How studying at the Academy helped me get my dream job at a Big Four!

A little over 6 months ago, I won a metaphorical happiness lottery. I was offered a full time position at PwC!

How it all started?

Back in 2015, I was a student at The Indian High School, Dubai. I had little direction on what I wanted to do after school. Having done my research on the different options (including doing a professional qualification), joining a university seemed to be the most popular route taken by virtually every student.

PwC’s Academy had an info session in our school where they introduced themselves as the platinum learning provider for ACCA. I was aware of the Big Fours but had no idea there existed an Academy by PwC that offers professional qualifications.

My cousin at that point in time also working at a Big Four had been encouraging me to do a professional qualification right after school but I wasn’t fully convinced as I hardly knew anybody who had skipped university. I thought it was more like, learning how to draft financial statements without knowing how to write journals (or in context of ACCA, doing P2 without F7 knowledge).

Why not?

In the first week of April 2015 after having completed my last board exam in school, on my way back home from the exam center I saw an email from the Academy with information of the launch of the Foundations in Accountancy batch in April.

I tried to think rationally about what I should be doing.

Given that universities start only in September, there was hardly any opportunity cost involved in starting off the FIA batch in April. Since they were only the first three papers of ACCA, I could easily switch to joining a university after I was done with it. So why not give it a shot?

The 3 weeks that changed my mind

During the time on the FIA programme with the Academy, I met so many amazing people both who were studying and also those who were working at the firm.

Over the course of the first three weeks, we had different trainers and professionals working at PwC coming in almost every week telling us about their positions, sharing with us their diverse experiences and motivating us on what it really takes to be a PwC Professional.

So the journey continues…

Having decided to pursue ACCA at the Academy after completing my first three papers with the FIA batch, I went on to finish what I had set out to achieve. After clearing another 3 papers I was selected for and internship in December 2015 and toward the end of my 6 month internship period, I was then offered a full time position in finance.

I cleared my 11 paper in the December 2016 exam session and look forward to becoming an affiliate by September 2017.

Currently working and studying at the academy has given me a head start into my career. Learning at the academy happens beyond classroom lectures and also involves a great deal of hard work and personal development through soft skills training that has helped me learn and grow so, so much – both personally and professionally. From my journey as a student, intern and now a full time employee - the academy is a truly incredible place to learn and work, a dream job in so many ways. And doing a professional qualification like ACCA right after school has been key to achieving my dream job.