Dawn Brolin
Powerful Accounting
Hartford, CT USA
"I do 100% or nothing. There’s no 50% because there’s no point. Why bother? If you’re not going all in, don’t go in."
Career Roadmap
Dawn's work combines: Numbers, Entrepreneurship, and Helping People
See more careers and stories that connect to your interests.
Take Roadmap Quiz
Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
If you want to get into accounting, there’s no doubt that you can do it. Your first steps should be considering what kind of company you want to work for and what kind of work-life balance you want. Once you figure that out, then you’ll know which companies to strive for.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Accounting and Business/Management
Eastern Connecticut State University
Graduate Degree
Accounting
Eastern Connecticut State University
Certification
Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
Certification
Certified Fraud Examiner
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life has been direct
1.
I knew that I wanted to be an accountant when I was 16 years old.
2.
But having kids shortly after college set me back a bit—until I got an unexpected offer from my parents’ home renovation contractor, who wanted me to do his bookkeeping.
3.
Through promotion, networking, and word-of-mouth, I started getting more clients and my business grew.
4.
In my late 30s, I went back to school for my master’s degree and then studied for my CPA license.
5.
I eventually joined a partnership doing payroll and bookkeeping—I learned a lot, but I wanted to do things my way.
6.
I met with a tax attorney friend of mine who offered me a civil audit case—that first taste of working a fraud case drove me to keep pursuing that niche.
7.
Once I saw that there was more to accounting than just being a CPA, I became a Certified Fraud Examiner because I loved doing fraud work.
8.
Now I run my own accounting firm to help small- and medium-sized businesses improve profitability—my firm is high-energy and person-centered.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Society in general:
You can't do it.
How I responded:
You're going to find people in every industry who want to knock you down. I'm highly competitive, so whenever someone tells me I can't do something, that automatically triggers me to work hard and succeed. I will not stop until it's done, no matter how long it takes me. You'll also find people—even people you love—who tell you not to do something for good reason, but it feels right to you. It's important to take that advice into consideration, but at the end of the day, it's your life.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
I had kids early on, which set my accounting career plans back a bit. Unexpectedly, I got an offer to do someone's bookkeeping and my business just grew from there through word-of-mouth. Fortunately, my husband was able to help a lot with parenting.
I worked full time, which came with many sacrifices as a parent. Putting my career first was a hard decision to make, but it was the best decision for my family.