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Melissa Bartlett

Controller
Technicolor
Simi Valley, CA

 

“It’s cool to have the three letters after your name.” So says Melissa Bartlett, Controller for Technicolor in LA, about being a CPA. But for Melissa, it wasn’t always that way.

“In college I hated accounting,” she says. “So I took the finance route. It seemed more fun, while accounting seemed too stuffy, with too many rules.” She took a few accounting classes just to be on the safe side, but knew that finance was where she wanted to go. But soon, she found that her assumptions were all wrong. “I discovered that everything I thought I hated about accounting, I actually liked, and what I thought I liked about finance – I hated!” she says. “I thought accounting was very rigid, but the truth is that it’s not at all the same thing day in and day out.”

In fact, Melissa is hard pressed to describe a typical day as a CPA. “It’s easier to describe a typical month than a typical day,” she says, “because each day is different depending on the time of month and the projects I have underway.” She works for Technicolor, a powerhouse in the film and entertainment industry that makes the visions of creative people around the world a reality. And with plenty of time left over for personal pursuits outside the office, Melissa takes advantage of everything living in LA has to offer, from the zoos to some of the biggest concerts on the planet. Hiking. Traveling. All work and no play just isn’t part of the equation for Melissa.

Melissa says that people skills are a big part of being successful as a CPA today. “It’s all about getting things done through people – whether it’s your staff, superiors, peers, or business partners,” she says. “You need to be able to develop and maintain those relationships to succeed.”

And, of course, those three little letters help, too: “People are always impressed, and they listen to what you have to say.”

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