“Having interacted with numerous students over the past 10 years, I always seek the reason for students’ fixation on audit as their only career choice.
Being an auditor myself, I definitely concede that audit offered me great exposure and opportunities to gain a holistic understanding of multiple organisations. Even so, I believe that this exposure can easily be matched with other career options, so I do advise students to think beyond audit.
As the Business Development Manager of Phoenix Skills and Recruitment (PSR), I come across many opportunities in a range of industries like insurance, fund management, event management, information technology and even food delivery. Due to the response of students to non-audit roles, it is worthwhile to assert that working in these industries may offer a different experience to being an auditor, but the learning and growth is definitely steep.
Work experience in the above-stated industries would give students a detailed insight of the business operations and allow them to learn the processes and controls first-hand. The accounting and finance departments not only play a vital role in assisting the strategic and operational decision making but also constitute to a fundamental structure of an organisation.
It gives me immense contentment when PSR-placed students express their gratification about their experience in a non-audit role to be highly rewarding and full of exciting challenges.
Students are often biased towards audit as some qualifications are comprehensively and exclusively associated with audit. As ACCA has no such inclinations, the global body encourages students to focus on attaining their Professional Experience Requirement in fields outside the realm of audit. ACCA is one of the few accountancy qualifications that opens a myriad of career options!
So, the next time you come across a non-audit opportunity, consider it equal to an audit role and give it a go. Either way, you will be able to record your experience with the ACCA PER portal. Short-term internships are also an advantage as experience in these roles will give you a chance to assess if a non-audit role can be a career option for you!”
Nikhil Vachani
Business Development Manager – PSR