Jessica - STAR 2026

Tight Deadline Story

FOSO

ST: Accelerated timeline for complex Future Oriented Statement of Operations

• Program Policy team, 1 mth early

• Manager was taking one week leave

• Statements were complex

Action: 

• Workload Prioritization - identify which were urgent and important and which were not. Which could be assisted by others.

• Proactive workload management - asking others, manager

• Automated Process - stop manual looksup. report instead.

• Applying cross functional knowledge - Simplied steps

Result

• Finished ahead of deadlines, Clean review, improved processes that perm reduce prep time for future years

Process Automation/Efficiency Story

Trial Balance

Situation & Task: FA @ Pacifican

• New dedicated System.

• Now responsible monthly Trial Balance, manual review on thousands of lines

• I took initiative to analyze the task to see if there was a better way forward while our dataset was still small

Action: 

• Risk and Scalability Analysis(: bottleneck in the future when transaction volumes exploded towards year end. 

  • manual reviews were subject to human error)

• Logic Mapping

• Extensive Testing:

Result:

• script > flags errors, creates potential correcting entry

• I took 5 working days on my script > go through in 30 minutes

• I analyze the scalability of the problem first, the decision to automate paid off massively. 

• My team adopted the tool for all future closes,

Mistakes Story

Daily Rec

ST: Financial Analyst @ Pacifican

• My team had a critical daily reconciliation task, traditionally handled by Co-op students

• Mechanics simple, specific order

• When our student terms were ending, I volunteered to learn the process

• SOP exist but messy.

• I shadowed for 2 weeks at the end of the month

• When I took over at the beginning of the month, I did the steps but my final numbers did not balance. I didn’t realize it but the beginning of the month had different steps. 

A: 

• Collaborated to fix it

• Audited the process

• I overhauled the training manual, While training new team members - fresh eyes and ensure it was user friendly

R:

• successfully balanced the reconciliation that day

• manager was incredibly supportive of how I handled it and praised me for even volunteering

• Thanks to the new, streamlined SOP I created, we had zero reconciliation errors at the beginning of the subsequent months

• Entire team became fully aware > training the next incoming student became a seamless, stress-free process

Ambiguity/Researching the Unknown Story

PQ

ST: FA @ Pacifican,

• I was responsible for responding to PQ re parliamentary spending

• PQ = high visibilty request asked by parliament, strict and right deadline

• Challenge = criteria was vagues and the data they asked for was not captured by the financial system

• My task was to Provide accurate answer to the questions supported by methodology to senior leadership to respond to the question

A:

• Historical research -

• Cross Functional Research -

• Data Synthesis

• Extention Deadline requested -
  

R:

• Clarification to the question r/c, deadline extension granted. Had to change some of the methodolgy based on clarification.

• My financial data was able to support the operational reports provided and I was able to answer to question with fully supported answer. 

• SM appreciated the answer was solid as they were questioned but had information to back up the answer.

Challenging Client - Managing Disagreement

ST - CBSA @RMO

• Newly created position, I was first, fresh grad

• I reported to the Admin team I did my Co-op term in but I tasked with supporting Director w/ high level financial issues

• Director req deep operational context that i’m still developing

• Her expectations were often unclear to me - she couldn’t tell me what she was looking for but she could tell me it wasn’t what she wanted after I showed her something. 

A

• Scheduled pre- sessions with the director before I began the task drafting

  • At the meeting, discussed what kind of story behind the numbers she was looking for 

  • I brought historial data to discuss what information happened before, affects on the business

• Operational immersion - immersed myself in operational meetings & higher level finance meetings

• Rigourous preparation - practicing my delivery, anticipating questions, pracitinc my communication

• Feedback loop - active sought feedback from my manager, peers from operational meetings. I prepared best i could, ask my manager for their opinions, their knowledge on operational

R -  Invested in relationship building and operational knowledge transformed our working dynamic. I went from data report to trusted avisor. I moved on to a new role and the director was sad to see me go and reached out later to recruit me back to the team. 

