Success story: Victoria Brown is new accountant at Warburg Pincus

Accounting Success Stories | Apr 29, 2013 | Nicole Gesualdo

With her new job, Victoria Brown (GSB ’13) is proving that excellent accounting career prospects can lie outside the Big Four.

She has been hired as a junior accountant at the private equity firm Warburg Pincus.

“Before finding this job, I assumed I would be an auditor just like everyone else I knew, especially after two semesters of audit,” Victoria said. “In the end, private accounting seemed like a better fit for me.”

Victoria had time to assess that fit. She has been an intern at the firm for nearly a year, getting hands-on training and guidance from what sounds like a small and close-knit accounting department. There are three accounting teams at Warburg: fund accounting and tax accounting, each of which have about five staff members, and GP accounting, which, when Victoria comes on board full-time, will have two.

Victoria saw her new role taking shape before the position even existed.

“A few months into my internship, it became clear that they had a need for another accountant, given the amount of work the team was getting,” she recalled. “Having gotten to know the methods at Warburg and also having become close with the [staff], it seemed natural that I take on some of the work.”

Some of Victoria’s story is laced with the magic of being in the right place at the right time, of course, but she still makes clear that opportunities are only as good as your ability to capitalize on them.

“The advice I have for younger accounting students is: If you don’t ask for what you want, you won’t get it,” she said. “With my internship winding down, I asked my boss about future opportunities in the company, and that’s what led me to this full-time offer.”

“You need that little bit of courage to go out and ask, but the worst that happens is you end up where you started,” she added.

Victoria hopes to spend the next few years at Warburg Pincus honing her knowledge of the private equity industry. “After that, moving up to senior accountant and beyond,” she said. “The dream is to become CFO of a private equity firm — but one step at a time for now.”