Airports Meet Airports’ Accountant III Amber Nakamoto Q: Who is the person that has influenced you the most in your career? My parents. My Dad always been the one to push my sister and I to work harder when you’re younger so that you don’t have to work as hard when you’re “old.” He tells us he always will support us in our decisions and that no matter what he will always love us and do anything he can to help us reach our goals. My Mom is the one who tells us to always be humble and work hard even if nobody is watching because “someone is always watching.” She tells us not to compare yourself to anyone because it’s not about where you came from, it’s about where you end up going. Q: What are 3 things that you love to do? • Playing volleyball on weekends at the park • Working in the yard • Taking surf photography of my boyfriend and our friends Q: Any background work history and anything you would like to share on what brought you to the HDOT? I graduated from UH with a bachelors in accounting in 2015 and started working for a public accounting firm, KKDLY LLC. After working a few tax seasons, I realized I wanted to take my experience and expand it by working for the State Tax Office. My biggest hesitation was a significant pay cut. With the support of my family, I went from being a public accountant to a State Tax Collector in November 2017. After working as a collector for a few years I realized I wanted something more challenging and I realized I was not able to advance in the collections department. I started applying for accountant positions
in December 2019 thinking I could start 2020 with a new job. After numerous interviews, COVID-19 9 started becoming serious in March 2020. The e two interviews that seemed most promising were from the Tax Office and from the Airport. Days after I interviewed for both, I was told there was a hiring freeze, and that they would not be able to offer me the position and so I was on stand by for what seemed like forever. A few months had passed and the Tax Office asked me if I wanted to TA as an Accountant III and I immediately said yes. My current Supervisor, Bertman Lee reached out to me in December 2020 to say the hiring freeze has been lifted for the DOT and asked if I was still interested and I said yes. Shortly after my Supervisor whom I was TA-ing as an Accountant III at the Tax Office said the Governor approved to lift the freeze for my position and told me to apply. You can imagine my stress level at the time when I received two offers at the same time. After all the anxiety, advice, and stress, I realized that my career goal is to advance as much as I can and I would not be able to do so at the Tax Office. It is now the ending of April 2021 and I’m happy to say I’ve been here for 3 months and enjoy working with everyone here.
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