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Jeanette Franzel

Managing Director
U.S. Government Accountability Office
Washington, DC

 

Jeanette Franzel has had an "unbelievably interesting career," in her own words. It's also a pretty unusual summary for what most people just refer to as "work," so let's just run through some of what Jeannette does for a living to see if it's really so great.

"I double majored in Accounting and Spanish," she begins. "After teaching in South America, I took a job with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Washington, D.C." (That's the audit and investigatory arm of the U.S. Congress.) So what do they do at the GAO? "

We audit all aspects of government programs, and our work takes us all over the country and the world. We audit the financial statements of the IRS, the Bureau of Public Debt, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the Consolidated Financial Report of the U.S. government and many more."

Okay, so Jeanette's job is already pretty unbelievable. Besides, who else can really say they've audited the IRS? In addition, she's testified "many times" as a witness before Congressional Committees about the GAO's work and on things impacting the whole country.

So let's see: She's rarely at her desk. She pays regular visits to Capitol Hill, many federal agencies and the Pentagon and "each assignment is a new adventure, with new subject matter, different team members and possibly a different location." Oh, and did we forget to mention that she also volunteers in Honduras with her daughter, teaches English as a Second Language to needy folks in her community and hikes the Shenandoah mountains with her husband? Come to think of it, "unbelievably interesting" may have been an understatement.

And her advice for students interested in accounting? "Becoming a CPA allows you to have a career anywhere." Or, in Jeanette's case, everywhere.

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