# Running the Numbers: Isaac McCrimon on Accounting, Internships, and Career Pivots

Channel: Stanislaus State
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CFYqdXZ_4A
Duration: 25 min
Language: English
Words: 4708
Transcript page: https://viewrankai.com/tools/youtube-transcript/6CFYqdXZ_4A

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[0:00] Hey Warriors, welcome to Beyond the Classroom podcast where we invite alumni back to campus to share their real world experiences, career advice and lessons you won't find in the syllabus. Stan State’s Business Administration program with a concentration in accounting prepares students with a strong foundation in financial reporting analysis and critical thinking. Today, we're joined by Stan State alum Isaac McCrimon, who graduated with a degree in business administration with an accounting concentration

[0:26] and now works as an administrative analyst for the city of San Francisco. He's here to share insights from his journey and how his degree has shaped his career I'm your host, Lanai Torres. And today we go beyond the classroom with Isaac McCrimon, class of 2022.

[0:48] Isaac, welcome back to Stan State. Oh, thank you for having me. Of course, I like the intro. Oh, hey, she got the radio voice, everything. Thank you, thank you. So how does it feel to be back on campus? Every time I come back to campus, I just think of every street as like a memory.

[1:05] Like a trip back. Like memory lane for me. And, like, just walk in different parts on campus. Even, like the parking lots and the late night drive around University Circle one. Yeah. And so I just, Yeah, it feels good to be on campus every time I walk on campus to think of all the nostalgia, if you will. So did you have, like, any, like, great memories that happened

[1:25] that Stan say that you kind of, like, want to talk about the fans? I got, I got too many stories recently. Good in that, but, Just like memories of, like, my freshman year, when I first got here, so I'm a twin, in case you didn't know. I'm one of five boys, so my twin and I.

[1:44] This is the only school that he. I got accepted to, and he was the only reason that I actually ended up coming to the school. Because I was, like, I wanted to stay close to my twin. I got accepted to a couple of schools, there on track and field elsewhere. I was looking to go CSU Pomona.

[1:57] But yeah, I wanted to stay next to my twin. I just remember the memories of sharing the dorms and doing all that. It was fun. when the vista's at the time when they were just being built, I was like, yeah. Time to get off campus. Did you stay, like, with your twin in the dorms, or were you guys, like, separate?

[2:16] We were separate. I think we were like a door from each other. Oh, okay. So I was fine. He actually ended up, not finishing here after the first year and. And moving back home. Oh, okay. He just said college wasn't for him. Yeah. And so I was like, darn, this is the reason why I came here.

[2:31] What made you decide to stay, like, without him being here? Like I said, I was running track and field. I found kind of like, my niche. Initially, I my first thought was to transfer But the more I stayed, more I enjoyed being on campus. And, just kind of like the Central Valley was something different for me, per se.

[2:51] you know, just coming from the Bay area, things were just, you know, fast pace. Coming out here is a lot more slow pace and that kind of I enjoyed that. Like it was still fast paced in the classroom and athletics and doing different stuff on campus. But, I did enjoy the, the slower pace of the slower paced environment

[3:09] around campus. Yeah. Can you go ahead and describe your title? In seven words or less. Seven words or less. Oh my gosh. Dizzy. Tedious. Fulfilling. Be. Accuracy. I would also add. I would throw encyclopedia and it'll make more sense because like it's such a steep learning curve there. So like Encyclopedia would be like a word that I can think of.

[3:34] And then you said seven, right? Yeah. So I got two more. Diversity would definitely be one. And education. Can you. Go more into of what your role is and like what do you do like in your day to day. Absolutely. So as an admin analyst for the city of San Francisco, specifically with services can be five school district, can the human resources division. resume definition, it's like, under the supervision of the success admin, lead that is in charge for, training purposes and handling inquiries

[4:11] in the internal and external staff inquiries are sometimes employee related. essentially a fancy way of saying like liaison. we're kind of the front facing, are of the human resources. Okay. And so we kind of sometimes, you know, the way the work flow is, what? My supervisor always says, you know, the tip of the spear. Never a fan of it, because, you know,

[4:34] one of his goals, you always say, is we're always building the plane as it flies. Why can't we build the plane? Flew it out. Yeah. Yeah, the work that I do is socially, diagnose, problem. Sometimes when people, come and walk in. They'll walk in and they'll share something that they have been able to get completed through the ticketing system.

