Overcoming Education-Based Stigma, Accounting, Management Challenges & more w/ Albert Le | #1

This was our first recorded episode ever. Our guest was Albert Le, who works as a Financial Planning and Analysis Manager, and is a very dear friend of mine. He did us a huge favor by being our guinea pig for this podcast. To be honest, we likely need to have him back on again, as we ended up cutting a lot of material due to our inexperience with preparation and recording.

For anyone listening, who struggled with their studies in high school, and early college life – this is for you. Albert is one of those inspirational stories, who battled that early stigma of not pursuing a University degree. He took random college classes, for the sake of going to college, and picked up several odd jobs here and there. Many of which, in hindsight, turned out to be valuable experiences later in life, and would supplement his career.

We go through this, and part of his journey, from working at Best Buy, to deciding on applying to Accounting School, all the way to his current position as a Finance Manager. We discuss many of the roadblocks along the way – including overcoming his fear of Mathematics, his troubles as a first time young Manager, and the ego hit in seemingly taking a step back in his career.

A friendly reminder that we don’t always align in our views – but we are all made in common. So please, respect our guest & respect each other. If you’d like to support us, for now you can subscribe & leave a rating on whichever platform you’re listening to. For written feedback to us or questions for our guests, the best bet is to leave a comment on our youtube channel.

Timestamps: (02:40)-Episode start
(05:00)-Evolution of friendships, and the GamingBoomers (GB)
(08:07)-Making and losing friends over COVID
(12:06)-Going to college for "the sake of going to college"
(14:20)-Journey & lessons from Bestbuy to BCIT Accounting
(21:05)-Accounting school when you hate math
(26:50)-Having charisma & building trust
(33:15)-The value of retail job experience for younger people
(39:00)-Accountant to Management...to Analyst to Management
(45:00)-Advice for someone wanting to step back from management
(48:15)-Management Round 2. Lessons learned and advice for younger managers.
(54:50)-Fighting the stigma of not having a university degree
(1:04:40)-Definition of success