How one grad made a career out of talking taxes
As a seasoned income tax accountant, Gael Melville knows how tough it is to make sense of financial jargon. She鈥檚 now a master at breaking down complex information in writing, thanks to SFU鈥檚 Technical Communication Certificate.
Gael has worked for global accounting firm EY her entire career, first in Scotland before her move to Canada. After starting her Canadian career as an accountant, a year later she landed a role in EY鈥檚 electronic publishing group.
Now a senior manager of tax editorial, Gael oversees several writing projects, from technical tax summaries for fellow accountants to newsletters for the general public. Her main goal? Ensuring that reading about finance topics won鈥檛 make people鈥檚 heads spin.
Realizing the academic writing style she learned in university wasn鈥檛 useful for delivering a message to a general audience, Gael began the search for professional training鈥攁nd found what she needed in SFU鈥檚 Technical Communication program.
鈥淚 realized pretty late in my career that what I was doing was technical writing and I never had any formal training in it,鈥� she recalls.
The hands-on nature of her classes helped her apply what she learned to her work. But the program also challenged Gael creatively as a writer.
鈥淭丑别&苍产蝉辫;Technical Writing: Advanced Workshop course made me challenge everything I ever knew about writing,鈥� Gael says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not about producing a perfect first draft; it鈥檚 about producing any first draft and working to make it suit what you need.鈥�
She encourages anyone considering the certificate program to take their time with their learning journey. By taking breaks between courses during busy periods at her full-time job, she was better able to absorb the concepts she learned and use them in her everyday work.
For Gael, a technical writing career has allowed her to connect her tax and accounting expertise with her love for the written word.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e a good technical writer, you can explain something to yourself first and then to many other people,鈥� she explains.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 the part that I love: the need to break something down and really understand it well before you communicate it.鈥�
By Bernice Puzon