[Editor’s Note: Join us this week as we celebrate the Women of PwC. Today’s article is the fourth in a series of five.]
“We want to keep our best people.” A central mission of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Margie Dhunjishah, who started her career with the company as a college intern, took that notion to heart. Margie worked and worked hard and, when that internship ended, she received her first job offer—also from PwC. That was 18 years and many promotions ago.
But, it was her ability to make an ask that really has made her job work for her. When Margie had just graduated from college and received an offer with the firm in their Austin-based office, she also was a newlywed whose husband was about to move to the East Coast. She wanted her new family to stay together, so she built up the courage to ask the firm if they could place her on the East Coast as well, and they did.
That story has repeated itself time and again, whether Margie has worked part time due to raising a young family or her time working remotely. But Margie also is quick to point out that this type of give-take arrangement goes both ways, and it’s important as an employee not to forget the ‘give’ as well.
“Flexibility truly means if I need to go to a parent-teacher conference at 2 p.m., then I’m able to do that,” Margie says. “On the other hand, if I need to hop on a 30-minute conference call at 8 p.m. after the kids are tucked into bed I’m able to do that, too. With flexibility it’s a give and a take, and we often focus on the take but forget about the give.”
It’s this no-nonsense, work hard approach that led Margie to making partner with the firm. Currently she serves as the U.S. Tax Diversity Leader. Prior to this role, her focus on corporate taxation and tax accounting led her to assist several clients with their efforts to successfully gain efficiencies in the area of accounting for income taxes, post deal integration and tax audit defense. She also spent time living in Peru, focusing on tax accounting and compliance outsourcing programs for multinational companies.