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Jean-Luc Bourdon

Financial Advisor
Walpole & Co., LLP
Summerland, CA

 

Tell a career counselor you’re interested in working with people, and you might not get “Accounting” as the recommended profession. But that’s precisely what drew Jean-Luc Bourdon, and it’s his favorite part of the job today.

“Some people think my job is all about numbers, money and taxes,” he says. “They assume it’s boring. I let them know it’s really about people, and nothing could be better.”

It wasn’t a straight shot for Jean-Luc to this surprisingly people-focused line of work – he’s been a paperboy, a house-sitter, and even worked on a sitcom for CBS for a while – but the important thing is that he arrived. Now he gets to work every day with what he loves best: people.

“They’re so interesting,” he says. “Everyone has a story; who they are, what they do, where they come from and where they want to go.”

In Jean-Luc’s case, he’s probably coming from yoga practice, which he does several times a week, and going to his college’s Alumni Advisory Board meeting, helping promote and develop their online education program. During work hours, he’s meeting with clients to discuss how they can best reach their goals in life, like sending their children to college or retiring.

So it’s an ongoing process of discovering what people are all about that drives his success as a CPA, and Jean-Luc says that those three letters say a lot about you before you ever meet a client.

“If you have ‘CPA’ behind your name, it tells people you’re knowledgeable and passed a challenging exam, and that you answer to high ethical standards,” he says. “Those are really good things to be recognized for.”

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