Linda Liu

When you were a student, did you do anything outside of school to build skills or get knowledge that has helped your career?

When I was a student, I did volunteer job for a tax return assistance center. I also signed up an internship class and completed my internship class at Boston Logan Airport. This helped me to make the decision and became an tax accountant.

How did you start building your network?

When I was a student, I used the career center at school. There were a lot of network information from the center and that was the starting point of my network. My co-workers or friends were added to my network after my first job. You also can build your network through the social media websites, like LinkedIn.

What is the biggest challenge you had to overcome to get to where you are now professionally? How did you overcome it?

The biggest challenge I have now is the work-life balance. As a tax accountant, I just switched from private to public and I work for one of the Big 4 accounting firm now. So you can image the workload, specially during the tax season. Luckily, my husband is very supportive and he took more responsibilities at home. When you face the challenge, the support from your family and friends is very important. It will make you strong to overcome anything !

How did you pick your career? Did you know all along?

When I was accounting major student long time ago, I participated in a class and helped people resolve tax issues, like notices received from IRS or questions about tax returns. I also volunteered at a tax return preparation assistance center. Because of these tax related experiences before my graduation, I picked the tax accountant job. Therefore it is very important to have some ideas about a specific career path. You can reach out to someone in that field and get a better understanding . You also can try to get the internship or temporary job to see if you like it or not in the real world.