The Google Playbook for Young Accountants

Networking, timing, and intentional career planning help candidates stand out in competitive hiring processes.

For many accounting students, the profession can seem narrowly defined by tax returns, audit rooms, and busy season deadlines. But according to Mike Manalac, accounting can also become a pathway into some of the world’s most innovative companies and industries.

In a recent episode of Accounting Conversations, host Chayton Farlee speaks with Manalac about how young accounting professionals can strategically leverage public accounting experience to build careers at companies like Google, Tesla, Uber, and Salesforce.

Accounting as a Pathway Into Any Industry
Manalac believes one of the profession’s biggest misconceptions is that accounting careers are limited to tax and audit work. Instead, he described accounting as “the back door into almost any industry or company you want to work at,” a point Farlee echoes during the discussion. Today, Manalac serves as an accounting manager at Google, where he leads a distributed team supporting Google Search and YouTube advertising contracts. His work regularly involves collaboration with engineering, legal, sales, finance, and compliance teams throughout the organization.

The role is far different from the traditional stereotypes many students associate with accounting. Rather than spending his days focused solely on debits, credits, and spreadsheets, Manalac says much of his work centers around automation, process improvement, internal controls, and strategic problem-solving. He also describes the highly creative atmosphere within Big Tech companies and the opportunity to work alongside professionals with diverse skills and perspectives.

“I really do feel like I work side by side with a ton of creative people that are bursting with good ideas,” Manalac says.

Why Public Accounting Still Matters
Although Manalac openly discusses the challenges of public accounting, including long hours and burnout, he emphasizes that the experience still provides tremendous long-term value. He encourages students to approach public accounting strategically rather than simply viewing it as a temporary requirement. For example, students interested in eventually working in technology should seek opportunities to work with technology clients whenever possible. Those hoping to transition into industries like entertainment, consumer products, or startups should begin developing relevant industry experience early in their careers.

“If you’re working on stuff that’s not interesting to you, that’s not really going to benefit you down the road,” Manalac says.

Farlee, who works as an assurance associate at CliftonLarsonAllen, notes that many students are never exposed to these broader career possibilities while studying accounting. That lack of visibility, both speakers suggest, contributes to some of the profession’s recruiting challenges.

Building a Career With Intention
One of the episode’s strongest themes centers on intentional career planning. Manalac explains that after several years in public accounting, he realized dream industry jobs were not simply handed to accountants automatically. Instead, he began researching the backgrounds of professionals already working at companies he admired. That research helped him identify specific skills, experiences, and career moves that made candidates more competitive for highly sought-after roles.

Eventually, those lessons became the foundation for his book, No Flux Given, which offers practical guidance on networking, interviewing, personal branding, and transitioning from public accounting to industry positions. Farlee praises the book for providing frameworks students rarely receive elsewhere.

“You break down how to market yourself, how to set up your LinkedIn so recruiters are going to want to talk to you, how to reach out to recruiters, how to set up the phone interviews — all of it,” Farlee says.

Manalac also stresses the importance of timing career transitions correctly. Different companies often seek candidates within specific experience ranges, meaning professionals can sometimes stay in public accounting roles longer than ideal before making a move into industry.

Networking, Preparation, and Persistence
The conversation also explores the realities of applying for competitive jobs at major companies. Manalac shares how he often submitted applications without hearing back, leading him to develop more proactive networking strategies through LinkedIn and recruiter outreach. Once recruiters responded, he learned the importance of moving quickly and being fully prepared with polished resumes, interview answers, and a strong personal narrative.

“You really got to move fast, you got to move strong,” Manalac says while discussing the recruiting process.

Throughout the episode, he repeatedly emphasizes that persistence and preparation matter more than prestige or personal connections. Manalac notes that he did not come from a wealthy background, attend a famous university, or rely on insider referrals to land opportunities at major companies. Instead, he says he learned through trial and error, with repeated failures before eventually developing a process that worked.

Why Both Speakers Are Optimistic About Accounting’s Future
Despite ongoing conversations surrounding burnout, staffing shortages, and the 150-hour rule, both Farlee and Manalac express strong optimism about the future of the accounting profession. Manalac believes many of today’s challenges are already forcing positive changes within firms, including improved compensation, more flexible work arrangements, and greater focus on work-life balance. He also sees automation and artificial intelligence eliminating many repetitive accounting tasks, allowing professionals to focus more heavily on strategic thinking, communication, and advisory work.

“The pros are there and kind of going up while the cons are starting to go down,” Manalac says.

Farlee agrees, joking during the episode that he has considered renaming the podcast “The Golden Age of Accounting” because of how optimistic he feels about where the profession is heading.

A Different Vision for Young Professionals
For students and emerging professionals, the episode offers something many accounting discussions fail to provide: a broader vision of what an accounting career can become. Rather than portraying accounting as repetitive or limiting, Farlee and Manalac highlight how the profession can create pathways into leadership, technology, innovation, and virtually every major industry.

Accounting careers may require hard work and patience, but for professionals willing to think strategically and embrace change, the opportunities ahead may be larger than ever before.

Listen to the full episode