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  • Lost Your Job But Found Yourself: Navigating Layoffs and Career Transition
    2025/04/24

    What happens when your job disappears, but your bills and ambition Don’t? In this raw and powerful episode of Career Convos™️ with Nikki, I talk candidly about what it really feels like to be laid off, and how to navigate the messy middle between endings and new beginnings.

    From that gut-punch calendar invite from your boss and HR that changes everything to the silence that follows, this episode is your voice of reason and reminder: you may have lost your job, but you haven’t lost yourself. We get into:

    • How to emotionally and strategically handle being laid off, let go, or impacted by a RIF
    • Why pausing before jumping into the next job matters more than ever
    • The art of rediscovering your value, purpose, and voice post-employment
    • How to prep for interviews with clarity and without bitterness
    • What “other duties as assignedreally means, and why it’s your career goldmine
    • How to use rejection as redirection and avoid the resume black hole
    • A word on manifesting better, not just working harder

    If you're navigating career transition or feeling stuck after a job loss, let this episode walk with you.

    Additional Resources:
    The Self-Exploration Exercise - start yours for free.

    Book 1:1 Career Coaching on NikkWinstonCPA.com

    Let’s Connect:
    Website: nikkwinstoncpa.com/career
    Substack: Supercharged Self-Care

    Threads: @NikkWinstonCPA


    Share this episode with someone you know who's between jobs, rebuilding their confidence, or needs to be reminded that they are still that person - with or without the title.

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    35 分
  • Why You Keep Landing in Toxic Jobs: Career Advice for Healthy Work Environments
    2024/12/15

    How do you start your day? Are you rushing from one thing to the next before you’ve even had a chance to breathe? In this episode, I share how creating intentional morning rituals - like my WOOSAH Room - transformed not only how I start my day but also how I approach my career decisions.

    But let’s talk about interviews. How many times have you walked into an interview hoping they’d like you?

    What if they do like you - even love you - and still lead you straight into a toxic work environment? The interview isn’t about being liked. It’s about finding out if the company is worth your time and energy.

    If you’re preparing for an interview, especially as an accountant, this episode will teach you how to avoid toxic work environments by asking the right questions. You’ll learn how to evaluate company culture and ask the key interview questions that professionals often overlook.

    This is the career advice you need to stop making bad job decisions and start taking control of your career development. I'm breaking down:

    • How rushing through your day or career decisions can set you up for burnout.
    • The importance of starting your day with intention and clarity to improve your career decisions.
    • Why accountants and other professionals keep landing in jobs they hate - and how to stop it.
    • Practical career development strategies to prepare for interviews and evaluate potential employers.

    If you’re ready to transform your mornings, make smarter career decisions, and learn how to avoid toxic workplaces, this episode is for you. Tune in for actionable career advice and insights designed to help you thrive in your accounting career and beyond.

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    15 分
  • CPA Exam: How to Mentally Prepare for the Stress, Pressure, and Study Demands
    2024/11/19

    Going back to the basics with the CPA exam.


    Before you start studying for any section or buying course materials, there’s a very important question you must ask yourself: are you MENTALLY prepared for the CPA exam?

    I’m publishing a Financial Statements Overview session soon but for now, listen to this super important conversation about getting your head in the game and get ready to beat the CPA exam. Transistor.fm

    #podcast #accountingandaccountants #cpaexamreview #cpacandidate #womeninaccounting

    https://www.nikkwinstoncpa.com/cpaexam

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    31 分
  • Why I Skipped Accounting Internships: The Untraditional Career Path That Still Worked
    2024/08/10

    In this episode of CareerConvos™️, I’m sharing the story of my real job while I was working on my undergraduate accounting degree — the job I had instead of doing accounting internships. I talk about why I skipped public accounting and how that experience gave me valuable, transferable skills that shaped my career in unexpected ways.

    From negotiation and empathy to real-world communication, these lessons helped me build my leadership style and succeed on my own terms. If you’ve ever felt like your career path doesn’t fit the traditional mold or worried you’re missing out, this episode is for you.

    I want to encourage you to own your story and design a career that feels right for you. If you want to build your career on your own terms, this conversation is for you.