[4:56] Or maybe there is an appointment that they had to have scheduled. We kind of liaising on, between departments, whether it's, A staffing inquiry sometimes, you know, in education it's certificated and classified. So, there's different levels, like especially within civil service, if you're not familiar with civil service, like, usually in city and county, level.

[5:15] And so, yeah, it's kind of a little bit what I do. Okay. I don't know if I've put it the best light, but yeah. Is there like, any difference between going back to San Francisco from when you were here in the Central Valley attending Stan? Is there like a cultural difference or work difference that you absolutely like? Yeah, the Bay area is,

[5:37] like I said, is extremely fast paced versus the Central Valley. And, just like, culturally speaking, like, you're going to see a lot more, you know, farmland out here, you're going to see some temple. I remember seeing, temple week going across the river for the first time, this way. And I was just like, yeah, we're in the

[5:54] central Valley. Definitely Central Valley. I never did work. I mean, technically, I worked here, I was a part of, the male succession initiative here on campus. And so MSI, and essentially we were trying to, empower foster and nurture a healthy expression of masculinity by having different conversations and kind of helping them along their education journey. And so, like working in that environment, kind of like working in a college

[6:22] campus environment is a little different than, I'm sure, working off campus. I know people who work different jobs off campus. feel like here, like even though the surrounding area is country like, not too far away from campus culturally is like, you know, kind of more suburban. I don't know, like a retail job and stuff like that. So which is, culturally shift from when we go to San Francisco, San Francisco, it's like kind of like the tech Mecca of the world. So,

[6:47] your school district is like, the third largest employer of all San Francisco. So it's kind of like, yeah, it's like well over at least 6000, 6000 employees. just different, like the level of responsibility. They have to just short question. Yes. Very different. Very different. Yeah. Do you enjoy doing it like there's so many schools and I know it could get really busy. But do you have a difficult time kind of dealing with all of those schools,

[7:11] or do you just be like, okay, I can manage this. You know, when I first inherited, the job, I came as a consultant this, before getting hired full time. And so when I inherited everything, it was at the time the district was in a state of emergency. did a new system implementation and, system implementation. it wasn't handled properly and executed well, and it led to a lot of people not getting paid,

[7:37] a lot of people's benefits getting cut off. So, yeah, when I came in as a kid, yeah, when I inherited, it was a mess. Yeah, it was chaos. When I say if there was a list of violations in the state of California, bylaws, it was every single one is, so when I inherited it, I wanted no part of it at first because, the only reason why I had even got to this point, when I was working in accounting and finance for a couple of years,

[8:02] the company I was at, Flipboard, they were doing layoffs. They had reduced, the company by 20%. And, unfortunately, I was one of those 20%. for all those college graduates out there. Hopefully that's not your case, that you will get laid off, but it is a part of the workforce. It is what it is. Especially in tech, It led to me being a consultant

[8:19] at the time that led to me actually still being with the district. the more I stayed there, the longer I actually kind of enjoyed being there and doing the work within education, the civil service, the satisfaction of being able to diagnose somebody's problem and get a resolution for them, there was a story of a person

[8:38] who hadn't got paid in two months, they were about to get evicted. they had gone through multiple we had a ticketing system, and they had gone through multiple people, and people couldn't find the actual like, problem. They were reviewing our paychecks. They're reviewing, different things and why she wasn't getting paid. And, I remember just sitting there having the patience to, to be able to walk with that person and, like, just going back, through the ticket system

[9:01] and emailing them and calling them and following up. when I was able to kind of connect payroll and, we had to work and collaborate with different, people to get that person's resolution done, it was so satisfying just being able to get that person paid and see the relief on their face when they actually did come into the office to actually personally thank me, you know, I was like, okay,

