Introduction
Hi! My name is Rajalakshmi Chandrasekaran and I go by my initials — RC.
I spent a major portion of my life in India and currently reside in Michigan, USA.
A fun fact that I like to share about myself : I have visited 40 cities in 10 countries and counting.
Countries lived in/ visited – India, United States, Australia, Germany, France, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei,Hong Kong,Sri Lanka.
Accounting Background
I completed my undergraduate degree in Commerce in 2000, and sat for and acquired my Chartered Accountant certification (India) in 2002. For 8 plus years I was an Accounting Process Consultant. I assisted in setting up accounting for startups in Technology, Finance & Management space as well as oversee full cycle accounting function. For 1.5 years I was with an industry leader in micro finance domain. I published the standard operating procedures across 6 functions and 12 processes. I lead the financial book close for Assets under management, approx., $2,203 million.
In these 10 + years, I founded a JR Academy where I tutored students in accounting through various levels -undergraduates to professional certification.
Currently I work as a tax accountant with a local CPA firm. I am working towards getting my CPA license. My current job allows me to apply practically the tax rules I spent the last 2 years studying!
My CPA Journey
I completed my master’s in accounting from Bradley University in 2016. As a graduate assistant (GA) my responsibilities included tutoring for financial & management accounting, assisting with literary research, grading exams & proctoring.
I took the CPA exams in 2017 – FAR in quarter 2 and AUD,REG & BEC in quarter 3. My scores were FAR (87), AUD (88), REG (88) and BEC (89).
The Creation of RCAC
My program advisor , during a discussion, remarked that “not everybody figures out what makes them tick. If you have identified teaching as your passion you should definitely consider a PhD”. From my first meeting, this advisor was inspirational -her keen interest in her students, her ability to teach, her passion for running. Her words made an impression. While PhD is still a dream for now I realized teaching/tutoring is where I want to be.
I tutored around 20 students during my 3 semesters as a GA. One of them gifted me a starbucks card with a note that said she felt she learnt something with me regardless of the grade she might end up with. This was so unexpected. That note gave me insight on what motivates me and who I am as a person.
75onCPA is my online tutoring site through which,as RC Accounting Coach, I get to contribute to your life. My teaching philosophy is that to understand a topic one needs to get the ‘HOW’ and ‘WHY’ of the concept. Towards this end I have found that using illustrations, providing logical steps to compute, linking the JE (Journal entry) to the big picture (Financial statements) assists the candidate to gain the required conceptual understanding. I am a big believer in guiding candidates to how to think (and not what to think).
