Molding Financial Minds

As a child, Lusine Baghdasaryan would peer over her mother’s shoulder as she did some accounting work at the kitchen table, staring at the rows and columns of numbers.

Though she didn’t understand what she was seeing, those early experiences sparked an interest in accounting that now benefits students in Northwestern's Master of Engineering Management (MEM) program. 

Baghdasaryan is an adjunct lecturer who teaches Accounting for Engineers.  

“This class is a very good match to the overall goal of the MEM program because it gives some background to financial accounting and also managerial accounting,” she said. “Engineering managers eventually need some financial background because they are in charge — to some degree — of company finances, not only engineering.”  

Baghdasaryan has deep familiarity with both fields in her course’s title, having been involved with both for nearly two decades.  

Today, she works as a supply chain systems analyst in the pharmaceutical industry..  

Baghdasaryan taught Accounting for Engineers for the first time in January. The most rewarding part was seeing students adapt their way of thinking to match the content of the course, she said.  

“In the beginning, students had a little bit of a hard time understanding the concepts because they approach it with the mind of an engineer,” she said. “The way accountants think comes from a different perspective, so they have to adjust their thinking. By the middle of the semester, they felt more comfortable.” 

And by the end of the course, Baghdasaryan said, they had a fundamental understanding of how financial and managerial accounting principles fit into their work as engineering leaders. 

The road from “uncomfortable” to “confident” is paved during the 10-week course with a mix of basic accounting terms and techniques alongside case studies gleaned in part from Baghdasaryan’s career.  

The course starts with the foundational accounting principle that assets equal liabilities plus retained earnings, and then moves into examples from a variety of companies. Students examine SEC filings from an array of corporations to decipher exactly how each stands financially compared to the others.  

Students also look at companies as they grow and examine how to record various transactions as they acquire assets and bring in sales.  

Baghdasaryan said she was impressed by the caliber of MEM students the first time she taught the course. She expects that same high level of acumen when she teaches the course again this January.  

“Even if somebody doesn't become an engineering manager, they will have to work very closely with people who are,” she said. “The final decision-maker will be somebody who has a background like what the MEM program provides.” 

As she prepares for her second round of students, Baghdasaryan routinely finds herself reflecting on her own accounting beginnings, building from those early times around the kitchen table watching her mom work with numbers.  

“She exposed me to accounting. Now, I get to do that for others,” Baghdasaryan said. “Young minds have aspirations, and they share new ways of thinking. Spending time with them is very beneficial and rewarding.”