[9:20] I can see myself staying here. And so I remember applying for, the first role that I was working at as a labor representative. we can get into that, but like, I enjoyed the work that I did. Just because, there wasn't a lot of people that looked like me, and there wasn't a lot of people who executed, compassionately being able to execute the work, because a lot of times people, I just found it like a lot of people, they kind of wanted to do the bare minimum, and I just didn't want to be that person because I understood, like,

[9:47] hey, that person's got right, that person's got kids. That person has a mouth to feed, you know? And so I was just really inspired to kind of just want to make a difference. So I learned everything I possibly could. So I could be a one stop shop. Now that we have a better understanding of your career, let's jump

[10:03] into our Kipling six the who, what, when, where, why and how of your journey. So who inspired you to pursue your career? Oh yeah. So when I first got here to standard source, my study at the time was, Business Administration, with a concentration in entrepreneurship. And, after the first year, my cousin, Christian Nicole,

[10:26] who I really look up to, was working for the big four, accounting firms. She at the time was KPMG, and she shared, like, how much she was making at the time. And I was like, that's how I'm yours. How much she was gonna be like, I need to change my degree. So I was an accounting firm, and I was like, yeah, I need to switch my degree. So I remember, as soon as I came back, my from my sophomore year, I talked to my academic advisor to switch to accounting, and, yeah, that's

[10:52] kind of what led, to me finishing my degree in accounting still. And I'm doing that for a few years before making the pivot into human resources. What was your biggest obstacle along the way? One of my biggest obstacles. Was that first layoff, in 2022, and of 2022, because at the time, the job that I had,

[11:12] I got, I was actually working while I was still in school. So I started back in 2021. So I had that job, and as soon as I got that degree, I got that pay increase and I was like, oh yeah, this is great. And then before obviously, it was like October 2022, in the Silicon Valley all over, had like a silent recession.

[11:33] So it wasn't just that tech company was a lot of tech companies. But I remember that was kind of like disheartening because I was like, oh, I just got my degree is like, I thought we were doing great. And, you know, it was kind of out of the problem. And I remember that just kind of being like

[11:47] a different time to navigate because I was just like, dang. Looking for a job. And, I remember just applying to Robert Half and that did help out. So but that was my one of my biggest obstacles was getting laid off. 2022. That led to the next pivot. Career wise. When did you realize you were on the right path? I knew I was on the right path when, after my sophomore year,

[12:11] I had, I got I had earned a, internship at, Volta charging. Oh, it was a tech company. They're now bought by a shell. They are like charging stations. I'd use my sometimes see, at some malls and stuff like that. Volta charging. And so they're owned by shell now. But I remember I knew I was going the right path, like after my sophomore year

[12:31] of, like, kind of like changing my degree and then getting an internship. And I was like, doing the accounting of finance. So, like, I could actually do this. Did you feel like an internship while you were attending Sense8 helped you kind of navigate in like reach your career goal that you are in now?

[12:49] Absolutely. Because it gave me real life work experience and allowed me to like, okay, is this degree is. So this is something I actually want to do. Which at the time I was like, okay, yeah, I actually do want to do this. So now, you know, accounting is not the most sexy, if you will, or, most appealing job that people want to do. But like, at the time, you know, being from the Santa Clara County, I knew, like

[13:15] the, the b low income out there that is a different number than out here. And so I knew I when when I was finishing my, studying my degree, I wanted to be able to move back home and like, be able to, sustain myself. Where did your first opportunity come from and how did it find you? When I was able to network within, the first internship,

[13:36] it actually led to, working, with Flipboard at the time. And so, because I had did a really good job at that internship that I stayed in connection with the the CFO at the time. And when she had moved to another job And so I reached out to her and I was like, hey, are you hiring?

