Alumni Spotlight Series: Zoe Griffiths

Zoe Griffiths, Class of 2007, is a passionate and driven Mulgrave alum who unconventionally found her path through work experience, traveling, and living abroad.

Once deemed ‘bad at math’, this inspiring young woman has now started her own math tutoring business, and has been recruited by one of the biggest accounting firms in the world. In this week’s Alumni Spotlight, Zoe shares how she overcame her academic struggles by shedding labels and gaining confidence through real life experience.

Q&A

ZOE Griffiths

Mulgrave School Class of 2007 | Interviewed by Michelle Noble | March 2015

After two years of studying at UVIC straight out of Mulgrave, how did you decide what the next step would be for you?

I had just gotten into the Elementary School Teaching programme, which I was very excited about, but I wanted to experience something else before beginning the programme. This programme was said to be three more years and end in a practicum, which would then lead to the start of my career. I thought to myself, if I don’t travel now, I might not get the chance for a long time.

I decided it was a good time in my life to get away from Vancouver and go back to my roots to visit some family in London, England for the summer between semesters. Initially, I had booked a return flight home for the end of

summer and was hoping to travel Europe while visiting. After backpacking through Europe for a month, starting a very fun pub job as a waitress, and meeting so many new friends, I decided to stay… for almost four years.

Wow, two months turned into four years! Once you decided to stay in London, you were hired as a sales representative at IPG and you really excelled. Were leadership and sales both skills you always knew you had, or did you discover them through your experiences?

Working in the sales industry is something I never, and probably wouldn’t have considered before beginning my work at Interpublic Group (IPG), an advertising and marketing services company. I had my mind set on being a teacher

TOP LEFT Zoe traveling in Thailand BOTTOM RIGHT Zoe (left) with her family

straight out of high school and had never contemplated other paths.

However, after only a few months at this new job, I was excelling quickly and was offered a management position within my second year. This job set the tone for the rest of my career choices. I realised that you never know what you are good at until you try. And if you’re no good at it, at least you’ve eliminated one more thing off the list!

I truly believe that it is important to really contemplate any opportunity that comes your way. It is crazy what the outcome can sometimes be.

ABOVE Zoe (2nd on the left) traveling in Paris with friends

living in London, which country was your favourite? Why was it so special?

This is always a difficult question to answer because there are many places that could be my favourite, but for totally different reasons. The most special and most memorable place I visited was Kenya, Africa. Anyone who has been to Africa will agree that this is a life-changing experience.

Whenever I travel, I like to learn about the different cultures of where I’m going, and I especially like to learn about the people. The people from Kenya are kind, funny, very welcoming, and the culture is colourful and fun. For these reasons, Kenya was my favourite.

“You never know what you are good at until you try.

And if you’re no good at it, at least you’ve eliminated one more thing off the list!”

From all the traveling you were able to do while

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ABOVE Zoe with her team celebrating their win at an American Marketing Association Sales Competition

What has traveling taught you that a classroom, perhaps, could not?

During my time in high school and even my first two years at UVIC, I was a mediocre student; I was not very driven and I had low expectations of myself academically. All I wanted to do during these years of my life was have fun! After moving to London, traveling the world, and working, I began to realise that I had untapped skills. Everybody is different, but it took me going out into the real world, meeting people and doing new things to realise all of this. This experience helped me gain the confidence I needed to make a switch in my career path and go back to school.

London?

Although I had never contemplated going back to school, I looked into the Sales and Marketing programme at BCIT in Vancouver and applied.

To my surprise, I got in. After much consideration and with a newfound set of skills, I left my life in London and moved back to Vancouver to go to school.

“After moving to London, traveling the world, and working, I began to realise that I had untapped skills.�

Is this realisation what made you decide to leave

School never came easy to me (as many of the Mulgrave teachers would tell you); however, after coming back to Vancouver with some life experience and a new desire to achieve, I quickly excelled in school and was the top student in my programme at BCIT. Within two years, I was graduated with distinction, and even began a small tutoring business for students who struggled with

TOP Zoe with her BCITMA group at a marketing compeition BOTTOM LEFT Zoe with her family at her BCIT graduation

math and finance. During my second year of the programme, however, I realised that my passion and strength was in numbers (Finance), not in Marketing. Although I continued with the programme and completed it, I now had a new goal in mind: to achieve my designation in Accounting (CPA) and to work for the largest accounting firm in the world – Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

Yet another turn of events for you! How did you go about doing this?

BOTTOM RIGHT Zoe with her friends at her BCIT graduation

To achieve this goal, I would have to complete a Business Degree and another two-year diploma in Professional Accounting. The problem was, I was ready to start now, not in two years’ time.

The accounting recruitment cycle is very set out, and recruiting season (where firms hire candidates for the following year) is in September.

