A Funny Accountant - Is that possible?

I had the opportunity to hear career advice from Karen Maidment, the CFO of Bank of Montreal today. She is very different from what I imagined her to be. I know all executives want to be liked, but I found her to be genuine and frank. She was really funny (strange for a CFO and an accountant!) and very down to earth.

She started out wanting to be an urban planner, but ended up getting her Commerce degree at Mcmaster University majoring in accounting. She was an auditor at Clarkson Gordon, and then went on to become CFO of Clarica Life Insurance, before arriving to take on the CFO job at BMO. In 2006, she received the CFO of the Year award. Her personal life – She’s married, has two kids, and lives in Cambridge, Ontario.

Some advice she passed along:
• Don’t focus on balancing a day, just life in total - So, some days you are going to work twice as hard, and some days you will slack off.
• Don’t take yourself too seriously - Obviously you have to take your job seriously, but don’t take yourself seriously. Don’t beat yourself up for the mistakes you have made.
• Live within your means, even in the good times. (This is basic accountant dogma)
• Don’t be afraid to take risks – This was in answer to somebody saying that she has led a charmed life.
• Always be your self - She never thought she would fit into the banker’s mould.

She also said the three things to seek out in a job are: learning, contributing and having fun. Oh and she also talked about the whole "it’s about the journey not the destination”. She said ‘journey’ people are much happier in life. Focus on the journey, and think about the three things: Am I learning, contributing and having fun?

On the recent BMO problems: She said that her little 12 year old boy said to her "I hear there are problems at the bank”. She replied “yes”. Then her son went on to say “Well I heard that the tile fell off the building, the screws fell off the field, and it costs $680 million to fix it”! Priceless!

She also said that her kids don’t know what a real homemade cookie is. They think you take the dough out of the freezer, unwrap it, slice it and bake it. And she’s okay with that. :)