Huan Li (“Lily”)
"Genuinely nice people..."
Before I came to Your Part-Time Controller I had been at a variety of private companies, working my way up from basic staff accounting to assistant controller. In 2015 I was interested in finding a new job and I was referred to YPTC by a woman I had interned with in college who was working there. She told me how nice the organization is and how she wanted to retire there! I got very excited and looked at their website. I liked the aspect of their work with nonprofit clients because they’re doing something good for society.
My only concern was that I had no nonprofit background but they really help you with that. They give you a lot of orientation and training at the beginning. They train you not only on YPTC’s culture and the technical aspects of nonprofit accounting but also on scenarios of what can happen in these organizations. They really prepare you for messy situations.
The work is challenging: you never know what you’re walking in to. It’s not a typical 9-to-5 job. You go to different clients and you meet different people. You’re always encountering different things and you have to find ways to solve problems. Even when you have the same client your workload is different every day. I like the variety and changing with the challenges.
The staff is really supportive. You usually work alone but when you do work with other associates you find that they’re genuinely nice persons and you can always learn something from them. The managers are really supportive, too. In most companies the managers just want you to get a job done, but at YPTC all the managers go out of their way to help you. They’re always asking you if your workload is OK, and if you’re happy with your job. I wasn’t a good fit with my first client and they switched me off that client immediately because I wasn‘t happy. You don’t usually see that.
Since I’ve been here I had my second son, and I had the flexibility to switch from part-time to full-time and then back to part-time. You don’t usually see that in the corporate world and they’ve been very supportive in accommodating me. There are plans for a new maternity leave policy: six weeks of paid leave plus you can stay out for up to one year with guaranteed job security. I’m joking, but it almost makes me want to have another kid!
I just feel lucky that I’m part of this organization. I feel like I want to spend some years here where I’m exposed to a lot of different types of organizations where there’s lots of variety and I’m learning new things all the time.
