Catherine Banks
Director, EY Foundation&Academic Resource Center
EY
Seattle, WA USA
“I've found that it is important to always stay curious and constantly seek out new knowledge.”
Milestones
My road in life has taken me all over.
I decided to try an accounting class in high school and really enjoyed it. I thought this might be a career to explore.
When applying for college, I was fortunate to receive a lot of scholarships, but none that would cover my financial need so I changed my plans to attend a community college.
I transferred into the University of Illinois after community college and was lucky to learn much more about the extensive number of career options for accounting. I started building my network.
I was able to start my career in audit at EY straight out of college and spent 12 years doing this exciting work. This led me to becoming involved with our hiring and interaction with universities.
Because of my background as an auditor and with interest in education and recruiting, I was able to lead recruiting efforts for the firm regionally and became involved with academics.
I became involved with the EY Foundation and led efforts to develop free resources for the academic community on leading-edge issues impacting the accounting and auditing profession.
I began supporting the finance and program operations of the EY Foundation, learning more about non-profits and leveraging my accounting and auditing background.
Education
High School
Stephen Decatur High School
Stephen Decatur High School
Career
Director, EY Foundation&Academic Resource Center
I develop academic resources and support charitable programs for higher ed on behalf of the accounting profession
Career Roadmap
My work combines:
My work combines:
Business
Non-Profit Organizations
Helping People
Day to Day
Each day for me is a new adventure and full of variety! I lead multiple teams of diverse individuals so I spend a lot of time discussing strategy, making decisions, and providing guidance. There is a large focus on quality in my role so I am always focused on making sure that our processes, data and systems are the best they can be to support the programs that I help manage. I also spend a lot of time building relationships, within my organization and externally with the academic community.
Advice for Getting Started
Here's the first step for high school students
I think this can start with education by taking courses to try out potential interest so you can understand more about the subject matter to start. Researching today is also so easy so I'd suggest finding online resources to gain more insights and to make connections with people in the profession.
Recommended Education
My career is related to what I studied. I'd recommend the path I took:
Hurdles
The Noise I Shed
From Society in General:
"This is a very demanding career path and it would be challenging to successfully have a career and a family."