[13:53] she said, absolutely, actually, this is a good time. It's like, what are you interested we're looking for? And I was like, oh, I would like to be doing, accounting and finance or anything finance related. And she's like, yeah, let's see what we got. And then, did an interview. Yeah, I was able to go to school and

[14:11] work at the same time, and it was all online at the time. So that was such a crazy time. Oh yeah. We're in 2026. It's just crazy, like the story that are going to be told. Yeah. To even think about that, like to just think about like the pandemic and how everything was like online

[14:28] and how now serves more accessible because it's online. Exactly. even just finishing a degree online, that was that was such a, it's crazy transition from going in person to switching everything flip like literally overnight. That was that was a different experience. Why is your work important to you? Just because it aligns with my morals

[14:51] to leave the world a better place than how I inherited it. When I first inherited that job, a lot of things historically weren't done correctly, So when I inherited S of USD, I wanted to leave it a better place now. And I heard. How can students follow your lead? Authentically. Just be yourself. It allows you to kind of just, like, feel good in your own skin and just being able to, carry and execute work,

[15:13] professionally, especially if you're someone that looks like me. There's not that many people in the space, but, like, you know, you bring a different, a different set of eyes and mind and, into, like, a work environment. So especially like San Francisco. And I always kind of talked a little bit about you, being in the track and field.

[15:35] How do you think that translates to you, working in your career? Time management? That's still a skill that I'm still mastering, but, time management. Definitely. Being in athletics and being a student athlete, if anyone understands, like, it's just you have to manage your time extremely efficiently. So like, there is and like, okay, well, as soon as I wake up, I have to start doing something

[16:00] because it's not like I could, sleep in and go ahead and do it now. You got it. Almost got to get done. You got to go into the workout. So especially, like my, like last couple years, we had 6 a.m. workouts. imagine. Yeah, my school day starts at five. Yeah. 50. So I'm in the weight room at 6 a.m..

[16:19] And as soon as I'm done, I'm in the recovery. And then I got class at like, like, like 830. And so a lot of time. Yeah, exactly. And so it was, so it was body, it was time management, but it was like being really goal oriented. So like you had to really kind of like focus. And that was like the main part was like really just like being focus and okay, like this is what you want to do and to get stuff done, you have to sacrifice a little bit more, which is like

[16:47] you got to sacrifice some of your mornings or you want to go out. I got to push that aside because now you really get to just like, okay, I got to be in the bed by a certain time so I can get up at a certain time. Are you a morning person or. No these days? Absolutely.

[17:00] Yeah. I, when I first got here, I was not. No. But, these days I'm pretty much. I'm not like a 5:15 a.m. on the morning. Well, for the most part, way earlier than me. Yeah, because I usually always squeeze in a workout before work. Now we're moving into a segment we call questions from the classroom. We asked current students to submit a few questions

[17:19] related to your field, and we picked three that they're curious about. As an accounting graduate, what classes are experiences here ended up helping you the most once you started working? Tax accounting. Intermediate accounting and advanced accounting. Those classes, and helping me out the most. Please understand the income statement in a balance sheet and be able to break that down. Because when you're able to explain it to your CFO, correctly, accurately,

[17:44] and especially when they have to relay that information to like the CEO. It's a it looks good. It looks good that, you know, like and that's going to keep you having a job. What would you say is like your favorite one? I can tell you that I was not as extremely passionate about accounting, but if I had to say a favorite, tax accounting because, that also helped me out with, like, my taxes,

[18:07] like just being able to have like, that financial kind of understanding. Yeah. So when I saw that I was able to understand that, I was like, oh, I can send my family some money. And so financial literacy, I think for a lot of people it's kind of nuance. Not saying that, people can't learn it without taking accounting, but like those who are like,

[18:25] as long as you're paying attention in the tax accounting, you'll learn a lot. What's something you wish you had done differently as an accounting student at Stan State to better prepare for your career? I probably would have focused in tax accounting like a lot more. When you're applying for accounting jobs, and one of the main things that like if you're wanting to work for those big four firms like, mentioned KPMG earlier, but the big four firms like you have a knowledge in taxes

[18:52] is going to get you paid. You're always going to have a job if you understand tax because no one wants to do taxes. Yeah. And so, like when I, when they gave me that project, I Flipboard and it was like so relieved. But I was able to understand tax code and everything. They was like, oh yeah, we're doing this project and you

[19:10] know, I was like, great. But it was like, okay. What advice would you give current accounting students who are trying to stand out when applying for internships or entry level jobs? I would say get involved on campus. Either join a club that you might be passionate about and like. Try to be the treasurer. Learn how to manage money. I mean, that's the main part, is like learning how to manage money,

