Awkward silence is OK — and other networking secrets

Sponsored by Practising Law Institute

Networking can feel uncomfortable for many of us, but meaningful connections often start with simple conversations and strong listening skills. Alex Romero, CPA, CGMA, the AICPA’s director–CPA Pipeline, shares practical advice for building professional relationships at conferences and beyond, including the reminder that pauses are acceptable. Romero also highlights ways to stay present in conversations and one activity that she has found to be a networking boost.

She also discusses the latest outlook for accounting talent, accounting enrollment trends, and why the CPA credential remains a “great differentiator.”

Other resources mentioned in the conversation include an earlier podcast episode from ENGAGE with the AICPA’s Carl Mayes, CPA; the website ThisWayToCPA.com, with numerous resources for students and educators; and information on the July 24 Faculty Hour Series webcast, which includes Romero as a scheduled speaker.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

• The ways accounting professionals who are averse to networking can become effective at building relationships at conferences and other events.
• How active listening helps create deeper professional connections.
• Romero’s practical conversation starters and techniques.
• What recent accounting enrollment data suggests about the CPA talent pipeline.

Play the episode below or read the edited transcript:

— To comment on this episode or to suggest an idea for another episode, contact Neil Amato at Neil.Amato@aicpa-cima.com.

Transcript

Neil Amato: Hello, listeners. Welcome back to the Journal of Accountancy podcast. This is Neil Amato with the JofA. We’re glad to have you back for another episode. I’m excited about this conversation. It is with Alex Romero at ENGAGE. Alex is the director of CPA Pipeline, and we are going to talk networking and many other topics right after this brief sponsor message.

[Sponsor message]

Amato: Welcome back and also welcome to Alex Romero. This is our first time meeting in person, her first time on the JofA podcast. Alex, thank you for being here.

Alex Romero: Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here and share a little bit about networking and what I’m doing at the AICPA.

Amato: Yeah, you’ve been on the job, I guess, a few months now. Is that accurate?

Romero: That is true. I have been on the job officially for just over two months, but I have done a lot of volunteer work with the AICPA. So I’ve been around for about seven years in different capacities, been on committees, conference planning committees, also Council. So quite a bit in my last seven years or so.

Amato: You’re speaking on networking, we’ve written some about some of your advice for networking, but whether it is at a big event like this one, ENGAGE, where we’re recording in June, or any other type of setting, what to you is the key to networking?

Romero: Not getting in your head. One of the things I think a lot of us get too much in our head before we go forward and talk to somebody, and especially as CPAs and accountants, you have to remember that the majority of us, me included, are introverts.

So you might feel awkward talking to somebody. There might be dead space when you’re having a conversation. but that’s OK. You’re likely also talking to an introvert who doesn’t know what to say as well. So just don’t be afraid. Just be confident and know that it’s all right if there are moments where you don’t know what to say. You can think of something really just off the top of your head. Or if not, it’s all right to just kind of stand there for a moment as you compose yourself.

Amato: I think that’s really good advice. I’ve seen it in practice with me and with others at this conference. So it can be tough, but it also can be easy with a little bit of preparation, a little bit of forethought. What do you think is the percentage breakdown in networking of talking versus listening?

Romero: You would hope that it’s 50-50 with each person talking and listening just as equal as the other. But I believe that it’s probably more like you’re talking maybe 30%, each person. And I don’t think that people listen as much because the thing is, a lot of times when you’re having a conversation, especially if you’re nervous about it, you’re an introvert, you’re thinking about the next question you’re going to say or you’re thinking of your response.

So you’re not really listening to what they say, and then you’re not networking, because a lot of it is about building those meaningful relationships. So if you’re not even listening to what the person says, because you’re so in your head about what am I going to say next? How am I going to answer this so that they think that I’m saying something educational? You’re not going to be able to connect.

Amato: Yeah, I hit on that topic some with Carl Mayes. He’s an AICPA vice president. We talked about the Profession Ready Initiative and some of the listening that the organization is doing with the profession. But I asked him, and I’ll kind of ask you, is it harder today to be a good listener with all the distractions we have?

Romero: Absolutely. And what Neil did not say is in front of us is a set of five TVs and a ticker that’s going through the stock exchange. And so yes, we have distractions all around us. I have an Apple Watch, and I have it set that I don’t have any noise, but I have it vibrating because I have a 13-year-old son. So if anything happens to him, I want to get notified.

But I’ve also done a lot of training with myself to really try and ignore it. And if you are having a difficult time, maybe take the conversation somewhere else, or plan to meet in a different location so that you can have a quiet, more meaningful conversation. But it is hard.

There’s always stuff going around and especially us here in Las Vegas. I mean, talk about loud. There are sirens, there are the casino noises. Right now there’s a highway outside the window as well. There’s just so much going on that you have to be intentional, but that’s how you are going to make an impact and really be able to meet people, understand them, start building those relationships so that you can find somebody that might be a sponsor or a mentor or a coach. Because if you don’t take that time to really listen and block out everything else, you’re going to miss these opportunities.

Amato: Yeah. And you kind of hit on this in an earlier answer. One bit of networking is listening, which is different than waiting for your turn to talk.

Romero: Yes.

Amato: If you’re constantly saying, well, what am I going to say next? Are you really taking in what that other person says? How do you get better at that?