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    26 分
  • I Don’t Like My Job: When It’s Not the Job, It’s You
    2024/07/27
    Nikki Winston, CPA: Okay. So I wanna talk today to those of you who have ever left a job because you didn't like it. You maybe were bored with what you were doing. Maybe it was beneath you, or you just did not feel like you were adding any value. You didn't understand how the work that you do at your desk is part of something bigger or something grander that makes the department better or faster or provide some deeper insights that weren't there before.The thing that we need to talk about today and the thing I want you to understand is that you cannot say that you don't like your job if you haven't challenged it. So again, you can't walk on a walk around and say, I don't like my job, or I'm quitting because I hate this job, but you've never challenged what it is that you're doing. So this is what I'm talking about. When you come into a new job, many cases, you're a backfill, and you're coming in to pick up where somebody else left off, who may have quit, or been fired, or laid off, or whatever. So, a lot of times, you're inheriting whatever that person had, whatever they were responsible for, and there's this expectation that because you're new, they need you to follow whatever that other person was doing first.Right? And, you get to a point where you're onboarding in the job, and you're ramping up and starting to figure out how things work. But you never go back and question what you're doing, why you're doing it that way, if it can be done a better way, and how is this helping paint a better picture for the department, for the company, etcetera. And, until you go back and do that assessment, you're basically doing somebody else's job. The job of somebody who's no longer there, and you have to figure out if you're doing it the right way, if you're doing it the best way.And then, that's where the added value comes in in your role, is that you have that eye to say, there's an opportunity here. Or you feel like, we can do this a lot better. Or, I don't know. I'm I'm I have accounting examples going through my mind of, why do we close the books in 11 days instead of 6 days? What's the bottleneck?What's taking us so long? Are we waiting for invoices to roll in when we can accrue and move on? Or are we bottlenecked by some report from HR about contract labor that we still have not received, and it's day 5. Things like that. Asking those bigger questions instead of being a warm body in a seat is how you add the value in the role.So, one thing that you will hear me talk about ad nauseam, if this is your first time, welcome. If it's your 50th time, welcome back. One thing you'll hear me talk about ad nauseam is having conversations with your manager and, occasionally, your skip level, your manager's manager. And the reason for that is a lot of the turnover, when we decide to leave a job, or we quit, or fired, laid off, whatever the circumstance is. It's just like being in a relationship.A lot of your reason for leaving is probably something that could've been addressed with a conversation. And it really blows my mind, the number of people that I talk to, either we're at a networking event, they've booked a career assessment with me, they've reached out in some capacity. And one of the things I ask everybody is, how often are you talking to your manager about what you have going on, about what's keeping you up at night, how they can support you, days that you have off that are coming up soon on the calendar, in case somebody needs to cover your work. Because it might be on their calendar, but you might have put it on the calendar 3 months ago, but they forgot, because there's a lot more shit going on. And so, it it blows my mind because these are the the things that need to be talked about, And this is the purpose of you booking time with your manager.At minimum, once a week. It can be 20 or 30 minute conversation. Doesn't have to be super formal. There are some managers, and I'm gonna talk about this in detail in another episode. I think I did already.Yeah. So there's already an episode where I've gone into detail about the importance of managing your manager. And keeping in mind that your manager is also managing their career. They're managing people. So they're having things come down on them from their managers and their skip levels.And then they have to disseminate things to you and still be there for you in terms of guidance and coaching. So, you have to make sure that you keep yourself on the radar, and don't expect your manager to approach you to have conversations or initiate these sorts of things. Because at the end of the day, and the beginning of the next, you are in the driver's seat of your career. And, this is an aspect of you taking charge and really owning your career and building the career that you want. And so, if you have not had these conversations because you feel like, that feels awkward, or I don't know how to initiate the conversation, or I don't wanna just be sitting in the conference...
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    19 分
  • Public Accounting vs. Industry: How to Choose the Right Career Path in Accounting
    2024/07/13

    In this episode of Career Convos with Nikki, I share my personal journey navigating the choice between public accounting and industry. I talk about the early career pressures I faced, the stigma around public accounting, and why I intentionally chose a different path. I also discuss the challenges of job hopping, finding the right fit, and how I learned to trust my instincts when it comes to career moves.

    I reflect on my time at GE, where I truly grew professionally and developed deep expertise in capital markets and securitization. I explain why it took me almost nine months to get comfortable with my role and how that experience shaped my approach to career growth.

    If you’re an accountant weighing your options or feeling unsure about the traditional career blueprint, this episode offers honest insights and encouragement to build a fulfilling career that works for you.

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    35 分
  • The Authentic Way to Show Up to Work and Be Unapologetic About It
    2024/06/22

    This episode of #CareerConvos™️ with Nikki is about:

    • Speaking up in meetings, letting your presence be known
    • Having an agenda for your meetings - even if you create your own
    • Everything you think and feel doesn't need to be put in the universe
    • Own the energy that you bring into the environment
    • Whether you're at the office or at the house, get dressed for workThere's nothing "soft" about soft skills, they're transferable and they can take you far
    • There are things at work that you can't control, but there are things that you can control: your appearance, your energy, your attitude, and your effort


    And if you take away nothing else from this episode, take this as your career advice from me:

    "Don't be the person that people look to for gossip, but they won't look to for guidance." ★ Support this podcast ★
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    20 分
  • Upward Influence: How to Lead and Manage Regardless of Your Pay Grade
    2023/09/23

    Don’t assume that your manager really knows what you're up to at work. They too have a career to manage + other people, so your stuff isn’t always top of mind. Join me to explore practical ways to manage upward and use your influence, regardless of your job title.

    From improving communication to highlighting your achievements effectively, this episode of #CareerConvos™️ with Nikki gives you the tools to steer your career. Learn how to navigate office dynamics confidently so your hard work gets noticed.

    Tap in and discover how to shape your professional journey strategically!

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    26 分