[Editor’s Note: Join us this week as we celebrate the Women of PwC. Today’s article is the second in a series of five.]
Natasha Granholm was a junior in college when she was called to the office of the dean of students, and little did she know that her life was about to change. As one of the top five students, Natasha had been hand-selected by the dean to interview the following day for a job. Curious, Natasha asked what the job position was. The dean told her that she wasn’t sure, but the opportunity was big – for Natasha, but also for the university to form a relationship with this public accounting firm. “It wasn’t an ask,” Natasha recalls. “It was more of a tell. I was on full scholarship, which she reminded me.”
The next day when Natasha went to the interview, she met with the Partner in charge of the tax practice at Coopers & Lybrand (a predecessor firm of PwC). When Natasha asked what the job she was applying for would be she was told it was to copy tax returns and mail them in the firm’s processing center. “I paused for a moment, and I thought a little bit,” Natasha says, “Though, not a lot. I was only 19. But, I said to her, ‘I really was hoping this would be an opportunity for me to use the skills I acquired in college. I’m majoring in accounting. I’d really like to have an accounting-related job.’”
At the time, Natasha was attending school full time, she was working to maintain the high GPA that was required for her scholarship and she was playing soccer for the university’s women’s soccer team. In addition to all that, she had a part-time job—a job that paid for her meals and monthly train ticket. The position offered to her at Coopers & Lybrand would have required her to quit her part-time job. As Natasha recalled, “If I was going to give that up, I wanted it to be for a job that would help me secure a better future and I wasn’t sure copying tax returns was the right experience at that time in my life.”
That bold statement led to an offer for Natasha to be a client service intern at the firm. “So it was not copying tax returns and mailing them, but rather being a true intern in the accounting firm in their tax practice,” she says. And when the Partner she made the confident statement to retired, she also recalled that story, telling everyone at the party how brave Natasha was to let her know that.
Now Natasha is a Partner as well at PwC, with more than 19 years of public accounting experience. And by the way, when that same Partner retired, Natasha was admitted into the partnership and granted her office. “It was a truly special moment for me,” she says. “That office held a lot of meaning for me. It was held by the person who gave me my first chance … ”
And she hopes to give other young professionals their first chance by serving as a mentor to many. Natasha is involved in a number of PwC and external initiatives to help foster diversity in the firm and industry—she participates in “Select Senior”, PwC’s initiative that shows high-performing multicultural men and women how to channel their leadership abilities and accelerate their career progress. In addition to “Select Senior,” Natasha participates in PwC’s Vanguard program for African American new hires and has helped build a recruiting pipeline for students from the alma mater—Robert Morris University—where she’s helped over 100 students gain unique opportunities with PwC.