Meet Jessica Coppola,
Senior Manager, Technical Accounting — Finance
Essentially, technical accounting involves interpreting and understanding the many accounting rules that could impact Cubist. Part of my responsibility includes determining the accounting treatment for either new or unusual transactions; or if there’s a business opportunity where folks want to understand what the accounting impact would be, I would be involved in that process. Also, because the accounting rules themselves are constantly changing, I assess what those new rules are and how they impact the company, in order to make sure that we’re compliant.
Q: Why did you decide to join the Cubist team?
[Jessica joined Cubist in November 2008.]
Jessica: The company was the right size for what I was looking for — it was not so small that there weren’t a lot of interesting things going on, but not so big that I knew I wouldn’t get the opportunity to be involved in any of the interesting things. Cubist was growing very steadily, it had a great product on the market with an active pipeline, and it was strong financially; all of which played a part in my decision to join the company.
It seemed like a great opportunity to get involved with a company that was clearly on to something, that was continuing to grow, year after year. I thought there would be a lot of opportunities to contribute to a company that was doing good for people and doing it well. I wanted to get on board and be a part of it.
Q: What makes working at Cubist different from your other experiences?
Jessica: Part of my previous role included travelling around to a lot of clients. So, from the outside, I saw a lot of different companies and how they operated. In coming to Cubist, one of the things that I found very surprising was how forward-thinking and adaptive everybody is. It seems a lot of companies are always trying to keep up, but what’s been very different here, besides doing what we do, is that we’re constantly preparing for the next step. I expected that from senior management, but I was surprised at how prevalent that is throughout the organization. It’s been exciting.
Q: What is unique about your role?
Jessica: The way the accounting rules are constantly changing and the way the company is growing and changing, there’s always something new that I’m dealing with and learning. I have the opportunity to work with different groups within the organization, different people, and different issues every day. So it’s been very interesting for me.
Q: What do you do for fun outside of work?
Jessica: My newest hobby has been learning how to golf. I’ve been enjoying being outdoors learning the game. Now that I can actually hit the ball, I’m focused on getting it to go straight. It’s definitely not easy, but it has been a lot of fun trying.
Q: What is your favorite Cubist benefit?
Jessica: There are a lot to choose from... For me, it’s the flexibility — whether it’s the ability to work remotely when needed, or to have a flexible schedule: a flexible day, flexible week — that is a very valuable benefit. It allows you to do your job well, but still maintain a desirable work-life balance. It’s great that Cubist emphasizes that here and actually makes it work. The Summer Hours program is a great example and is a particularly valuable perk for me at the moment.
Q: What has been the most amazing experience or day you’ve had at Cubist thus far?
Jessica: The most amazing event that’s happened here was when Cubist was named Number One in The Boston Globe’s “Globe 100.” I had spent a lot of time looking into companies before I made the decision to come to Cubist, so it was very satisfying to see the outside world affirm what I had already learned from being here: that I had made a great choice in joining Cubist. I was very excited by the news.