Hungry for More? How to Blend Your Profession and Passion

BY ANDRÉS CLAVERO

I spent my lifetime chasing food. Whether it was at family dinner parties feasting over Palestinian, Cuban, and Spanish foods or eating at as many restaurants as I could around town, I knew my career in public accounting wouldn’t be my last stop. Which is how I went from being a tax consultant at a Big 4 firm to now being the co-owner and operator of the Michelin-starred restaurant, Galit, in Chicago. Getting here was anything but easy. But with perseverance, humility, appreciation, and a hunger for more, I ventured down a path to blend both my profession with my passion. Here are some steps I’ve learned throughout my journey that may help guide you in yours.

1. Reach out to people you respect in the industry that’s calling you. There’s no shame in cold calling those you want to learn from. Most small, independent companies have no overhead, meaning an email with your résumé may go straight to the owners or decision makers.

2. Don’t second-guess yourself. It may seem daunting to transition into a new industry, and you may think your inexperience is a setback, but you should know that most people enjoy sharing what they know. Also, being green is a positive, as it means you likely don’t have any bad habits to break.

3. Be persistent and patient; it doesn’t happen overnight. My first restaurant opportunity didn’t come until after a year of reaching out to many different places.

4. Swallow your pride—don’t look down at the dirty work. The dirty work is what builds a strong foundation for your next steps. You may need to take a step back to take a giant leap forward in another direction. I didn’t walk into a restaurant and immediately start running the place. I started as a part-time host working nights. Through that experience, I was able to be a sponge and take in everything I wanted to know and learn about the industry. Ask questions, fail, learn, and try again.

5. Don’t assume your audience is the same as you. Learn how to best communicate with everyone. Your experience outside of your new role or the one you’re pursuing can be valuable, but be willing to learn from the people who’ve been doing it for longer than you.

6. Appreciate every opportunity, especially the challenging ones. I’ll never forget being complimented for my jacket one night and then immediately after being told the bathroom needed attending. I just had to remind myself that it’s better to roll up my sleeves than not having the opportunity to.

7. Network! You may be a rock star but creating something on your own normally requires the help of others. Introducing yourself and keeping in touch with those who don’t come from your same circle is imperative.

8. Don’t ask what people can do for you. Learn what others need and communicate how you can help them, not just how they can help you. Chefs and managers learned that I truly cared and wanted to apply my skills in the best ways I could. Trust is built when you have others’ interests in mind.

9. Volunteer your time. Not volunteering my free time to work special events or to say hello on someone’s behalf would’ve never allowed me to meet my future chef partner. Don’t be shy. Everyone wants to be acknowledged, so just say “hey,” “thank you,” and “hope to see you soon”—preferably in person.

10. Let go of the things you can’t control—plans change. Yes, accountants, things won’t go as planned. Yet, that breeds opportunities. My late father who was a CPA always said to me, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” Simple, wise words. For me and my chef partner, our main thing is team Galit. We know that our personal and professional success will always be dictated by how strong our team is. For example, when COVID hit, we kept our team insured for over a year with most of them not working. When it was time to safely reopen and welcome our guests back, we had a healthy team ready to go because they felt cared for.

The last step is on you. What if you don’t bet on yourself? Chances are, we all have a passion that drives us—mine was food. Ultimately, if you can blend your profession with your passion, wouldn’t you like to try? What are you waiting for? What’s your passion?

Andrés Clavero is the general manager and co-owner of Galit, a Michelin star restaurant in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. Prior to this, he was the senior accountant for acclaimed restaurant group One Off Hospitality and spent over five years working for Deloitte.

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Nerissa C. Brown

INSIGHTS FROM THE PROFESSION’S INFLUENCERS

Nerissa C. Brown, Ph.D., CFE, has a lot of titles: associate dean of Graduate Programs, professor of Accountancy, Josef and Margot Lakonishok Faculty Fellow, and PwC Faculty Fellow. The University of Illinois (UI) educator recently added another—Illinois CPA Society (ICPAS) 2022 Lester H. McKeever Jr. Advancing Diversity Award winner. Oddly enough, Brown was convinced early on in childhood that her destiny lied in dentistry. A close family friend was a dentist and was someone Brown deeply admired. “She was a female dentist who owned her own practice, and I thought she was just so cool,” Brown laughs. However, while taking a career test in high school, Brown discovered a different path. “I could’ve sworn that one of the choices from the test would be a dentist, but it wasn’t.”

While Brown doesn’t remember the career choice the test had made for her, not seeing “dentist” on the recommended professions list gave her some pause, and she ultimately decided to take the advice of her wise mother. “When it was time for me to go to college, my mom, who’s an accountant, suggested I study management studies because you get to do a little bit of everything in business. And so, I took my first accounting class, and everything just clicked. I then decided to switch my major to accounting.”

Brown attributes a lot of her success—and her family’s success—to the accounting profession. As a native Jamaican, Brown’s family started from humble beginnings: Her grandfather trained as an apprentice to be a bookkeeper with the Jamaican Railway Corporation and would eventually rise to managing the bookkeeping for the railway’s entire payroll. Her grandmother was a dressmaker who used rudimentary bookkeeping skills to keep track of her stock of dresses and material. “I can still remember that little booklet she had with all of the different numbers,” Brown says.

And of course, Brown’s mother also embarked on a career in accounting. As a single mother, she entered college as a first-generation student and earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting while working. She then transitioned to governmental accounting and eventually retired as the principal finance officer of one of Jamaica’s largest government ministries. Personally experiencing how accounting can change the generational trajectory of a family has been the guiding light in Brown’s efforts to champion greater diversity in the profession. “Being an international student has really made me think about how accounting and business can help in the bigger roles for underserved populations, as well as for individuals who are immigrants to this country or come from immigrant families,” Brown says.

BY AMY SANCHEZ

Because she’s lived that life, Brown sees her success as a means to pay it forward— bolstering the pipeline of underrepresented minorities in the profession and increasing representation and inclusion in business education. Of her many efforts, Brown works closely on the UI Gies College of Business Accountancy Opportunities scholarship program, which provides tuition-free graduate accounting education to minority students who are passionate about the accounting profession and obtaining a CPA. Notably, the program partners and collaborates with ICPAS’ charitable partner, the CPA Endowment Fund of Illinois, on its Mary T. Washington Wylie Internship Preparation Program to support diverse recruitment. She’s also gone above and beyond in her involvement with The PhD Project, focused on increasing diversity in the workplace by diversifying who students see at the front of the classroom (i.e., the faculty).

Most importantly, Brown’s efforts have also redirected her back to the most influential piece of her life: her family. She created a scholarship fund in honor of her grandmother to provide financial assistance to underrepresented and first-generation undergraduate and graduate students or students that are committed to enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within the Gies College of Business. “My grandmother really believed in education as a way of progressing through life. She didn’t go as far in education as she would’ve liked to, so I think in many ways, I’m living out her wildest dreams education-wise.”

Brown’s passion for championing diversity also stems from another important influence: her students. As a mentor to many students of color, she often hears a familiar phrase: “I don’t think the accounting profession is for me.” Knowing what the profession has given her and her family, Brown has dedicated her career to combating this myth and opening doors for those that think they don’t belong.

“It boils down to that single thing that keeps driving me—I don’t want to always be the only person of color in the room. How can I change that? If I get a new opportunity, how can I bring one or two more people along with me?”