 people, there's, like, 36 problems that a job seeker could have and then I have, like, the solutions from and that was supposed to be a YouTube series that I do five days a week, but as I was posting like, for example, the first one I posted was about you need to apply to 50 jobs a day.

If you want to have success, then I was getting like pushback. In the comments, I was getting like objections and saying, well, this won't work because blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And my friend told me, Annie, you have to start with where people are. So when people are resistant to you don't take it like they're fighting you.

That's just what they didn't understand. Like, they didn't understand everything. They only saw this tiny part. So you [00:23:00] have to start from where they are now and expand on that. So then now what I'm doing is if there's nothing. There's no comments that I can respond to, then I continue with the 36 that I was going to do.

But if someone commented then. Like, someone asked me, like, for example, how do I fill out a W 9, which is not even related to the video. Um, then 

it was not related. Right? Yeah. But then so then that means today today's video is actually going to be. How to fill out a W 9, so it's basically, like, 1 of those ask any columns where I just interact with the comments every day.

Yeah,

Emily: maybe cover that a little better in high school. Some of that stuff, that's so true. So does anything really stand out to you of the, 36 barriers or problems? Is there anything that you'd want to talk about a little bit?

Annie: yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, the average job seeker takes 6 months to land a job. 

Emily: 000, your salary,

Annie: oh, really? I [00:24:00] never heard of that I never heard of that. 

Emily: it is, peers 

that I know 

have job search, right? 

When I, when I think about peers that I know, I wouldn't say it's exactly that way, but it does seem like sometimes it takes longer the higher the salary you're looking for.

Annie: It depends on your strategy,

right? 

Emily: that's, yeah, I'm so curious to hear your strategy,

Annie: Well, yeah, because. The average seeker takes 6 months. You read this on Google and all these articles are like, but don't feel bad if it's taking you 6 months, because everyone goes through it. So, you know, it's okay. You're normal. And I'm just like, you suck. You're a loser.

Emily: Yes, feel bad.

Annie: Right? And, and then I, I, I would go on Reddit because that's where people vent. And then you really see their true colors. Like, what is really going on? Behind the scenes and when people say, oh, I've been unemployed for a year and then, like, the commenters go, like, well, how many jobs have you been applying to every day?

They go like, I've been applying to so many. So, so many, I put in so many applications, I applied to 2 jobs a day.

Emily: [00:25:00] right.

Annie: And so, so the problem, the main problem is. They think 2 a day is a lot 3 days a lot and I'm just like, that's nothing like people think they work so hard, but what they don't know is relative to someone else who has results.

The person who with the results. Works exponentially harder,

Emily: Yeah.

Annie: they put in a lot more numbers to get the success. So that's why I say 50 a day, because if you're doing like 5 a day, then it will take you 6 months to apply to 300.

So, basically, you're doing, like, the same amount of work that I'm telling you to do.

You're just spreading it over 6 months. So, why not just shorten that to a week. So that you can have success faster.

Emily: Yeah. Yeah. that's such a good point. I mean, especially now with remote work being more available, do you find that that is true too for remote jobs or hybrid jobs thinking of living in a slightly more rural area or around a small city, I don't know if there are [00:26:00] like 50 jobs a day that I could apply to in

Annie: That 

I used to live in Lubbock, Texas. there, there were not many jobs there. What worked there was I had to go in, I had to dress up and I had to go in and say, hi, my name's Annie. I'm looking for a job. Are you hiring?

Emily: Wow. 

Annie: when I moved there, because I'm from New York City, I was like, how do you succeed here?

I asked the property manager who is a local. They're like, born and raised there. I asked her how do people here. Look for jobs, how do you get a job successfully? And she's like, you know what I recommend, you really need that personal touch. It's not enough to be online. And she said, I recommend you dress up, you print out your resume and just go and shake the person's hand.

 And you ask if they need somebody to work. And so I just followed her advice. And of course, it works because over there, it is, of course, the unfair. It is about who, you know, 

Emily: yeah.

So know your area, certainly yeah, wow, that's so interesting. Do you have any resume tips [00:27:00] or advice or like major things that you see people do wrong on resumes when they're job hunting?

