Career Path of a Risk Consultant at CFGI

Certainly. Okay, when I entered UCLA, I started off as a biophysics major. I liked math and science a lot, so I kind of thought, why not? I changed my major later to economics for a myriad of reasons.

I think it's really normal to change your major. When you apply at 17 or 18 years old, you don't really know what you want to do with the rest of your life, and you don't know what it's like until you get right into it.

I studied economics and while I was at UCLA, I dabbled a little bit. I worked in accounting part-time at AS UCLA and then I worked in marketing for UCLA athletics. This gave me a taste of a couple of different areas of business and what it's like to work in an office, which came in handy later.

During the summer after my third year, I participated in an internship in what was called internal audit and enterprise risk at KPMG in their downtown LA office. After that eight-week internship, they offered me a full-time position contingent upon successful graduation.

After my fourth year, I began with them full-time as a risk consulting associate in their internal audit practice. It was a great place to start my career. The offer was attractive when you're right out of college and not used to having a full-time position.

It was relieving financially and felt like a good place to learn with a lot of experts from many different fields. As someone who is kind of a serial indecisive person, I thought it was a great place to start. "From here, I can go anywhere."

I worked there for about two years and learned a ton. You'd be surprised how much that learning curve just keeps going and maybe even increases after graduation. But after about two years, I got a little tired and started giving into the travel and philanthropic adventure itch.

So I took a few years off and traveled a lot. During this time, I lived in Colombia, South America. I learned Spanish and taught English, for which I became certified. I worked with a handful of nonprofit organizations, dabbling in all kinds of industries.

It was very fulfilling, and I learned a ton. I have a feeling my career will take a turn in that direction later. So I think that even these small breaks or sabbaticals you might take are valuable in the long term.

After that, I came back to the US and began working again in the same internal audit risk consulting space, this time for a smaller firm called CFGI, which is where I currently work. It's a remote role, and the culture aligns really well with what I personally want to see with an employer.

At this point in my career, I'm really content. I'm working remotely as a risk consultant currently.