Cynthia Boon
Internal Audit Manager
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.”
Videos
By Roadtrip NationCynthia Boon
Milestones
My road in life took a while to figure out.
I grew up in Ghana and came to the U.S. when I was 16 years old as part of an exchange program.
I attended Texas Southern University with a scholarship—I had been living in Pennsylvania at the time and really wanted to move somewhere warm.
Started out studying engineering, but quickly realized it wasn’t for me and transferred to the business school and majored in finance.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Keep following my journey
Education
High School
Career
Internal Audit Manager
I perform audits of accounting and financial data in the entertainment industry.
Career Roadmap
My work combines:
My work combines:
Business
Numbers
Problem Solving
Day to Day
I’m assigned specific projects and lead a team to audit those projects. I set up meetings with the companies I’m working with to understand their processes and perform tests on those processes. When I’m done testing, I’ll issue a report to the company and then discuss improvements with them. Sometimes, that means traveling to festivals and shows to make sure they’re compliant.
Advice for Getting Started
Here's the first step for professionals
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.
Hurdles
The Noise I Shed
From Myself:
"You're a failure."
Challenges I Overcame
First-Generation Immigrant
Career Change
Interviewed By
Making it Balance
Paths in accounting and auditing