Romero: I think the thing is it’s a lot of practice because it is our human nature to want to be thinking about what our response is. But if you are actually listening, the response is going to become more natural because they might say something in that conversation that you’re like, “Hey, I like that, too,” or, “Wow, let’s talk about that.”

So many conversations that I start here at ENGAGE, we have all our lanyards that have the different colors for the different tracks. And so I ask them, “Oh, what are you here for? How many times have you been to ENGAGE? Where are you from? Do you like this weather? Or are you missing the humidity? Just little things like that.

And then they might say, “Oh, well, I really like the dry air because I like being able to go out and run and not feel like I am drenched afterwards.” And I would key in and say, “Oh my goodness, I love running, too.” And then there’s a connection that if you didn’t just start those easy conversation starters that you would never know, and now you might be able to really connect with that person. Because there’s something there that you’re like, hey, we share this.

Amato: Yeah, that’s great, and you brought up running. There is a group, a pretty regular group, that goes at least one morning from ENGAGE. It’s another way to network. Tell me some about that and how maybe running has helped you on the networking front.

Romero: Absolutely. And yes, so we have the run-walk here at ENGAGE, two mornings this year. And so that’s with Jen Wilson, Lexi Weber at the AICPA, and myself. Jen does the running. I do kind of an interval in the middle, and then Lexi finishes up with the walk.

But it is a really great place to do some networking because you see people outside of the conference center. We see each other in our fun clothes. So I wore some Run Disney outfits, and I had somebody come up to me and they’re like, “Have you done the Dopey Run?” And I was like, “I have.” And they, “Oh, I’ve done runs at Disney as well.”

And so it’s just having those little things that are outside of talking about business. And we kind of laughed because we said, this is a great networking event. As you’re trying to run, sometimes it’s hard to talk and run. But then you could say, hey, I saw them at the run. I’m going to go sit next to them if I see them in a session. Or, hey, do you want to come tomorrow morning. Let’s be accountable. We came today, but let’s make sure we’re both here tomorrow. So it’s just a great way to kind of find something that might be unique to you and someone else that you can then kind of build from there.

Amato: That’s a great point. And you mentioned Jennifer Wilson. Last summer, the Journal of Accountancy podcast went on a brief road trip. It was my personal road trip. I went to some new states and recorded with CPAs or leaders in the profession in their home states.

Romero: That’s awesome.

Amato: I recorded with Jennifer Wilson in her home state of Nebraska. But before we did that recording, we went for a run. So yes, right there with you on the value of it. I’ve done it at Digital CPA with a group, dead of winter, really dark. But you know what? We got it done. It was a great group outing. I’m totally for the run and network double.

Also on the topic of listening, one of your jobs is to listen to the members talk about the profession, the state of talent. You’re the CPA pipeline director. What is the state of talent from the conversations you’re having with members?

Romero: So, it’s interesting. There’s a couple of different facets in there, and we just got the numbers for the spring enrollment for colleges, and it had the two-year and the four-year results in there, and we are still seeing an increase in enrollment in accounting degrees, and we also have seen an increase with the master’s of accounting as well.

Now, some of that might change as we’ve seen some additional pathways that are coming into play in the other states and jurisdictions, but we are still seeing a lot of people coming into the profession. But the thing that I warn others about is that we don’t want to just say, OK, check mark, this is done, we’ve solved the pipeline problem. Because if we don’t pay attention to it, then we’re going to see enrollments dropping.

And there also has been questions about AI and entry-level positions, but when we get out there and we’ve been talking to students, they realize what AI is going to be doing in these positions and that there’s still going to be opportunities. So it’s really been about taking those perceptions that might be out there and connecting with the academics, connecting with the professors and the students and even the candidates to explain what we’re really going to see in the future and how a CPA is still going to be a great differentiator for you and something that’s going to help you in your career.

So while there is a lot of talk about, well, we don’t know if there’s going to be less or more accountants, it is still a really valuable profession to get into.

Amato: You mentioned those accounting enrollment numbers. That news will be on journalofaccountancy.com. We’ll post a link in the show notes for this episode to that news. But speaking of links in the show notes, any other resources maybe that you’d like to leave people with, even if it’s just a kind of general description?

Romero: Yes, absolutely. So the pipeline team, we have tons of resources and we’re actually working on a resource hub that’s going to be coming out later this summer where you’re going to be able to go in. It’s replacing the Trends Report. So you’ll get to drill down and see if I’m in the state of Colorado, for example, how many students are enrolled, what are those numbers looking like?

And so we’re going to have a lot of resources there, but we also have ThisWayToCPA.com and that is got two sides to it. So we have our student side. You can go, you can get information about being a student and then how to go through the licensure process, looking at their blueprints for the exam. And then we have an academic side that really speaks to those teachers and the professors and what they can be talking about in the classroom and resources they could provide for their students so that they have the ability to go through graduation and then get their CPA license.

Amato: That’s great. Alex Romero, thank you very much for being on the JofA podcast.

Romero: Yes, thank you so much for having me.

Amato: Again, thanks to Alex Romero for joining me at ENGAGE. In eight days, on Friday, July 24 at 2 p.m. Eastern, you’ll be able to hear more from Alex in the monthly AICPA and CIMA Faculty Hour series. A link to that webcast and other resources mentioned in our conversation will be in the show notes. I’m Neil Amato. Thanks for listening to the Journal of Accountancy podcast.