“Do auditing for a few years, its a great stepping stone”. This is the advice I was given as an accounting student. I still ponder to this day if this was good or bad advice.
After serving 3 grueling years as an auditor at PwC South Africa, I started to seek new opportunities.
Exit Opportunities – Internally
I had no idea what PwC’s Transaction Services Advisory Department (“TS”) did. However all my audit peers wanted to move there so I decided I should try as well.
Hence I blindly applied for a TS position on PwC’s internal system. I was rated an average auditor so it didn’t come as a surprise when I never hear back from TS HR.
Exit Opportunities – Externally
I decided to seek for opportunities externally and started speaking to recruitment agents and also checking LinkedIn.
I was unexpectedly disappointed. As a freshly minted CA, with 3 years of Big 4 experience, I expected hiring managers to be clamoring to get me.
However the only interviews I got were for internal audit or financial reporting roles. I wasn’t interested in either so I decided I will stick around in PwC and keep on searching.
Moving to Hong Kong
A year later I still hadn’t found anything suitable, and I was terribly bored so I decided to try something new. I transferred to PwC Hong Kong.
Working as an auditor in Hong Kong was 10x worse than South Africa. I had been there just a few months and I made it my sole mission to Get Out of Audit.
Online applications and Recruitment Agents were a total waste of time and I stopped using those channels completely.
Networking, Networking, Networking
A mentor advised me that the best way to find a job in Hong Kong is by networking, which wasn’t ideal because I am an introverted person by nature.
However my desire to get out of audit outweighed my fear of meeting new people. I went on a networking mission.
I attended internal PwC events (deals training, volunteering, marathons, soccer etc) to try and meet as many people outside of audit.
I also used to wait outside the TS department and hope to bump into people in the lift and start conversations with them.
Eventually I had made a number of connections in TS. As I built up the relationship with my new connections, I let them know I didn’t like audit and was looking to internal transfer.
The Breakthrough
I had arranged to have lunch with Jeff, a friend from TS – Valuation Team whom I met during PwC football games. While enjoying our noodles, he tells me his team is hiring and if I pass him my CV, he will refer me to his Partner.
They never asked for my performance review which was a huge relief as I was just average.
Jeff prepared me for all the interviews and case studies which I passed quite easily.
Once the Valuation Team were happy to hire me, I had to get approval from my Audit Partner to do the internal transfer.
HR told me that new joiners in HK cannot do internal transfer within 18 months of joining. This rule was waived for me since the Audit Partner and Valuation Partner approved my transfer. Its seldom an Audit Partner will reject your transfer.
I had spent 5 long years as an auditor and I was finally out. Getting into TS-Valuation was the real stepping stone. The learning curve was steep and the exit opportunities from Valuation were plentiful.
Conclusion
I should also share that I managed to get interviews with other Big 4 advisory teams via referrals as well but I decided to stick with PwC Valuation team.
In my next post, I will share more about my experiences working in Valuation and why I consider it the best exit route from audit.
If you wish to move into TS advisory, remember this:
- TS is always hiring because the staff turnover is high;
- You don’t need to be a super high performer;
- You don’t need to go thru official channels (i.e., HR), they will block you;
- You NEED to network and get your CV in front of a TS Partner and someone to vouch for you!