After receiving an offer from PwC in September 2013, I was under a time crunch to get all of my classes done for September 2014. I spoke with a few teachers at BCIT, and with their help, I was able to rearrange the programme (through night classes) to complete both of these programmes continued on next page...

in one year. To do this, I would need to take 8-9 classes per semester. Although I was strongly advised not to do it – I did. One year (and many long nights of studying) later, I had a Business Degree (with distinction) and an Accounting Diploma.

That sounds like a very intense workload. How did you manage your time and stress?

To manage my time, I was very self-disciplined. If a project had to be done, I would sit down and work on it until it was complete. Exam periods were always the toughest – trying to manage eight exams in two weeks can be daunting. To prepare, I would create a study schedule one month in advance, which mapped out the notes I would need to make prior to studying, what I would have to study for in each class, and how much time would be allocated to each task depending on the difficulty.

and most competitive recruitment processes out there: 1500 very bright students, going for approximately 250 jobs in the city.

I was nervous going into this process, as most of my training and work experience thus far had been in Sales and Marketing, with only a recent switch to Accounting. However, once the interviews began, I found most employers were impressed that I had skills in both areas and reassured me that this would be helpful in my career to come. After a month of recruiting with ‘The Big 4’ accounting firms, I was able to land offers from three, including one from Pricewaterhouse Coopers. Mission completed.

Your journey has been unpredictable and interesting to say the least.

What was the biggest challenge you have had to overcome?

“ When you are up against tough competition in any industry, you need to stand out from the rest, and having a wide range of unique skills is a great way to do that.”

As for managing my stress, I made sure to carry on having a social and healthy life.

Although difficult at times, I think it is really important to prioritise having fun, seeing family and friends, and keeping healthy and active.

Your hard work paid off. Congratulations on securing a position at PricewaterhouseCoopers!

Can you explain why it was such a rigorous and competitive process to get hired?

The last and toughest step of my journey was to land the job. In order to become designated in accounting, you must first get hired by an accounting firm who provides you with the training and support necessary to earn your designation. This is one of the most rigorous

The biggest challenge I have overcome so far in my unpredictable journey has been school.

Of course, if you know exactly what you want to do straight out of high school and you know what education you need to achieve that goal, this would be the cheapest and most efficient way, but this is not the case for many. Because I changed my career path a few times, this added to the amount of school I had to complete. By the time I realised I wanted to be in Accounting, I was ready to start my career as soon as possible, so I had to fit a lot of school into not a lot of time. Completing a Business Degree can be tough, but completing it while also taking a night school Accounting Diploma makes things very challenging.

What encouragement would you give to people looking to change their career paths, even when

their education and work experience are in a completely different field?

This question flows nicely from the previous.

Although I spent more money and time doing school the long way around, I ended with a diploma in Marketing, a diploma in Accounting and a Business Degree. At first glance, the subjects may seem disconnected, and this was one of the many reasons why I was so nervous about trying to get a job with one of the large accounting firms.

However, once the interviews began, I found most employers were impressed and very interested that I had skills in marketing, sales, as well as in accounting.

When you are up against tough competition in any industry, you need to stand out from the rest, and having a wide range of unique skills is a great way to do that. So some may say that I could have done an accounting

degree in four years and saved a lot of money and time, but I probably wouldn’t have ended up with my dream job.

My advice to anyone who is unsure of his or her career path coming out of high school or already in university is to just keep learning and experiencing new things. They might not be directly relevant to your end goal, but you may be surprised to see that these experiences could help you land your dream job one day in the future.You’ll find your way eventually and have fun while doing so!

“ When I came back to school at BCIT four years after taking some time off, I decided to come back to school with all labels removed.”

ABOVE Zoe at the PWC contract signing party

It’s inspiring how candid you are about your academic struggles at Mulgrave. What advice would you give to a student struggling in a particular subject or area?

Throughout high school, I definitely wasn’t known as the smart one, not technically at least.

Pretty much anything other than choir and musical theatre was difficult for me, in particular math. Because of this initial struggle, I definitely lost confidence in my technical ability. Sometimes when you lose confidence in a subject, you label yourself as someone who is ‘bad at math’ or ‘bad at English’. Even through university, I still labeled myself as someone who was ‘bad at math’. When I came back to school at BCIT four years after taking some time off, I decided to come back to school with all labels removed. By doing so, I allowed myself to regain some of that confidence.

Within a year, I was teaching others in my class how to do math, and after two years, I had opened a small tutoring business, which I am continuing today.

My advice would be to not label yourself for what you felt you were good or bad at in one point in your life. And for those who are struggling with a particular subject, remember that high school is only the beginning.

Zoe Griffiths, March 2015