Career Options
Accounting AmbassadorsWant a job that lets you see the world? No need to join the navy: accounting skills are a hot commodity anywhere businesses and bureaucracies are found. Three Quebeckers dish on the ups and downs of an international career. By Nate Hendley |
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 [ 2007-11-19 ] |
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CAMELBACK MOUNTAIN in Phoenix, Arizona
Photo: Raoul Ménès
Raoul Ménès, CMA, MBA
The closest international experiences await just south of the border, where CMA Raoul Ménès has found a warm welcome for his Canadian accounting degree. Born in Montréal in 1970, Ménès currently works in Phoenix, Arizona, in the sunny American Southwest.
Ménès earned a bachelor of commerce with a specialization in management accounting from the Université du Québec à Montréal, and went on to receive his master’s at Université Laval in 2002. His first job out of school was as a financial analyst for the cosmetics and skincare company L’Oréal. After a stint with Arthur Andersen, he moved to Ernst & Young, which transferred him to Phoenix in 2005.
It was there that his attention was caught by Protiviti, a risk management consultancy that was formed by former Arthur Andersen partners after the accounting giant imploded during the Enron scandal. “I knew the Managing Director at Protiviti from many networking events and really admired him,” Ménès recalls. “I knew that I could learn a lot from him and that I could contribute to maintaining Protiviti’s dominant position in the Phoenix market.” Today he works at Protiviti as an Associate Director, and is adding certification as a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) to his MBA and CMA.
Raoul Ménès, CMA, MBA
Ménès didn’t find it difficult to adjust to the U.S. “It wasn’t like going to Japan or Germany.” At the same time, it wasn’t like staying in Canada, either. Ménès was hardly upset at saying goodbye to Montréal’s snow, ice, slush and humid summers. “Phoenix has over 325 days of sunshine,” he says. “It’s a dry heat, not like in Montréal. There, you can walk down Sainte-Catherine Street at lunch, and within 15 minutes your collar is soaked.”
Single and without kids, Ménès calls and e-mails home as often as he can. He comes from a close-knit family, and does admit to missing a few things about his hometown. “Montréal is a culinary destination. I miss good old French food!” Another tradition he’s had to leave behind: “In Montréal, if I see a girl I know, we kiss each other on the cheeks. In Phoenix, you don’t do this.”
According to Ménès, his American colleagues are relatively up to speed on Canada. They know Montréal is “in the French part of Canada,” and are familiar with the fate of the Expos and the legendary status of the Montreal Canadiens. He finds that Americans really like their northern neighbours, but that his nationality doesn’t dominate their relations. Rather than see him as a Canadian, “they see me as a colleague and peer.”
This is one of the highest accolades you can receive when you're an accountant working in a foreign land: the kind of praise you receive when you work hard and adapt successfully to your new surroundings.
Michel Bonenfant, CGA,
in front of Brasília's futuristic skyline
Photo: Edson Fogaça
Michel Bonenfant, CGA
Michel Bonenfant knew he wanted to join the jet set when he was still on training wheels. Bonenfant was born in the Québec town of La Sarre in 1967, but soon after moved to Lahr, Germany, when his father took a three-year posting to teach English at a military base.
“We spent our holidays travelling around Europe and discovering the old continent,” recalls Bonenfant. “The experience was fantastic, and even at that young age I told myself, ‘This is how I want to live my life.’ And then I wondered, what kind of career would make that kind of mobility possible?”
Bonenfant wound up at the Université du Québec à Hull (now the Université du Québec en Outaouais), where he graduated with a degree in business administration in 1991. That same year, he took a job as a Junior Finance Officer with the Government of Canada. After taking a break to get an accounting sciences degree from his alma mater in 1996, the newly minted CGA returned to work in the federal government.
Along the way, Bonenfant and his partner, Andrée, started a family. Daughters were born in 1993 and 1997, and Bonenfant and Andrée married in 2001. While happy with his work and personal life in Canada, Bonenfant couldn’t shake his old dream of living overseas.
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