My journey with the accountancy profession began with my being curious about how accountants think, who they are and what they do. I was always sceptical about the stereotypes of accountancy being a 'conventional', 'by-the-book' and 'boring' job. As I’ve found out, they’re simply not true. I get an adrenaline rush when dealing with numbers and am far from bored.
What gradually shaped me into being an adrenaline junkie for numbers started with my three-year training contract at a mid-sized corporation. There, I served mainly as a commercial accountant managing the bookkeeping, budgeting and reporting matters for a number of subsidiaries, as well as assisting the finance team on ad hoc research assignments.
I was only exposed to the client's perspective and I started to develop a curiosity in seeing things from an auditor's point of view. I felt a compelling need to step out of my comfort zone and sought out a taste of auditing at PwC Malaysia.
I’d heard horror stories about how auditors have no life other than being stuck at work. I discovered how passionate I am about investigating and finding more behind the numbers, from the history of where they come from to the stories and events that lead to their being reported in financial statements.
I’m still actively building and growing new skills and competencies, while adding value to the work I do
Through this passion for knowledge and looking beyond the surface, I helped the team to discover issues in a client's internal controls, which led to changes in how they subsequently performed and monitored these procedures. I could now better appreciate materiality as an important boundary to observe in allocating the necessary resources and time needed to investigate an issue, while being equally aware of the governing standards surrounding it.
I’m still actively building and growing new skills and competencies, while adding value to the work I do using my industrial experience in commercial accounting. I’m grateful to the people I’ve met, who have supported me through coaching, mentoring and timely corrections based on my performance.
I envision myself advancing into a management position in which I’d gain more exposure and experience in leading and managing teams, either big or small.
On a side note, the legal space has appealed to me lately. With considerable influence from my social circle, I would have pursued a career as an attorney. Then again, it's not about what could have been, but staying firmly on the ground and demonstrating resilience, persistence and humility. That is what the profession has taught me, not only in my career but as a person.
I recently left PwC to become a gig worker. I used to work for investment holding company Amcorp Group, which had a property development focus and felt that returning to corporate work after gaining external audit experience with PwC would be best for my professional growth.
