25 Year Reflections: Christine Booth’s Story

As we celebrate 25 years of building community, we asked our team to reflect on their own growth from 1999 to today. Consultant Christine Booth worked as a revenue accountant at an IT consulting company, using the fax machine to receive files from 20+ branches weekly to create reports. How did she find herself at Bridgepoint 25 years later? Read the full interview below to get an inside look at Christine’s story.

Reflect on where you were 25 years ago and what your career aspirations were. What would you tell that person now? In 1999, I was a Revenue Accountant for an IT Consulting Company. The company was just wrapping up a successful couple of years working on “Y2K” activities. This was a huge money-maker for the company and got us on The Boston Globe’s top company list for 1998. As Y2K was winding down, the company was trying to get new business from their existing Y2K customers. My department was implementing JDEdwards AS400, my first of many career implementations. (I feel 100 years old writing this).

How does your career progression align or differentiate from your expectations 25 years ago? I had just started in Revenue Accounting, it was a fluke that I got the job. I didn’t realize that I would spend another 15+ years in Revenue Accounting, but it became a huge asset and skill that was needed. In 1999, I felt that I should have been further along in my career but I quickly moved up over the next couple of years.

What was your biggest work tech headache 25 years ago? I produced a weekly revenue report that required the 20+ branches to fax me their report each Tuesday. I would then have to manually enter the data, and then print and distribute the report. Waiting by the fax and changing the toner on the printer was a pain.

Did your job require more formal attire in 1999? Any memorable or outrageous outfits you sported? We wore relaxed business attire. I wore dresses and skirts in the summer and pants in the winter. If it snowed and Boston schools were cancelled, we could wear jeans (the thinking was that our pants would get ruined in the snow).

How did you collaborate with colleagues? I would call or walk over to a co-worker’s desk. My manager would call my desk and call me into the office. Accounting was in a different building from the rest of the company, so I would have to walk a block to distribute my reports.

What office supplies did you hoard the most back in 1999? Pencils. Mechanical pencils were gold to accountants. We would have wars about the supplies; the GL group complained about the Revenue group taking supplies and threatened to charge us. That just meant another journal entry for them to do.

What was your biggest work disaster 25 years ago? I made a mistake at month end that was discovered towards the end of the day. We had a company outing that night. My boss and I went to the outing to show our faces, then returned to the office to correct the mistake, working late into the night. It was humbling, but my boss’ patience was wonderful and set an example.

Looking back, what surprises you most about how work has changed from 1999 to 2024? Remote work. I commuted 5 days a week into Boston for 20+ years. I do like going into our office and seeing people, but I don’t miss the daily commute.