In high school, Janice Kirkbride’s history teacher would race around the classroom acting out the parts of historical figures.
Needless to say, his passion for history made the subject matter come alive.
“He could create reality from his passion. It was very contagious,” says Kirkbride.
“As students we really enjoyed what we were studying, instead of it feeling like a bunch of tasks. It was amazing to have a teacher who had such energy and passion and could communicate so effectively to a group of students.”
Kirkbride’s experience had a lifelong impact, and her experience with this history teacher shapes her approach to teaching to this day.
“He taught me about storytelling, having an appreciation for your audience, good communication and presentation skills, and how important it is to work with students rather than just delivering content.”
Kirkbride now brings these skills, along with her passion for accounting, to her own professional life as a senior trainer with OneStream, a corporate finance software company.
Financial Accountant sat down with Janice to talk about some of her major influences, her career trajectory to date and what factors have made her professional life so rewarding.
Q: Your passion for accounting and teaching emerged early in life. How did exposure to these fields through your parents shape your career path?
My father was a project accountant and I ended up spending my early years playing with children’s cash registers and Monopoly – yes, I was always the banker!
My father worked for the World Bank so we were transferred all over the world. We spent time living in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. My dad was helping the men who were working in the oil rigs. If these men didn’t get what they needed in the timeframe, then they couldn’t get their tickets to travel home, and they couldn’t get funds to buy presents for their children who they hadn’t seen for three months straight.
I met all the men who my dad was working with and heard them talk about how much they appreciated my dad’s work.
My mother is a retired English lecturer, and I believe I’m a fifth generation educator in my family. So, there is a strong history of holding education as important.
My mother did, however, warn me not to go into teaching because she said it was a thankless profession that was paid minimally. But the pull of helping the people around me to understand technical areas was so strong.
One of the sayings I grew up with is: ‘Give a man a fish. You’ll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you will feed him for life’.
Q: What’s the best career decision you ever made?
Moving from working as an accountant and auditor to teaching accounting and auditing, which allowed me to bring both skill sets together. I could align my technical knowledge with my passion for supporting others and helping them grow.
My first teaching role as an accountant was a voluntary position for a women’s group. I helped the women understand payroll and how to calculate adjustments.
From there, I started teaching post-graduate students and independent training courses and wrote a range of university courses. I ended up at BPP Professional Education and through my work there
I’ve seen many of my students become respected managers and senior leaders in accounting.
I’m now a senior trainer with OneStream, a corporate finance software company. I really enjoy teaching the administrators course, which involves showing the features and functions of consolidations, planning, budgets and reporting. My students usually come from a strong finance background and many of them are in accounts management, auditing or financial analysis.
Q: What has made teaching such a rewarding career for you?
I can best explain this through an anecdote.
I once taught a young man who started off as a student of mine. He was from an area with quite a high level of unemployment, and he was getting a lot of pressure from his family members who were concerned about what he would do for work. He wanted to qualify as an accountant so I helped train him, teaching him how to do debits and credits, and how to make adjustments.
Once he’d qualified as an accountant I started teaching him more strategic material, such as decision-making, planning and consulting. It was wonderful to see him through his entire educational journey and he eventually became a partner at his firm.
To celebrate that achievement, he went out for drinks with some friends. Afterwards, he came to the building where I worked to look for me. He wanted to find me to tell me how wonderful his life was. It was so fantastic to witness his journey and be a part of it. He became such a respected professional in the industry.
Q: Your passion for teaching also extends to school-aged students. What messages do you aim to impart as a STEM ambassador?
The youngest students I teach are seven years old. I go into schools and teach them about coding, accounting, the differences between small and large businesses, and basic financial information so they understand what income and balance sheets are.
As the students get older I educate them about the sorts of jobs they can have in accounting and in the business world, as well as in technology. I’ve had students come to me and say, ‘I told my mum I want to go into gaming, but she thinks I should be a hairdresser’. I try to share information with parents and the community in general so that the younger generation has more opportunities available to them.
If you’re a born teacher you want to make a difference for people, no matter what age. If you have that mentality of wanting to help others to reach their objectives, you don’t see it as a job; it’s a privilege.