25 Year Celebrations: Daniel Rodgers’ Story

DLC 25 Year Anniversary Employee Spotlight Blog Graphics

As we celebrate 25 years of growth, trust, and opportunity: made possible by our people, we asked our team to reflect on their own growth from 2000 to today.

In 2000, Daniel Rodgers was fresh out of his first year at State Street with big dreams of launching a career in public accounting. How did he find himself thriving as a consultant at DLC 25 years later?

Read the full interview below to get an inside look at Daniel’s remarkable journey from entry-level operations to strategic consulting excellence.

Reflect on where you were 25 years ago and what your expectations and aspirations were for yourself in your career at that time. What would you tell that person now, 25 years later?

I had finished up my first year at an entry-level position after undergrad at State Street, and I knew I wanted more. I wanted a career. I made the decision to work one more year at State Street, save money, move back home, get my master’s in both business and accounting. I launched my career in public accounting as an auditor at KPMG LLP. I then went on to work 5 years in industry before starting as a consultant with DLC.

To me 25 years ago to the me today, I would say, “Continue to stick with your determination and focus. Be on the lookout for opportunities to enhance your skillset and never turn down a chance for learning something new to foster professional growth.”

How does your career progression align or differentiate from your expectations 25 years ago?

Where I am today is where I had hoped to be, believe it or not. After my first year at State Street, they created a new position there for me as a Floater, where I learned about everyone else’s job within securities lending operations so I could cover for them when they were out. It required me to communicate with other team members much more than other positions.

Looking back, I can see why I gravitated towards consulting, as some of my more rewarding projects are creating SOP’s, realigning job responsibilities among personnel, improving efficiencies with current resources, exploring new systems to automate manual tasks, breaking down, and understanding teams’ pain points to find ways to eliminate them.

Fax machines, pagers, and dial-up internet! What was your biggest work tech headache 25 years ago?

No joke, stand-alone fax machines could always pose challenges and inefficiencies. Not only were they inherently slow, they came with other problems like continuous busy signals causing send failures and ongoing jams caused by oddly-textured receipt-like paper.

What was your dream office perk in 2000? Free coffee? Casual Fridays?

Business casual Fridays were a big deal in 2000. Not only were they so much more comfortable, but it gave you an opportunity to see the personalities of your coworkers through their styles.

In 2000, how did you collaborate with colleagues? Did you miss out on the ease of video conferencing we have today?

2000 was still embracing the hierarchical management-style, so you simply were given instructions by your boss and did what he or she said without questioning: Collaboration hadn’t started too much yet by then where I was working.

We did. I went out and bought all-new suits for my first job at State Street. My mother even treated me to one from Brooks Brothers. After my first year, State Street went full-time business casual like many other companies at the time. It was bittersweet because, yes it allowed for more comfort, but I had just spent a lot of entry-level salary on suits that were now a waste and it was a great feeling to attend work all dressed-up.

Did you have a favorite office prankster in 2000? Tell us about the most epic (or most harmless) office prank you witnessed!

The internet was still fairly new, and there was a very strict no-internet-at-work policy. As a prank, co-workers would send a link in what seemed like a regular work-related email to each other, but if you dared click on it, “Hit Me Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears would play loudly from your computer. We were on a completely open floor trade-desk plan, so everyone would hear it. It was hilarious!

Post-it notes of to-do’s would be everywhere, and you would likely have to rewrite them because they were easily misplaced or thrown away by accident. Gel pens were just being introduced, so that was all the hype! I so much appreciate the OneDrives of today for being able to keep my to-do’s, meeting notes, daily accomplishments, and job how-to’s all in one place and access it anywhere.

What skill did you use the most at work in 2000, and how has that skill evolved or been replaced by technology today?

My first job was to literally copy and paste daily investment gains and losses for I can’t remember how many individual investments from the ERP into Excel, so we could do the monthly billing process. I’m positive no one is doing that anymore and it’s since been replaced by technology.

Well, it WAS Y2K, so everyone in accounting and operations at State Street needed to be in the office bright and early after just celebrating one of the most exciting New Years’ Eves. My coworkers were so… let’s just say, “exhausted,” that they could barely function. It was quite a sight. Of course, Y2K ended up being completely uneventful, so we were sent home after about 30 minutes.

Celebrating DLC’s Anniversary: 25 Years of Impact & Opportunity

For a quarter century, DLC has helped companies navigate change, capitalize on opportunity, and lead with confidence. As a premier provider of on-demand finance and accounting consulting services, we’ve partnered with thousands of organizations to deliver the expertise and agility they need to thrive in today’s complex business landscape.

Now, as we celebrate our 25th anniversary, we reflect with gratitude on the relationships we’ve built, the challenges we’ve solved, and the incredible people who’ve shaped our journey.

Learn more about our history and plans for future growth: https://dlcinc.com/insights/celebrating-dlcs-anniversary-25-years-of-impact-opportunity/.