[19:31] because you're going to inherit a role where you're managing money. you're doing stuff in the classroom, but you want to be able to apply stuff outside the classroom, especially early on. So I think that's one thing that I'd say, that would help our students and also, good relationships with, like, your college professor, because sometimes they might lead to opportunities. Like, I still get emails from David Lindsay, who was an accounting

[19:53] professor here. I'm not sure if he still is now, but he is. Shout out to, David Lindsay because I definitely still get the emails of, like, this jobs opening here. And so like, yeah, it's really nice. I know you mentioned you're a part of the male student initiative. Actually, that wasn't a club. So that was actually a part of the Cross Cultural Center.

[20:14] Oh, so that was, paid job here. But I was involved with Blackstone Union, so I was a treasurer, from 2017 through 2019. that's a great experience because that's going to apply to real life world experience. Like, okay, when you're able to understand your budget and then like, okay, we can only spend this much, because we're not earning this much. I can only advise, students on campus to get involved in, like, a position

[20:41] where you have to learn how to manage money. Our imagination. Time. If you could design a course at Stan State for students interested in your career path, what would you call it? And what is one lesson you'd make sure every student leaves with? Financial literacy. I think that should be a course like I think I touched on it a little bit in the accounting. Like that was like probably

[21:03] the only part of it that was kind of financial literacy. But like, you know, I think like, creating a course like where students like on all levels, whether you come from money or you don't, just you want to be able to learn how to be responsible with money, and make the money work for you. So being able to understand, like, actually like wealth management, really being able to understand stocks like, okay, having a Roth

[21:26] IRA for one K, whether what makes sense or what doesn't make sense. And mutual fund, all the stuff that I learned post-college, like, even understanding your credit score, like, I mean, I like how to increase it. Like what not to do. What what are you actually, what's the goal of having a good credit?

[21:44] Like, I think if we had to create a course like that. Really? Like, would it help people after college? Is financial literacy? there should be a specific course for everybody that honestly should be mandatory for all students. I feel like that would help me a lot too. Especially like now that you're going into like your career

[22:02] and right after college, because not a lot of stuff is talked about with that. So having that course would be really awesome. I would take it. Yeah. And I like that should be a mandatory course at all college campuses, to be honest with you, because especially for first gen, like if you're not used to managing like okay, like

[22:19] I got me a big boy job, I'm earning more than my family ever earned. And like, they never knew how to spend all that. I know everybody likes to be on their phone, use their phone, use Google, use you to use ChatGPT. We talked a lot about your career today, but if we go beyond the classroom,

[22:39] what are you most proud of in terms of personal growth? I'm so happy that I grew so much closer to God. Post college. Like, I'm grateful that, that Jesus died for our sins. Like one of the things that, like I said, like when you're kind of on this, like, path of like, you know, going from adolescence and you're making this transition

[23:02] into, like, post college, it's a different space to navigate. And I think, me getting closer to God, I honestly helped me out a lot when it came to discipline, when you're transitioning from high school to college, it's like, okay, there's no more mom and dad. And then when you transition from college to, work, then it's like, okay, there's no more professors.

[23:25] And so it's all on you. sometimes it's a lot for someone to carry and understand and really comprehend what that actually means. Like, okay, I'm responsible for having rent done on the first I'm really responsible for, okay. I'm not I don't have a meal plan anymore. I gotta be able to cook and all that stuff.

[23:45] Some people obviously live off campus. I know this campus is like a commuter campus, and so maybe they are, but, like, really just being on your own, like, in, like having and making and building a name for yourself. So you actually have like real professional career experience so that you could okay, maybe this is not my forever job,

[24:04] but I would be able to transfer a lot of these skills into the next job. So yeah, it was a pleasure talking with you today. Thank you for coming and sharing what life is like beyond the classroom. I appreciate you for having me. This podcast is produced by the Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing at Stanislaus State

[24:22] and recorded in the studio of our campus radio station, KCSS. You can find this podcast at csustan.edu/podcasts, and you can follow and subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform. Once again, I'm your host, Lanai Torres. Thanks for joining us. Beyond the classroom.

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