Tim Ryan
PwC
Boston, MA USA
"Outside of ethics and values, you can undo anything."
Career Roadmap
Tim's work combines: Business, Numbers, and Working with Others
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
If you want to go into accounting, start at one of the larger accounting firms. They’re more diverse in disciplines and age, but there are also a lot of similarities between people, so it’s a lot easier to find people you can talk to, trust, and lean on for support and guidance.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Accounting
Babson College
Bachelor's Degree
Communication, General
Babson College
Certification
Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life has been direct
1.
I grew up in Boston, where my parents taught my siblings and me three principles: work hard, be honest, and be respectful—there wasn’t really any emphasis on going to school or getting good grades.
2.
The first in my family to complete college, I graduated from Babson College in Boston simply because it was the most affordable route.
3.
I worked full time through college and had aspirations to be an entrepreneur—I had no interest in accounting until a professor sold me on the dynamic, people-centered aspects of the field.
4.
I took an accounting internship doing payables and receivables for a company that sold filing systems, but hated it.
5.
That same professor pushed me towards the Big Eight (now the Big Four) for public accounting because they were more people-focused, so I went to work for PwC after college.
6.
At PwC, I worked hard and put a lot of pressure on myself to reach milestones—like being promoted to senior, and then to manager—earlier than the average employee.
7.
Having spent my career working my way up with PwC, I currently lead 55,000 people as U.S. chair and senior partner.
8.
My goal is to help PwC employees be the most sought-after people in the world because their skills are whole—they understand accounting and technology, and have eyes on the social issues around us.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Society in general:
You have to stay competitive to stand out and be successful.
How I responded:
People put a lot of pressure and stress on themselves trying to be competitive and ahead of the game. I put so much pressure on myself to get promoted earlier than the average that I lost sight of very important things, including my health. My advice is to define competition and the “end game” much broader than each narrow goal. If you’re striving for a specific goal and you look in the mirror and realize you don’t like who you see mentally, physically, and socially, then that's a problem.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
I was the first in my family to complete college, so I didn’t really have any educational guidance at home. My parents taught us good values, but I had to really push myself to work hard at school because that wasn’t something we were taught at home.
I put so much pressure on myself to reach work milestones earlier than expected that I lost sight of things like my health and relationships. I realize now that reaching milestones earlier doesn’t matter if you’re sacrificing other important things.