Cynthia Boon
Live Nation
Houston, TX USA
"Failing is not the end of you. You can always try again, you can always reinvent, you can always go for the next thing that you want."
Career Roadmap
Cynthia's work combines: Business, Numbers, and Problem Solving
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
Networking is everything. Once you know what niche you want to work in, figure out where that industry is booming. Then reach out, make connections, and network to make sure people know your name, talent, and experience. If you’re applying for a job and you’ve made a connection with someone at the company who can vouch for your ability to get the job done well, it’s a lot easier for the hiring manager to pull your application out of the hundreds of others they receive.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Finance, General
Texas Southern University
Graduate Degree
Accounting
University of Virginia
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
I grew up in Ghana and came to the U.S. when I was 16 years old as part of an exchange program.
2.
I attended Texas Southern University with a scholarship—I had been living in Pennsylvania at the time and really wanted to move somewhere warm.
3.
Started out studying engineering, but quickly realized it wasn’t for me and transferred to the business school and majored in finance.
4.
We were about to enter the recession when I graduated, so advisors were pushing careers in accounting—I joined NABA (National Association of Black Accountants) and got a job at Ernst & Young.
5.
I left Ernst & Young to start a clothing line with a friend—that dream didn’t work out, but I worked at Nordstrom in the meantime and gained valuable skills in their management program.
6.
When I went back into accounting, I was performing audits day-to-day, but I kept up with a lot of my side projects, like selling art.
7.
I got a job at Live Nation and loved auditing for the entertainment industry, so my side projects took the back burner while I focused on building something stable and long-term.
8.
I’m still working for Live Nation and have worked my way up to internal audit manager—I love my job, but working in fashion is still in the back of my mind and maybe I’ll try again one day.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Myself:
You're a failure.
How I responded:
When I left a Big Four accounting job to start a clothing line and it didn't work out, I had to tell myself all the time that I wasn't a failure. Just because you tried something and it didn't go as planned doesn't mean you're a failure. I realize that now but it took a long time for me to gain the confidence back and trust myself again to make big decisions.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
I grew up in Ghana and came to the U.S. when I was 16 as part of an exchange program. It was a huge culture shock and I got homesick often. I felt a lot better when I moved to Houston because of the diversity.
I left accounting to start a clothing line but it didn't work out. I was also working at Nordstrom as a manager at the time. Even though the career change didn't work out, I gained analysis skills as a manager that I use as an internal auditor today.