Interview originally published in 2014. Details are as they were at the time.
I’m so pleased to introduce another of my working mom friends — Amy. You may remember her from the “4 is More” post. I love her wit and her perspective.
About Amy Hageman
After earning a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance and a master’s degree in accounting from Kansas State University (K-State), Amy worked for several years as a CPA at a Big 4 accounting firm in Kansas City, specialising in state and local tax consulting. She then returned to graduate school for her PhD in accounting, graduating in 2009 from the University of Central Florida. After a year as a research fellow at UCF, Amy returned to her alma mater as an assistant professor of accounting in June 2010.
She lives in the college town of Manhattan, Kansas — “The Little Apple” — with her husband Will, an assistant professor in electrical engineering at K-State, and their two children.
The interview
Do you stay at home, work at home, or work outside the home?
I work full-time outside of the home.
How many kids do you have?
We have two children. After years of juggling separate school and daycare schedules, we are thrilled that they are both at our neighbourhood elementary school together — and that the school is within walking distance.
What’s your go-to dinner during the week?
Um, purchasing a sandwich from Subway? Or perhaps eating our church dinner on Wednesday nights? Cooking dinner is not my forte. One tool that does help me is cooking large batches of freezer meals together with friends every few months, which gives us something to grab and warm up on crazy nights. And let’s be honest, aren’t all nights crazy?
What are your best tips for staying sane?
Hmmm… medication? Seriously, staying sane is a daily work in progress for me. I promise to let you know when I have it figured out.
What are your favourite tools for time and household management?
My absolute favourite is a streamlined to-do list. I use a “Mom Balance Sheet” as a master list of all the irons I have in the fire, at both work and home.
The other thing I use for getting tasks done is the Pomodoro Method, where you focus hard for 25 minutes on a single task and then take a five-minute break. I use it frequently to stay on task and to track what I’ve accomplished in a day.
Do you have pets?
We have three cats — one old and feeble (and formerly cantankerous) 19-year-old, and two “kittens” who are brother and sister and 2.5 years old. We also have a string of seven recently departed small animals, and have concluded that cats are the only creature we can keep alive.
What are your hobbies?
Running and reading. I absolutely love road races and have a goal of doing one a month. This year I had one of the best experiences of my life, walking a full marathon with church friends in Estes Park. I’m also in several book clubs, ranging from serious to light-hearted to my favourite — a mother-daughter book group with my daughter, other mothers and their tween-aged girls.
What’s on your bucket list?
Travel. Our family has several “family bucket list” goals. One is to visit all of the National Parks in the continental United States — we’ve managed ten so far, with more planned. Another is to visit Europe as a family, including returning to Slovenia, the only European country I’ve spent time in.
What do you do, and how did you decide?
I work as an accounting professor at a state university. I went back for my PhD when my daughter was one year old, had another baby, and am now in my fifth year of my dream job.
I’d taught accounting as a graduate teaching assistant while earning my master’s and loved it. Then I worked in public accounting for a couple of years, and my husband and I decided to quit our jobs, sell our house, and move with our baby to Florida so we could be broke and each earn our PhDs. Best thing our family has ever done.
What’s the most rewarding part?
What’s not to love? I get to work with bright students and teach them to love accounting in general and taxation in particular. I get to do research I care about — tax compliance, how tax professionals make decisions, the public interest side of tax policy. I have terrific colleagues.
Oh, I thought of one thing that isn’t rewarding: grading. Grading is the pits. But almost all of it is pure joy.
If you could choose any career, what would it be?
Honestly, I’m already in my dream job. I feel that part of my purpose in life is to be an accounting professor, and I’m fortunate enough to be doing it. If I won the lottery I’d still plan on working at the same job. I have definitely already won the job lottery.
If you could tell your younger self something, what would it be?
When I think of my younger self, I see a strange mixture of insecurity and over-confidence. I would tell myself that I was just fine the way I was — and so was everyone else, even if they were on a different path.
More conversations with women building careers and businesses in our interview archive.