• Taught me that success isn’t just about technical accuracy, it’s about ability to adapt to different leadership styles and initiative to master the operational side behind the numbers to tell the financial story. 

Challenging Coworker - Managing Disagreement

• CBSA @ RMO, i was finance team lead. 

• Dept transition from manual, paper based signing for acquisition cards to fully paperless electronic system

• One admin assistant, year sof exp, nearing retirement was highly resistant to change. Frustrated to need to learn a new digital workflow

• My task as team lead > help her with the new digital system

A

• Empathetic listening, validation: I sat with her privately to let her express frustation, her feelings, reassure her that her prior experience is still relevant

• Hands-On, Empowered Learning: Let her do it at her own pace after showing her, sitting down with her to show her and watch her do it until comfortable

• Workload Buffering: To remove the pressure of looming deadlines while she was learning, I temporarily assisted with some of her daily tasks.

• Consistent Praise and Check-Ins: I regularly checked

R

• As a result of this consistent support, her confidence soared and her questions rapidly dwindled

• Full independence in handling her workload with zero overdue invoices,

• he became so proficient that she was eventually able to train incoming students on the system and answer their questions.

• turned her stress into a point of pride before her retirement.

Cross Functional Translation Story

Travel Policy

Situation (The Context)

• FA, designated Travel Expert at PacifiCan on policy & software

• I was responsible for advising dept on strict compliance rules.

  • Travel policies are dense, some grey area.

  • Software is intimidating and most staff only travel occasionally

Task (The Challenge)

• My task was to ensure high compliance with the policy while minimizing frustration for the staff

•  staff viewed travel claims as a tedious administrative burden

• I needed to act as the bridge between the strict 'letter of the law' in the policy and the everyday reality of the employees making the claims.

Action (What You Did)

• Active Listening & Empathy

• Translation (The 'Pro' Move): translated the policy into real world examples & expained why behidn things so non finance staff can undersstand.

• Patience & Accessible Support: 

Result (The Outcome)

• drop in common claim errors

• Multiple team members went out of their way to provide feedback that my patient, accessible approach made a stressful process feel manageable

• Financial compliance doesn't have to come at the expense of good customer service.

Cross-Cultural or Diverse Perspectives

Bias - Mei

ST - 

• Financial Analyst at PrairiesCan-

• managing my portfolio with two financial clerks

• I realized I had developed an Affinity Bias toward one clerk because our working styles were highly aligned

  • we were both very collaborative, providing frequent status updates 

  • both remote -  high-touch collaborative style, which involved proactively asking clarifying questions

  • close in age.

• In contrast, the other clerk was a very seasoned, direct communicator

  • Because her style was much more brief 

  • felt a disconnect

  • I caught myself internally questioning her engagement level simply because she didn't communicate in the same 'high-touch' way I did.

A - Specific Steps Taken:

• Self-Correction: 

  • I recognized that my preference for a collaborative, talkative style was making me biased against the other clerk’s more independent, direct approach.

• I Standardised my Review Process into a checklist format: 

• Style-Switching:

  •  I adapted my outreach to be more concise and data-focused to respect her efficiency

R - Measure of Success: 

• I measure success by the Outcomes. year-end data, the accuracy and speed were excellent for both clerks which is what the key to good accounting operations is. 

• If I had stayed biased, I would have overlooked a top performer and not recognized her when she did well.

• 
  Additionally, after learning how to adapt my own communication to work better with this financial clerk - we actually built a very strong professional bond. She eventually opened up to me about her own career goals and asked me to be her CPA mentor if she were to ever decide to pursue the designation.

• Ongoing Growth: 

This experience taught me the importance of recognizing Cognitive bias and working around it. I’m now more intentional about seeking out team members who challenge my 'default' way of working, as it often leads to a more robust and efficient financial process.