EMP Welcomes Wendy Jonah

October 21, 2016

“Never be afraid to go down the path you want to go down”  -Wendy Jonah

Written by: Andrew McMillan

This last Friday I had the pleasure of introducing Wendy Jonah to our Fall 2016 EMP class. Wendy provided our class with a wealth of knowledge that she has gained over years of working in a plethora of accounting areas.

A native of the San Francisco area, Wendy originally graduated from San Francisco State with a degree in Child Development & Family Relations. After ten years in this field Wendy found that the things she loved about her degree were not actually there in the working world. With two brothers in accounting; they encouraged Wendy to take a few classes and see how she liked it. She quickly found that she loved accounting and graduated from University of Houston’s C.T. Bauer School of Business with an accounting degree. Asked about making such a huge change Wendy replied, “Never be afraid to go down the path you want to go down”.

Despite some naysayers, Wendy got offers from all of the Big 8 accounting firms after graduation. Soon Wendy would find that life at the Big 8 was not for her. Hearing much about CISCO Systems in the news she applied to the growing tech company. Soon Wendy was traveling to Asia and Europe for CISCO to put out fires, all while being married and raising three children.

If it is one thing I learned from Ms. Jonah it is that it is always better to be challenged than to be bored. When asked about her success in rising up the ranks at multiple companies, Wendy mentioned, “Always raise your hand to do something new. You get noticed and you get experience”.

Wendy also advised not to take job offers just because they pay more. She noted, “In my career I have been paid very well, but I never did it for the salary”.

Wendy went on to work for a variety of prestigious companies including: Amazon, William-Sonoma, eventually concluding her career at Google. One last tip Wendy gave us concerned networking, “Stay in touch with everyone you work with. Somewhere down the road someone might be interested in something you are interested in.”

Thank you Wendy Jonah for sharing your years of hard won experience with us.