Cassandra Tan

"Client appreciation and personal satisfaction all around..."

I’m originally from Malaysia and got my professional accounting degree in the U.K. I returned to Malaysia and worked for a Big 5 firm. Once you reach the manager level there you need to decide whether to stay for life or to move on. I decided to leave and worked as a finance manager and CFO for two other organizations.

When I came to the U.S., I was working at for-profit companies. While doing volunteer work during the holidays, I decided that I really wanted to leverage my finance and accounting skills to help nonprofits. But it was difficult for me to get in because I didn’t have any nonprofit accounting experience.

I was Googling around and wrote to Your Part-Time Controller about a full-time position and was impressed with how prompt they were in responding: other companies had been very slow in their recruiting. I went through several rounds of interviews and never had to wait long to know what the next step was. That was a huge plus.

They tell you during the interviews that the first six months will be very challenging as you’re learning nonprofit accounting, experiencing messy financial situations and building relationships with new clients. You get a level of comfort when management acknowledges you will need time to get ‘situated.’ YPTC provides all the tools, resources and continuous training to ensure you are fully equipped to get the work done.

The variety of client work, from providing the full spectrum of accounting services and preparing financial reports to providing process improvement recommendations, and the flexibility of controlling my own schedule keep me engaged. Being able to bring my previous work experiences from the for-profit world has definitely helped my nonprofit clients. There’s client appreciation and personal satisfaction all around.

I also like the support I get from other associates and managers and that there’s a huge skill set knowledge base. You can always reach back to people for help. No one claims to be an expert in everything but there’s always someone who knows about a particular software or tax issue. Everybody is friendly and here to help you succeed. There’s no competition. I know it’s a business but the culture is more like a nonprofit. YPTC is truly an amazing place to work at!