AccountantsDay 2017: There’s more than the Big Four!

On November 8, 2017, the annual AccountantsDay took place. This year’s edition was organized by a committee instead of the board. As chairman, together with Femke, Steven, Nadia and Kirstin, I formed the committee that was coordinated by Sanne and Roel who supported us during the organization. Six companies and thirty students participated during the day. The education level of the students varied from second-year Bachelor to Master students. In the end, it turned out not to be that difficult to recruit 30 students for this day, indicating that there is indeed interest among students to get more acquainted with smaller accountancy firms.  

Under the slogan ‘There is more than the Big Four’, the students were able to see what mid-sized accountancy firms have to offer. The participating firms were: Crowe Horwarth Foederer, Grant Thornton, Mazars, Van Oers, Wesselman, and Witlox van den Boomen. The day started at the fancy location ‘Villa de Vier Jaargetijden’. After a welcome speech from the organization, the firms introduced themselves to the students.

“Before you knew it, it was already time for the next round.”

The SRA also prepared a presentation, including a quiz about the accounting profession in the Netherlands. After this it was time for serious business: Discussing current topics in the accounting world. This was set up by us as follows: As the organization, we first chose themes that are topical right now. Then there were three rounds: Round 1 was thinking of a statement fitting the assigned theme, round 2 was thinking of arguments supporting the statement made by the group of round 1, and round 3 was thinking of arguments against the statement. The themes were: ‘Ethics & Accounting’, ‘Audit quality’, ‘CSR & Accounting’, and ‘Technology & Accounting’.

Every firm was assigned one theme that they had to discuss for all of the rounds. The students switched every round to a different firm, and thus a different theme. Of course there was plenty of time for the firms and students to get to know each other more. The variety between firms worked well and before you knew it, it was already time for the next round. As closure of the afternoon program, Claudia from the SRA read all the statements that the students came up with and there was a voting round among all the student whether one was before or against a statement after hearing all the arguments. Examples of statements were: ‘As an organization, you contribute to Corporate Social Responsibility when work and private life are in balance’, and ‘The current accountants are well prepared for the changing technology in the accounting world’.

“As extra element, we added a time limit, making us feel like true ‘Heel Holland Bakt’ bakers.”

Around 5 pm we ended with the afternoon program and went together to “Bij Maud”. Here we did a very entertaining, interactive workshop. Once again, the students were divided into several groups to meet every firm during the day. During the cooking class we made an appetizer, entrée and main course. As extra element, we added a time limit, making us feel like true ‘Heel Holland Bakt’ bakers. The employees of ‘Bij Maud’ took care of the dessert. Through this, I would like to thank ‘Bij Maud’ again for the delicious food and the fun workshop.
Besides ‘Bij Maud’ I would like to thank the participating firms and my other committee members as well. We received a lot of positive feedback from the firms and students, which makes me look back on a very successful day!