Shout out to all
– Accounts Assistant
– Accounts Executive
– Assistant Accountant
– Assistant Finance Manager
– Finance Assistant
– Finance Executive
I have short stories that you might find worth a read!
Ten different experiences a finance person had gone through…
Some of the stories might make you laugh; some might resonate while some not.
Hope that there’s something from the stories could help lightening your days and give you a boost in the confidence you have in you (p.s. You have it all along. It’s time to amplify it!)
“No harm trying” 😀
Story 1: Not All Focusing On Educational Qualification
One of the important messages that I would like to amplify to you all (e.g. Accounts Assistant, Accounts Executive, and Assistant Accountant) is that NOT ALL EMPLOYERS (i.e. bosses) are focusing merely on the educational qualification that you have obtained.
If you have attended a bunch of interviews, you might experience any of these, i.e. the Human Resource personnel would ask for your education certificates for verification purposes; some even just ask for a photocopy of it from you; or all you need to do is just write down your education history on the interview form, and sign it off. So, the main purpose is to verify what you’ve written on the interview form is valid and you are not lying.
But in reality, not all employers (bosses) really focus on those papers (i.e. education certificates or qualifications), work experiences are what they sought. Yes, your work experience counts! Sometimes, it is even more important than having the certificate.
Unless you are now holding a very high position or aiming to work in audit firm or multi-national companies (MNC) where their HR policy clearly stating the salary range for respective education qualifications, then you have no choice but to continue getting the education certificates to climb up the corporate ladder.
But if you are not or you are falling within this group of accounts team (i.e. Accounts Assistant, Accounts Executive, and Assistant Accountant), just go grab the job opportunities that you feel like doing it. Don’t have to refrain yourself from applying it just because of you don’t have that education certificates. There are many companies, especially local companies, they would prefer someone who can hands-on and complete the accounting tasks, with minimum supervision.
I have attended many job interviews and also being the interview panel myself. To me, the certificate is for me to gauge the level of the accounting knowledge that you could have already learnt from your college or university. From there, I roughly know how much supervision and guidance I need to put on you if you become part of my team.
So, your chances are 50:50. You can either get it or not getting it. Frankly, I don’t see any loss in you to just brave up yourself and apply for the job. Even though the job post that the company advertised clearly stated education certificate A, B, C and so on, at their requirement section, just click ‘Apply’.
You dare not click ‘Apply’ when you saw that education certificates requirement on the job ads? Let me share with you, there would still be hundreds over applicants that clicked applying for the job even though they do not have those requirements that my previous employments had emphasized.
You see now? Others that might be at the same qualification as you, have just sent their application the moment they saw the job posting on the website. So, why stumble? No harm trying.
Story 2: Worried When Being Questioned?
Many of you might be worried that what if the interview panels question you “Why you apply the job when you knew that you don’t have the qualification?”
I would say only a very small percentage that you would encounter such interview panels. One, you have sent them your Curriculum Vitae (in short, CV). Your CV has clearly indicated your education qualification. If they question you, that action of theirs has just proof that they don’t do their homework – never read through your CV information. Two, I believe a high EQ person would not ask such a question. Three, if they ever ask, I guess they might just want to see how you respond to them or how you handle the ‘heat’.
What you could do is answer them frankly. For example “I have obtained certificates A and B but not C, but I have the working experience in handling those job scopes for this post.” Show your confidence that you have the capability to take up this job despite not having that one piece of paper. You would leave a strong impression to the interview panels and your chances of getting the job increase.
Story 3: See Their True Colour
Do you really think that those candidates who managed to get the highly-qualified certificates know it all when come to performing their job scope? I came across quite a bunch of those professionals that just graduated from their studies, straight away getting a high job position or job title offered by a company.
Sometimes, it could be merely because of their education qualifications that fall into the job title and salary range set in HR policy. The employment had no way to know their work performance within that less than an hour interview session. When the new hire is finally onboard, then only we know their true colour, i.e. can they really do the job or not.
Why is that? They have minimal or close to zero working experience. Back in school or college, they might not have the chance to have hands-on lesson or homework but their syllabus emphasizes more on concepts knowledge.
Which is why there are times when you ask them to get the job done, they can’t do it any better than what the accounts executive could do. But when comes to meeting sessions, they shine like super star! They could present very well with their knowledge and out spoken; while the accounts executive that owns more practical experiences just stay quiet but to many people’s surprises, these quiet members could be busy thinking of the ways and how to get the job done in their mind. I call them the ‘Doer’. Sad thing is most management team only has eyes on those who can talk than those who can do the job.
