**Adebola Adejumoke Odeyemi **@smallbizsaver is a Chartered Accountant and Tax Practitioner.

With over 10 years’ experience, she is an expert in tax and accounting and she helps businesses maximise profits.

I was privileged to have an in-depth discussion with her which she wishes to share will everyone interested in Accounting.

Brief Background

My name is Adebola Adejumoke Odeyemi, I work with OM Associates as a senior associate for audit and tax matters.

I’ve been with OM Associates for four years, but my work experience is over 12 years.

I work in Lagos Nigeria.

What course did you study in the University?

I studied accounting.

Did Anyone Influence Your Course Choice?

My mum and that was during the career counseling session that she organized for me, it was really an awesome moment because it helped me realize all the potentials that I never saw as far as the business and the career world was concerned.

More About Your Journey to Accounting

I thought I was going to be a newscaster, at a point I thought I was going to be a medical student due to my intellectual skills and talent but after the career counseling I realized that I would be a better person in the commercial department.

That career counseling moment shaped my journey, it was just after the career counseling session that I decided that I was going to be a professional accountant.

Choosing Accounting as a course actually impacted by current job role and I would not forget the place of passion, having the skills is one thing, but going extra mile to get your task or your job delivered is another thing and that is what has earned me the growth that I currently have in my present employment as the senior associate.

When Did You Realize You Had Found the Career Path You Wanted to Follow?

That was after writing jamb, the United Tertiary And Matriculation Examination, I had written it four times and I was not given the school I wanted and also the course, so one of my aunt advised me that I register for accounting technician scheme with the chattered institute of accounting {ICAN) in 2002, and that’s just when the journey started for me.

Minimum level of education to get started in Accounting

The minimum level of education to get started is that at least you have OND that’s ordinary national diploma in accounting or economics or any related subject, you want to start from the scratch it could also be like an SSCE holder having the five credits that is important and from there you would know that you would need to take some foundational courses with ICAN which is the professional body for Nigeria and you can take it a bit further to write ACCA.

Most Challenging Aspect of your Career

The most challenging aspect of my career has been automation, long hours of work, non-negotiable deadlines, competitions, repetition of task, overtime, you have to work late.

What Do You Find Most Rewarding?

What I find most rewarding is the fact that, you have that sense of fulfillment within you that you’re helping businesses to grow when you give that professional advice and you see the business moving forward, you have that peace, that fulfilling joy in your heart.

What interests of trainings have the most impact in your career?

ICAN training, self-development because I learnt a lot of things on my own, you should understand Numbers, you should have passion for numbers, you should be interested in that job that you really want to do.

Like for me, I love numbers, I love calculation, I love mathematics and that also impacted in the job.

My philosophy about life is anything that is worth doing at all, is worth doing well, so I put that philosophy into play when I’m acting out on my task.

How do you see your career changing in future?

Automation and AI, that’s artificial intelligence taking the place, there is need for accountant, every one of us to be more tech savvy in terms of the accounting software that is more relevant and trending as at the time that any job may happen.

Automation is the way to go now for accounting professionals and a lot of professionals are still struggling with the traditional accounting.

Automation and AI is where the future is for accounting professionals, the need for us to understand some of this softwares and help us reduce hefty tasks and hefty to do list from our schedule.

One thing you wish you knew about your career that you didn’t learn earlier

Number one is patience I’ve come to deal with a lot of customers and clients that are not patient, so you have to be patient with customers,

They say customers are always right, clients are always right, not in all cases, you also have to learn emotional intelligence, I learnt, that that is also very important that I did not get to learn in school, that’ll be incorporated into the present curriculum for youths and those that are coming behind me.

I also learnt that your computer is your business because without it, paperwork that you do you will still have to input them into the system, take them through some process.

If you could give your younger self some general advice, what would it be?

I would say that relationship is the key, Because accounting as a profession made me an introvert, though I’m a very reserved person, I love my company but now I realize that there is need to socialize, and network with people so I would say to my younger self network more and keep healthy relationship,

Say no to shortcuts, those sharp practices and pay attention to detail

Also get a mentor for proper guidance and accelerated growth.

Then be ready to take calculated risk, not just any kind of risk, and be ready to step out of your comfort zone cos it’s not going to be easy all the time.

Find the full video on YouTube and IGTV – https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=2THVpjBfbrA

*Over 60% of young individuals in Nigeria between age 15 – 23 are unsure of their future and how to advance into the World of Work.

To this end, Gradrange seeks to bridge the gap between the classroom and the rapidly changing labour market by educating young individuals about the culture, opportunities, challenges, and future for employment in various fields.*