Rebecca Susskind
Class of 2021
Hometown: Wayne, PA
Undergraduate University: William & Mary
Class Year: 2020
Major/Minor: Accounting, Finance
Employer: PwC
Position: Associate
What attracted you to the field of accounting?
I started taking accounting in high school. I had so much fun and realized no one else was having as much fun with it as I was. I liked how it was a puzzle, and it was all about solving problems. You're given inputs, and you have to get an output. I just liked how all of that worked. When I came to the Mason School, I took the Intro to Accounting course and enjoyed it as much as I had in high school, so that solidified the decision for me to pursue it as a career.
Why William & Mary?
William & Mary students always say it's the people, and that was definitely true for me too. I had so much fun during both my undergraduate and graduate programs. I made my best friends there. It made sense for me to stay for my fourth year because I wanted to finish my college experience with the people I came in with, and I knew the MAcc program was a really good program.
What attributes about the program appealed to you?
I'm grateful that William & Mary's MAcc is not just focused on tax and audit. We need to know about those because of the CPA exam, but the school offers different classes in so many different areas of accounting. I was constantly learning about new ways to apply accounting to business. We were also given the option to delve deeper into topics depending on our individual interests, like forensic accounting and data analytics. I'm thankful that the program was supportive of us and encouraged us to each pave our own path.
How have you applied what you learned in the program to what you're doing professionally at PwC?
I work in the Capital Markets & Accounting Advisory Services Group, which works in the deals department of PwC. There's a lot of parts to it. Capital Markets works with companies that are going through major changes to IPOs, divestitures, acquisitions, mergers, and other similar situations. We advise them on the types of accounting changes that happen with those kinds of transactions and how it will affect the deals. The other half of my job is in Accounting Advisory Services, where we come in and advise clients who are working through changes to accounting standards. Recently there have been revenue recognition standards and other standard changes which are difficult for big companies to implement. We come in as the experts and help them implement the changes. I am really drawn to the problem-solving aspect of both of these roles, and it's exactly the type of work I wanted to do.