Annie: Yeah, they lack numerical values in there. 

So 

one easy way to make you look accomplished because you read this generic tip, you go on these sites written by SEO content farm writers who don't know what they're talking about. They just parrot the same thing as everyone else. But, and then they say over and over again, focus on your accomplishments, not your job duties.

And then, but, but the problem is like, nobody actually knows how to implement that advice. Like, how do you actually put that into action? And so when I was reading resumes from people and they were telling me, my resume is already good. Well, let me take a look and I'm reading it and this reads like a job posting.

So, it, it, literally reads like the reiteration. Or worded differently, but, like, it looks like if I was, hiring, like, I'm an accounting manager, right? If I wanted to look for an accounting job posting, it looks like somebody took the accounting job posting. And then just worded it in a way for the resume.

Emily: [00:28:00] Yeah.

Annie: what most resumes look like that I

came across. 

Emily: Interesting.

Annie: So you have to think about the things you did actually at your job while incorporating the keywords, and then there's also the fact that People don't see the things that they've done as an accomplishment. Like, there was this accounting audit associate that was helping.

He got laid off and I asked him when I was helping him write his resume. Well, how many audits did you do during your time there? 

because like, everyone does audits, we can put that, but like, how many did you do? We want to know your output. And then he was like, I did. 40 and I was like, great, let's just put the number 40 or when I was helping a teacher, all teachers do the same thing.

All English language teachers do the same thing. So, so all the resumes should theoretically look very similar. Right? So I asked her. Well, what were the ages of the students that you taught? How many students did you teach?

Emily: Right.

Annie: Right, the numbers [00:29:00] or my sister volunteered at the animal shelter. I asked her, how many cages did you clean? How many animals got adopted. Per month, like, turnover, what's the turnover, right? That matters. That tells people about what kind of work you did, like, the quality of the work, right? Someone else was doing sales. She's VP of sales. Surprisingly, even a VP could do that. Not have confidence, right? And, I asked her, well, how much did sales increase by? And then she said, oh, I increased it by, I think, 900, 000 dollars a year for this. It was a small business as well. It was like

a lot. 

For a small business for a small company, 

Emily: number in there.

Annie: and then I asked her, well, what percentage. Of that, like, a year over year percentage, she's like, 15%. And I was like. You're telling me that you helped a small company increase their sales by 15 percent in the not, not even a year in a nine months that you 

were there. And then she was like, yeah. And then I was like, are you crazy? This [00:30:00] is, but she didn't think it was an accomplishment. She was like, oh, it's no big deal.

I was like, just because something's easy for you doesn't mean it's no big deal. She said, but it was, so that's the thing they're saying. So when something comes easy to you, people think it must be easy. Therefore. Everyone must be able to do it, but they don't realize that's their talent. Talent! Accounting is easy for me.

Not everyone can do accounting. So for her, sales is easy.

Emily: Yeah.

Wow. 

Annie: that.

Emily: Oh my gosh, that's so interesting. So this actually, what you just mentioned brought me back to a question that I had, which was when you got your first job in accounting. Did you do anything to sort of like any online training or anything like that to like bone up on the specific accounting skills you needed for the professional workplace or were you really able to learn on the job?

Annie: No, I, 

actually that 1st bookkeeping job. I was a little familiar with QuickBooks, but not QuickBooks desktop and then my employer never let me reconcile either. He, he was doing things like, kind of under the table. So he really didn't [00:31:00] want me to reconcile his book. So I never really fully learned the program.

So I just had a little touch of it. Right? So when I did get an actual bookkeeping job with reconciliation and everything I, I lacked confidence. So I went. The 1st week before I started working there, I went to the public library and I picked up quick books for dummies and bookkeeping for dummies.

And I read that those 2 books fronted back twice. And then every time I came across something in the software that I didn't understand I would go on Google and look it up. And then also, just because it was my 1st, office job as well. I was working, like, minimum wage all the time. And I was like, well, how does my boss actually know I'm working?

how can she actually tell what I? Finished doing that day, like what task I did and what I didn't finish. And so what I did was I would write a note and I would leave it on her desk. And I'd be like,

today, January 6, you know, I, I did blah, blah, blah, blah. And then I didn't do this yet. I would do this next time.

