Identical on (Almost) All Accounts: Twins Trisha Daughtrey and Dana Pearson Took Separate Paths – and Both Wound Up at Cal Poly Accounting

Identical twins Trisha Daughtrey and Dana Pearson were uncertain about what they wanted to do for a career – until they each separately took an aptitude test.

In both cases, the test recommended accounting.

“I’ve always liked math,” said Daughtrey, who took the test while finishing up her general education classes at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria. “I’ve always liked games. I answered all these questions, and it popped up with CFO.”

Pearson’s narrative looked a little different.

“Originally, I wanted to actually be a teacher, a preschool teacher, because at the time my daughter was 3 or 4 years old,” Pearson said. “And I just was obsessed with her. I loved kids. So I started to go down that path.”

Unfortunately, Pearson realized that this field of work lacked the financial opportunity that she was looking for and began to prepare for a pivot. Several years after Daughtrey, she, too, took an aptitude test, and as the identical twin effect would have it, the test recommended she become a bookkeeper.

For the twins, who grew up in Orange Cove, California, the test led to the Orfalea College of Business.

Prior to receiving her aptitude test result, Daughtrey had never really considered accounting as a viable career path.

“I looked it up, and it was like, oh, accounting, I never really thought about accounting. And I do like numbers,” she said. “And so I started looking around. And that’s when I started looking at Cal Poly. They had a really good College of Business.”

Four years later, Pearson’s turn to take the very same aptitude test, and subsequently, she got a parallel result to that of her twin sister. Right around the same time, Daughtrey was studying accounting at Cal Poly, and loving every minute. As Pearson watched her sister thrive, she began to visualize herself in this same trajectory.

“I knew I was relatively good with numbers,” she said. “And then it was funny, I just thought to myself, if I get into Cal Poly and go into accounting, she could just help me with my homework.”

She turned to her twin with a reminiscent smile before she continued, “You can just give me all the answers! She didn’t actually give me all the answers, but she definitely helped. It was a huge benefit.”

As a matter of fact, both twins did end up in the Orfalea College of Business, but with no overlap: Daughtrey attended Cal Poly from 2002 to 2004, while Dana spent her time at Cal Poly between 2006 and 2009.

Despite ending up in the same major at the same school, the twins did not quite have a uniform experience, not in their education nor in their careers. When Daughtrey reflects on her time studying accounting, she knew she was in love from the start.

“I started taking classes at Cuesta, and that’s it, I just loved accounting,” Daughtrey said. “To me, accounting is like a game. It’s like solving a puzzle.”

In contrast, Pearson had a different relationship with the work than her twin.

We can relate. I know what she’s talking about what she says GL accounts and things like that. We also like to complain a lot, because accounting can be very difficult at times, especially when clients don’t have good books.Dana Pearson

“I’m a little more artistic than she is,” Pearson said while looking thoughtfully at her twin. “She’s a little more structured.”

The twins’ careers also went off in divergent directions. Daughtrey is now coming up on her tenth year of teaching accounting courses at Cal Poly and serves as the CFO of Splash Café, a popular eatery in the county especially known for its clam chowder. She also heads Cal Poly’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program. Pearson went in the financial analyst direction, working for various renewable energy organizations over the years.

While the two trajectories aren’t entirely parallel, the twins’ career similarities are certainly something they can bond over.

“I mean, we talk about work a lot,” Pearson said. “Because we can relate. I know what she’s talking about what she says GL accounts and things like that. We also like to complain a lot, because accounting can be very difficult at times, especially when clients don’t have good books.”

While the pair certainly value the shared experience of working in the accounting field, Daughtrey and Pearson make an effort to keep their relationship balanced and well-rounded.

“I really enjoy the fact that I can just bounce ideas off her, which I do often,” Pearson said. “She’ll come to me with questions. And I have lots of questions for her. But I just try not to talk about work too much, honestly. Monday to Friday, eight to five.”

Ever since they were young, Daughtrey and Pearson were one another’s built-in best friend.

“We did spend a lot of time together,” Pearson said. “We both played the flute in marching band. We both played the oboe in the orchestra.”

Yet the twins also presented a theme of individuality in their togetherness.

“She was more of a tomboy,” Pearson shard. “She was always football, and I was Barbies and makeup.”

From switching classes in high school to making difficult phone calls in the place of the other, Daughtrey and Pearson have been there for each other through it all. They may have both found their way to their respective careers through aptitude tests and awareness of their strengths, but as it turns out, it was also the twins’ closeness that brought them together into similar yet different professional trajectories.

Even by just looking at the pair, one can visually discern the “similar yet different” paradigm between the two. Despite being fundamentally identical, the twins present themselves in ways that are entirely different, with Pearson sporting long hair and a nose piercing, while Trisha had a more conservative look, with no piercings on her face and complete with a short haircut, unlike her sister.

The twins still spend quality time together frequently, collectively partaking in a wide range of activities, from being one another’s plus-ones to non-profit board events to the occasional flag football game on a Sunday morning.

“We’re really close,” Daughtrey said with a smile. “We’re 44 years old, and we still talk pretty much every day. She lives in Templeton and I live here in San Luis Obispo.”

Pearson clearly resonated with this sentiment wholeheartedly, and when reflecting on what her favorite thing about being a twin is, she echoed with a quick and seemingly instinctual answer:

“Always having a friend.”