Senior Advisor Nicole Herrera on careers, accounting and perpetual learning.
Nicole Herrera has an electric energy when she enters the room, her ability to engage through a genuine warmth, authenticity, and a passion for accounting, coupled with her inherent work ethic are what make her the perfect addition to our Corporate Advisory Team.
Nicole took up her role as a senior advisor at Nexia in March 2022, providing the perfect opportunity to fuse together her existing knowledge, years of study, and desire to learn more.
Below, we talk to Nicole about her career, giving and receiving advice, and perpetual learning.
Can you take us back to the beginning and tell us about your career steps -
What did you study and how did you get your foot in the doo
r?
I don’t consider myself to be a decisive person but when it came to career choices, I always knew I wanted to go into accounting. My first semester at Uni I did change my majors, due some advice that I wouldn’t consider wrong, it just wasn’t right for me. In the first semester, I had completed one subject of accounting and knew I needed to change my degree from Bachelor of Business majoring in Business Management to Bachelor of Business majoring in Accountancy. Looking back, it was a good mistake to make as it reaffirmed accounting was the pathway for me. I was fortunate enough to also secure a bookkeeping role during my first year of Uni, in Gisborne where I grew up. I stayed in this role throughout my degree, it was my foot in the door.
After completing my degree, I moved into an intermediate accounting role for a firm that specialised in start-up businesses. I would say this was one of those formative experiences career wise, working on start-ups you get to see the passion clients have for their ideas and their business, but you also see the struggles that come with being a start-up. It really pushed me as an advisor to do a lot with a little, saying ‘yes’ to any new opportunity.
From there, I joined a practice in Parkville as I wanted to expand my knowledge from just start-ups to larger businesses and grow my technical tax knowledge. This role was a great experience as I managed a portfolio of clients that included tax and advisory aspects.
With what I had learnt during my previous roles, I knew an advisory-focused role, as opposed to tax, suited me better. So when the opportunity to join Corporate Advisory at Nexia came along, I decided to push myself and take a step-up.
You’ve stated that you knew the pathway you wanted to take, what informed this knowing career direction?
I was really fortunate that in year 9 my school offered an accounting class. This may sound contrived or nerdy, or both, but the moment I started the subject I said to myself ‘This is for me’. It’s interesting because even though I knew accounting was the direction I wanted to go in early on, there were still moments of doubt. People have this preconceived notion about what they think an accountant is, you must be good at math’s; but you don’t we have these fabulous things called calculators, or accounting is all about numbers, which don’t get me wrong there’s definitely numbers involved but there’s so much more to it. Ultimately my passion for the profession, analysing the numbers, offering tailored advice and being a trusted advisor, is what pushed me to keep going.
Your role as an advisor is really multi-faceted, what part of it do you enjoy the most?
I’m waiting for my ‘I heart accounting’ t-shirt to come in the mail (kidding). For me it’s the client relationship, being able to offer insight and advice to help their business thrive is really motivating. To put my enjoyment into perspective - When I look back at all the hours of study, and work, and more study, I think about the fact that all my collective knowledge has a tangible benefit to someone else’s business.
Each day you come to work what do you hope to achieve?
When it comes to work and careers there’s this inherent expectation that you have to achieve the maximum every day, which in most scenarios is an unrealistic expectation. So, for me it’s super simple - I just want to learn. I never want to be that person who thinks they have learnt everything they can, because that’s just not reality. I hope when I’m 30 years into my career I am still expanding my knowledge and growing on a personal level. That may sound like I don’t have bigger goals; I absolutely do but all of those are reached by learning.
You talk about relationship building - what are your thoughts on the accounting industry and people’s perception, and expectation of accountants.
When I tell people what I do, I can still sense their confusion. Being an accountant comes with a strong misconception that it’s just tax returns, but it’s progressed from that and has become more advisory focused. This shift is really the industries response to our clients’ expectations, they want a holistic service, they want someone they trust, an advisor that they can come to and seek assistance.
As expectations grew, so has the need to maintain a certain pace - everything has to be done quick, trying to keep up with each other. This is where Nexia differs, there are definitely deadlines and work that requires a quick turn-around, however this is the exception not the rule. The support and level of appreciation from the firm towards its employees has been a refreshing change.
You are in the profession of navigating clients towards success - What do you attribute your personal success to?
I just want to preface this answer by saying I don’t view myself as successful but I do acknowledge that I have reached certain goals or milestones that are perceived as successes - Success is a very personal thing. I’m really fortunate to have wonderful parents who were really great role models for me growing up, they are small business owners and have always been incredibly driven. This is where my work ethic comes from, which has informed my ‘successes’. My Passion for the profession is also another key player in my success, if I didn’t care about what I was doing I don’t think my career would be going as well as it is. That being said you don’t have to love your job, but I do think you should enjoy what you to in order to reach your goals.
I love my family – but I wanted to kick my own goals and take my career in different direction. I will always be there to give the family business free advice, in exchange for mums’ delicious cooking.
What’s the best piece of professional advice you have ever received?
My old manager once told me to “it’s the biggest challenges that you learn the most”.
On the subject of advice, is there any you can give to someone who might be currently working towards your position?
Understand the importance of the word ‘no’ and setting boundaries between your work and personal life, but also acknowledge the power of saying ‘yes’ and giving a little extra now and then. You’ve got to remember that workplaces are competitive environments, we all want the opportunity to grow and progress but to be granted those opportunities you can’t have a ‘it’s not my job mentality’- View everything as an opportunity, this will draw people towards you.
Lastly, looking to the future what are you excited for?
It has been so nice returning to spontaneity after the last two years of lockdown. Not having to plan every detail of an outing, you can just message a friend and say ‘Hey let’s get dinner’. The same goes for returning to the office, being able to go in whenever, interact with colleagues, go on team lunches, it’s been great. So, I guess I’m excited for not planning.
