Hill spent better part of decade pursuing CGA but, upon completion, couldn’t leave career she loves
After spending eight and a half years pursuing certification to be a Certified General Accountant (CGA), Kathryn Hill decided she didn’t want to be an accountant.
The Ottawa-based HR, payroll and benefits manager at JSI Telecom, worked hard to complete the designation part-time while working in payroll after her boss convinced her she should try the field. After she was finished, she had an epiphany.
“I said to my husband: I don’t want to be an accountant.”
She just loved her job too much.
“I think the thing about it is there’s a sense of accomplishment, there’s a sense of keeping on the deadlines and stuff, and I think there’s the rewards and the fact that you get that diversity of the work,” she said.
Like so many payroll professionals, she didn’t start off with a payroll career in mind. She studied geography and sociology in university.
“Which was not very helpful,” she jokes.
So she went back to school at night and did her college diploma in HR and business in the late 1970s.
After starting her career working at a department store, she applied for a payroll position with Bristol Myers and has been in the industry since.
As member of the Canadian Payroll Association (CPA) since its early years, Hill has been honoured by the association as a past winner of the Diana Ferguson award, the special contributor award and most recently as a fellow of the CPA.
When she was given the special contributor award in 2009, CPA vice-president of education Steven Van Alstine said: “(She) recognized the value of payroll, supported CPA’s leadership to the community, and furthering of the legislative concerns of employers with the federal governments as an active member.”
Hill was one of the association’s first individual members and has stayed involved in the organization because she believes the networking it provides is essential, she said.
“It’s a phenomenal network,” she said. “I have payroll contacts all around the world.”
Her boss came in one day and announced her company was opening an office in Australia. He asked if she could figure out payroll in the land down under.
“No problem,” she told him.
She found her contact in Australian payroll who she had met through networking opportunities and was well on her way to setting up benefits and payroll for employees working there.
Barry Everatt worked with Hill on the CPA’s board for a few years in the 1980s.
She is one of the great examples of how the organization works, he said. When people start working on the board of the CPA, as Hill did from 1979 to 1984, they are sometimes nervous. But many, like Hill go on to hold important positions on the board.
“I look at that and think this is amazing,” he said.
They always turn out to be great representatives of the profession, like Hill, he said.
Hill said when her children ask for her advice on what career path they should pursue, she’s sure to tell them they should find their passions like she did.
“At the end of the day, the biggest thing is you have to find a job which you enjoy,” she said.
If you love what you do it doesn’t even matter if you have a horrible boss, she said.
“You have to live with your boss,” she said. “You have to love your job.
The Ottawa-based HR, payroll and benefits manager at JSI Telecom, worked hard to complete the designation part-time while working in payroll after her boss convinced her she should try the field. After she was finished, she had an epiphany.
“I said to my husband: I don’t want to be an accountant.”
She just loved her job too much.
“I think the thing about it is there’s a sense of accomplishment, there’s a sense of keeping on the deadlines and stuff, and I think there’s the rewards and the fact that you get that diversity of the work,” she said.
Like so many payroll professionals, she didn’t start off with a payroll career in mind. She studied geography and sociology in university.
“Which was not very helpful,” she jokes.
So she went back to school at night and did her college diploma in HR and business in the late 1970s.
After starting her career working at a department store, she applied for a payroll position with Bristol Myers and has been in the industry since.
As member of the Canadian Payroll Association (CPA) since its early years, Hill has been honoured by the association as a past winner of the Diana Ferguson award, the special contributor award and most recently as a fellow of the CPA.
When she was given the special contributor award in 2009, CPA vice-president of education Steven Van Alstine said: “(She) recognized the value of payroll, supported CPA’s leadership to the community, and furthering of the legislative concerns of employers with the federal governments as an active member.”
Hill was one of the association’s first individual members and has stayed involved in the organization because she believes the networking it provides is essential, she said.
“It’s a phenomenal network,” she said. “I have payroll contacts all around the world.”
Her boss came in one day and announced her company was opening an office in Australia. He asked if she could figure out payroll in the land down under.
“No problem,” she told him.
She found her contact in Australian payroll who she had met through networking opportunities and was well on her way to setting up benefits and payroll for employees working there.
Barry Everatt worked with Hill on the CPA’s board for a few years in the 1980s.
She is one of the great examples of how the organization works, he said. When people start working on the board of the CPA, as Hill did from 1979 to 1984, they are sometimes nervous. But many, like Hill go on to hold important positions on the board.
“I look at that and think this is amazing,” he said.
They always turn out to be great representatives of the profession, like Hill, he said.
Hill said when her children ask for her advice on what career path they should pursue, she’s sure to tell them they should find their passions like she did.
“At the end of the day, the biggest thing is you have to find a job which you enjoy,” she said.
If you love what you do it doesn’t even matter if you have a horrible boss, she said.
“You have to live with your boss,” she said. “You have to love your job.
