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By Roadtrip Nation

Talat Mangla

Milestones

My road in life took a while to figure out.
I started off in college as a political science major at Western Michigan University.
To placate my dad, a college finance professor, I took some business courses—I was blown away by how dynamic and engaging my accounting class was, so I added accounting as a second major.
I took on multiple internships to gain ample exposure in different industries—I’ve had internships in finance, law, and government.
After college, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go into accounting or law, but I got offers from Big Four companies and realized that accounting was the right path for me.
I got my license as a Certified Public Accountant from The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
I was drawn to PwC by the people who worked there—they were all dynamic, engaging people that I wanted on my team.
At PwC, I worked my way up from associate to senior manager.
After my last maternity leave, PwC was launching a new initiative called tech-enabled audit, which really spoke to me and led to my current position as a director for our assurance practice.
Keep following my journey

Career

Director of Assurance Innovation

I’m dedicated to innovating the audit process with technology solutions.

Career Roadmap

Roadmap
My work combines:
My work combines:
Business
Technology
Working with Others

Day to Day

I'm a product manager for the assurance practice. I take the needs of our auditors and figure out what tools they need to equip them in the audit. Then I evaluate how to build a tool for them that helps standardize, simplify, and provide a better audit experience for our clients and the third parties that we deal with. It’s a different experience from the typical day-to-day auditing. My day to day tasks involve a lot of product management, technology, and working with development teams.

Advice for Getting Started

Here's the first step for college students

Find internships in the industries you're interested in and take on as many as you can. Gaining that hands-on exposure is incredibly helpful when trying to figure out which industry is right for you.

Hurdles

The Noise I Shed

From Peers:

"You can't have a life if you work for a Big Four company."

Challenges I Overcame

Working Parent