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Laura Fergerson

Senior Vice President
Franklin Templeton Investments
Rancho Cordova, CA

 

Laura Fergerson’s path to becoming a CPA was not what you would call a straight shot.

In college she was an art and French double major. “My dad convinced me to take a business class,” she says. “I think he was worried I would be unemployed.”

If not for that accounting class, she may have ended up a starving artist. But she enjoyed accounting, and thought it could help her get a job when she graduated. So she continued taking accounting classes.

Laura took a semester off during college. Not to backpack around Europe painting the countryside, but to work as an intern at a CPA firm. She found her career in the process. Laura says she is not good at math, but she loves solving problems.

That is what excites Laura about her job. “The challenge, the variety – it is never boring,” she says. “There is always a new challenge to resolve, a new business problem to tackle and the people I work with are terrific!”

So what does Laura think about earning a CPA license? “With a CPA, you can go anywhere and do anything,” she says.

She means that literally, too. Laura has traveled all over the world in her capacity as a CPA and when she is not traveling, she is meeting with people from around the globe virtually.

“The experience you gain through obtaining your CPA is invaluable in providing knowledge of different industries, different companies and exposes you to many different people,” she says.

According to Laura, high school is just the beginning. There is a whole big world out there waiting for you, and a CPA can help you discover it.

Got questions of your own? Ask a CPA.