When Joji Sekhon Gill joined semiconductor manufacturing company Applied Materials as corporate VP of HR in 2020, she knew exactly where she wanted the role to take her. And she wasn’t shy about voicing her aspirations to her boss, Susan Schmitt Winchester.

“I was pretty clear that I [wanted] to be a CHRO, whether here or somewhere else,” Gill said.

Schmitt Winchester, who was SVP and CHRO at the time, saw potential in Gill, and helped her put together a development plan to work toward this goal. After three and a half years of gaining exposure to Applied Materials’s leadership through environments like offsite events and compensation committee meetings, Gill was chosen to take over as CHRO for Schmitt Winchester in January of 2024.

Gill said the transition was so successful that it now informs how she thinks about succession planning more broadly at Applied Materials.

Keep reading here.—CV

When you tell friends and family that you work in HR, do they ever ask, “Why?” or, “What do you do?” If so, you’re not alone.

Just ask Juicy. In the Pulitzer-winning play Fat Ham, a modern rendition of Hamlet, Juicy is pursuing an online degree in HR—and his family doesn’t seem to understand why. Juicy, who is Black and queer, faces constant questions throughout the play about his sexuality and his career choice. “What are you going to do with a human resources degree?” his family asks, to which he responds, “human resources.”

Holly Walker, a real-life HR pro and talent strategist, can relate to Juicy’s experience. “I think HR has a pretty antiquated reputation amongst people who don’t work in HR,” she told HR Brew. “Forty years ago.. it [was] just this back room, where maybe people processed your payroll.” While the function has changed dramatically over the last several decades, she said, much of society still sees it in that light.

Walker shared with HR how she strives to bridge the disconnect between the perception and realities of HR.

Keep reading here.—MC

The 150-hour rule is on shakier ground by the day.

KPMG is the first Big Four firm to publicly come out against what’s popularly known as the “150-hour rule”: the requirement that CPA candidates complete 150 credit hours of coursework. That’s 30 more hours than are needed for a bachelor’s degree, or the equivalent of a fifth year of college.

A growing number of stakeholders have voiced opposition to the 150-hour rule, especially in light of the current shortage of accounting talent. Eleven states are mulling alternative pathways to CPA licensure that wouldn’t require post-bachelor’s coursework; Minnesota lawmakers introduced a bill to that effect. And last month, the AICPA and NASBA proposed an alternative pathway to licensure that would allow candidates to substitute relevant work experience for the additional 30 hours.

KPMG is “advocating for developing” experience-based avenues to licensure, Knopp wrote, which could help give candidates more “real-world, hands-on experience” with data and technology.

Keep reading on CFO Brew.—CV