I can’t seem to change the way how the management team is doing things; so instead I encourage my team or colleagues to speak up and dare to voice up their opinions and ideas. Their input and feedback are valuable. By doing that, we can bridge the gap between them and the management team, by a tad bit, better than nothing…
Story 4: Can You Read This?
There was an encounter that I still remember until now. It was when we (my previous employment) took the internship program with a local reputable engineering university. A few interns (let’s just address them as interns for now) joined our engineering department.
It is good to have such internship program as it lets the interns to learn some practicality that they are still lacking off and still in time to pick them up before they officially entering their working life in near future. And as for company that takes in those students, aside from giving back to the society – by teaching the young ones (even though most of the time the mentor was the one getting more works and responsibilities to watch over the intern’s work), company gets some helping hands to assist their team, at a super low cost. Yes, only a small amount of salary is paid to those interns.
The head of engineering, Fabian (my ex-colleague who is an expat from Germany) grabs a piece of his single-line diagram from one of the projects (a simple one, he is not bullying the interns) and let the interns to have a look.
“Could you take a look at this and tell me what you understand from it?” He says to the interns. This is to test their knowledge. As a mentor you need to understand what level of knowledge your students currently have and the level they are at, before you can even sketch the training programs for them, right?
They look at it but don’t understand what that drawing is all about. They can’t comprehend it, what’s more to say in getting them to draw one for a project. The interns from a local engineering university who is about to complete their studies can’t even read and comprehend on a single-line diagram. Both Fabian and my boss went speechless for a few seconds when they saw their response. I am not exaggerating.
What kind of engineering topics have they learned in school? The basic of all (i.e. single-line diagram), they can’t read it…
Me, a non-engineering background, has at least learned from my secondary school where we were taught to build out our own torchlight from a battery, wire and bulb; that the arrow on the line of the diagram was referring to the flow of current or electricity. Other than that, I don’t know anything about it. Excuse me, I forgot and that is not within my expertise.
I don’t know what jobs Fabian assigned to the interns, but definitely something other than the diagram-related stuff, I guess. My boss was so frustrated by it and he wrote an email to the Ministry of Education questioning them on the syllabus the current education body is laying out for the students. How could they not even able handle the basic of engineering knowledge and how would they be able to grow when the basic is not firmly built? I wonder if he ever gets a response after that.
We have those interns for about two months and they then ‘graduated’ from this internship program. Hope that they really grab as much knowledge as they would need in this profession of theirs. Fabian is super knowledgeable and a patient mentor as he always be. Lucky them to have him as their mentor.
Story 5: They Just Load Onto Her
The accounts assistant, Wendy, really surprised me when I came to know that she was from none-accounting background in her college studies. But without that accounting basic knowledge, she is handling the Accounts Payables work very well.
She picks up what is needed and completes all the tasks on time. Even when the work load suddenly piling up on certain day towards month end closing, she was so accountable to put in the efforts to complete the work at home (occupying her personal evening time).
I feel bad about it back then (when I was still with this semi-con company) as no additional headcount and resources was given by company but new jobs keep coming in. The whole existing team needs to work like a dog, especially month end deadlines approaching… Those were the days. Not long after a year, I left the company.
So now, the finance team has a Finance Manager (the new hirer that is taking over my position), Wendy and her only team member – the accountant. The accountant handles the full General Ledger and reporting tasks while Wendy is focusing on daily transaction stuff. Half year later after I have left the company, this accountant found another job and tendered resignation. This happened when Wendy was still on her maternity leaves.
What I heard from my ex-colleagues when I joined them for a meal during one of the weekends, Wendy who just returning to work was assigned by the CFO to take up some jobs performed by that accountant.
“What?” I was so shock. Wow… She must be further stressed up. Just came back from her maternity leaves, yet to clear her own mailbox, now new challenging tasks loaded upon her.
Months later, I was told that she is surviving well at the work. With works that requires accounting knowledge that she is lacking of, she works with some guidance from her finance manager and she really managed to work through that tough learning curve period.
She is amazing! She really is! People nowadays would just resign and leave for another easier job. How many ‘Can-Do Attitude’ employees can you find in current market?
I really hope that Wendy who can already do some of those accountant’s jobs, can really spend some times to understand the reason behind each task. What is the purpose for this report? Why we debit this and credit that? Or perhaps her Finance Manager could explain all those to her and not just having her trained to just ‘copy and paste’ previous accountant’s way of completing the reports, without understanding the purpose of each piece of tasks. Complete the report just for the sake of the report.
This story, has again proof that without the certificates, you can still have the chance to perform the job.
Still here? Thank you!
Story 6 to 10 will be on the next page.