Joanna Perry, the 450th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is on a mission to Make Accounting Great Again.

Joanna, who is a qualified accountant, says the profession suffers from an image problem. On the one hand, accounting is associated with boring people doing mundane tasks; on the other hand, Joanna says, it’s actually full of interesting people doing stimulating work.

So, last year, Joanna joined the Make Accounting Great Again movement, which aims to promote the profession to younger people.

Joanna is the perfect spokesperson – she’s an accountant and, as a 24-year-old, she’s young. But her age is misleading, because she has the intelligence and maturity of someone twice her age. Joanna networks regularly, she’s very driven, she conscientiously looks for opportunities to step out of her comfort zone and she has excellent business skills.

In 2018, Joanna founded a side-hustle tutoring business, which had 50 clients at its peak. Joanna subjected herself to a gruelling schedule – she would do full work days and then hold one-on-one sessions in the evenings and run workshops on weekends. Last year, she handed over the business to a friend, so she could focus on her career.

While Joanna continues to use her accounting skills, she’s no longer an accountant. Instead, she works in a business advisory role with companies turning over between $20 million and $50 million.

It goes to show what’s possible when you have an accounting degree.