I would leave a note for [00:32:00] her every single time. So she was well aware of what I did and looking back. Actually, that's good. Because I actually, that was like my way of writing down what I learned that day, actually, as well. What did I learn to do on the job? I wish I had kept it in a notebook instead. But that's how I learned and then when I got my 1st counting job, I was like, okay, now, I actually have to learn journal entries. I didn't understand journal entries, like this journal entry thing. Everyone's talking about. So I went on accounting coach dot com, which is a website hosted by an accounting professor, actually.

And he lays out everything that's taught in an accounting 101 course at a university. So I just took that. It was free.

Emily: Wow. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I think you know, from talking to some software engineers, that's one field where we've, everyone has gotten comfortable with the idea that like, yeah, you don't need a college degree. You really can learn this on the job. , or you can teach yourself this in a variety of different ways.

And I think there's a lot of fields where it's true. We just aren't comfortable with the idea There's something feel safe and cozy about hiring [00:33:00] someone with a college degree in that field. But I think it's so often the case that there's other ways to learn that on your own, especially if you're super like scrappy and dedicated as it sounds

Annie: Well, I I think what people don't realize is accounting has been around before college.

Emily: right? Right.

Annie: So it was only in the last century that people said, you know what, let's standardize this to make sure that everyone follows the same standards and expectations, but actually all of this engineering architect accounting, it's been, it's been around since before.

College was a thing.

Emily: Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's so interesting. What is one piece of advice generally about work that you would give your younger self or I think in your case, a job seeker of any kind,

Annie: I would say. Annie, you need more confidence. Confidence because I had imposter syndrome. I, I didn't stop having actually imposter syndrome until last year. And, and so this was like a 10 years worth of imposter syndrome. And I, I, even with [00:34:00] getting clients on the side and making 80 K on the site, I was asking, like, I was like, why are they paying me?

Emily: they're going to figure it out.

Annie: When are they going to figure out that I'm just. Learning things as I go, or like, I don't actually know, or like, a CPA has never verified my work, you know, like, when are they going to find out that, like, maybe one day I will make a mistake and then they're going to call the authorities and then they're going to, file a lawsuit on me or sue me or something, something, 

right? and it never happened. And then it wasn't until last year that I realized, wait a minute, everyone's faking it. we see like the glitz and the glamour and especially people high up in the society who are given a platform who are sensationalized by the media. I realized it's all a marketing gimmick.

It's all fake and people who, who are given that they don't actually know what they're doing. They just spout it. So that's what happened with Elizabeth Holmes, 30 under 30. Right, we, we see all of 

Emily: Mm hmm. 

Annie: [00:35:00] was Sam bankman free 30 under

30. Um, yeah, 

there are so many. So many 30 on the 30 that it should just be a crime list.

Emily: Right. I kind of want uh, more self doubt in people. skilled and Confidence are not often that well aligned and that's scary. , that's a great piece of advice. And yeah, I think I'm now, I think at like 50 or 55 interviews. And I can tell you so many times I'll talk to small business owners and I'll be like, how did you know how to do this?

And they just said, Google. I just sat down, I Googled her, or I went to my public library and I took out a book and I read it, or I, I talked to someone I knew at a small business and just worked through it and I think that's kind of a liberating thing to know too, that it's like, you can just You can figure it out.

You can do it. If all these people can, so can you.

Annie: Marie for Leo says everything is figure out a ball. That's her. Tagline.

Emily: A thousand percent. A thousand percent. Well, thank you [00:36:00] so much for talking with me, Annie. Where can people find out more about the work that you do?

Annie: The best way is to go on any financial dot com. That's a N. N. I. E. Y. A. N. G. financial dot com. The 5 day job search audio book is actually free. So, if you head over to any financial dot com, click on audio book at the top, and you can download it.

Emily: Oh, that's awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time.

Annie: Thank you.

 Thanks for joining me. If you liked the show, please rate and review on iTunes and Spotify. And please share with a friend. You can also follow the podcast on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, or ticktock. And if you'd like to be interviewed here or there's a particular job you'd like to learn about, please reach out@realworkreallifeatgmail.com.