Nicole Stroud’s interest in accounting was piqued at an early age. “I had a teacher in high school who was awesome about accounting,” she says. “He taught us the basics of how it works, and one of the things he said to us was that accounting is everywhere.”
Embracing the relationship-building, problem-solving, and other skills required to be a successful accountant, Stroud has built a career at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) spanning two decades, going from new associate to her current position as assurance partner. “The culture of PwC is very much team-oriented communications focused,” she says. “We are definitely a firm that believes in diversity and bringing different perspectives.” The diversity valued by Stroud and her colleagues is one of the major reasons she serves on the Accounting Advisory Council (ACC) at the Costello College of Business.
Representing PwC on Costello’s AAC as vice council chair, Stroud has a particular interest in the pipeline of talent entering the profession to not only her firm but also the profession at large. “My goal is to give students the avenues to better themselves, to get feedback on their resumes, to get help with their interviewing skills, and understand what the broader picture of what accounting means,” she says. “A portion of it, too, is the importance of the CPA license and what doors that opens for people.” Stroud’s leadership on the council is making a real difference in the lives of students. “At the accounting area, we share the same values as PwC, focusing on student success and career readiness,” says Long Chen, area chair for accounting at the Costello College of Business. “We strive for our students to excel academically while also developing the soft skills that will serve them throughout their careers. With PwC’s sponsorship, the accounting area has created the Accounting Roadmap to help students navigate their college experience and the accounting program, ultimately achieving their career goals.”
Stroud’s career at PwC actually began before she was eligible to take the CPA exam. The school she attended for her undergraduate education used an entirely different credit system than most, leaving her far short of the credits required for the exam. It was never her intention to complete her MBA, but left without much of a choice, she enrolled in graduate school, taking her classes on weeknights and weekends while working at PwC full time. She persevered and the hard work paid dividends.
While recruiting at the Costello College of Business, Stroud, a proud first-generation college graduate, has met many students who are in the same position that she was in and many others who have overcome obstacles. She relates to their stories of working in the office and then going straight to hitting the books. “Those hurdles create people who succeed in life,” she says.
Throughout her years on the AAC, she’s had the chance to get to know many of the faculty members. “You have professors who care,” she says. “It is quite clear to me that they care about the students, and they’re invested in the students’ time and really want them to succeed. That means a lot to me as someone sitting on the advisory council, as somebody who’s recruiting students, but also as someone who lives in Northern Virginia and has two tiny humans who are eventually going to go to school as well.”
Besides completing their coursework and achieving high grades, Stroud encourages students to focus on improving their interpersonal skills outside of the classroom to become well-rounded professionals, whether it be through a club or another type of team. “I used to roll my eyes at doing group projects and all those things, but I barely ever do anything by myself,” she says. “Everything’s on a team. I’m working with other people. I have to be able to ask questions. I have to be able to push when I need to push. So really, it’s finding those opportunities to expand your skillset when it comes to presenting to people.” Thankfully, there is no shortage of experiential and extracurricular activities at the Costello College of Business and at George Mason University to prepare students for wherever they want to take their careers.