5 Questions With … Jared Ventetuolo

Travel » 5 Questions With … Jared Ventetuolo

Jared Ventetuolo may understand numbers back and forth but back in college, he aspired to be a journalist. Luckily for AAA Northeast, that career path never materialized.

Instead, he started his career as an accountant at The Providence Journal and became a different kind of storyteller, a translator who can see the bigger picture hinted at by data, debits and credits.

Jared, who celebrates his three-year anniversary at AAA Northeast this month, spent the bulk of his career at Collette, where he spent more than 18 years rising from senior accountant to accounting manager.

We recently sat down with this “mathmagician” to find out what makes him tick, starting with one of the great personality litmus tests: Dogs vs. Cats.

Q: Are you a dog person or a cat person?
I’d consider myself both a dog person and cat person. However, as a current owner of two cats, I’ll probably lean toward my feline friends. We adopted two kittens during the pandemic and oddly, they are siblings as their mother abandoned both in a friend’s yard. Giving them a home, I guess, was our pandemic good deed. Also, it’s a different creature but honorable mention has to be given to my tree frog, which has been a fun topic among my colleagues.

Q: If you could go back in time and give your 21-year-old self some advice, what would you say?
I would tell myself to always follow your ambitions as the ever-changing world will continuously evolve and open new possibilities. Contrary to popular belief, my career ambition was to become a journalist. I wanted to cover sports or politics for a newspaper when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do in life. However, I switched gears as I kept focusing on the limitations of only writing for newspapers. If I had any foresight into what media would transform into and the opportunities which exist, the career path I chose would have been completely different.

Q: What trend do you hope will make a comeback?
It’s not really a trend but more to do with social behavior. I’d love to see society revert to conversing with each other when they’re out for a meal or drink with their significant others or friends. I’m always perplexed when I go to a restaurant or bar and see people just reading their phones instead of engaging in conversation with the group of people they’re out with. I’ve always looked at those moments as time to converse, learn, share stories or laughs, or just to be there for another. Unless someone asks you for the score of the game or you received a call, put the phone down and talk to each other. That’s what I would like to see make a comeback.

Q: What’s the biggest misconception people have about accountants?
The biggest misconception of accountants is that they are simply just good at math and like to work with numbers. Granted both are necessary but a very good accountant has a high level of business acumen as well. They can effectively interpret the numbers, translate them into financial strategy and consult on a wide variety of financial matters. They will also become a steward to a business or individual as they aid in making their financial or operational decisions. It’s more of a science than simply plotting debits and credits and much of it comes from years of practice and experience.

Q: What title would you give your autobiography?
Hmmm. That’s a difficult question. I have been on this planet for almost 50 years, and I have seen a lot, done a lot and been through a lot. However, there has been one facet which has been fairly consistent through it all, though. So, I would suggest the title to be “The Long-Suffering Raiders Fan.” That’s pretty self-explanatory.

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