Just Graduated: Anne de Smit

My name is Anne de Smit, 23 years old and I graduated for my master Accountancy last July. Since the end of August I am working for EY.

From student to the working life

At the end of August, a new adventure started. I said goodbye to the student life and entered the real working life. A couple of months later I can really say my life has changed. I replaced my bike by a new car, my sneakers by high heels and having a good night sleep is only possible in the weekend now. Especially in the beginning it took some time getting used to the working life. In my student life, I had few contact hours at the University and did many extracurricular activities besides my study. I was treasurer at T.S.A.V. Parcival, editor in chief of Faces-Online at Asset | A&F and I was an active member at student association I*ESN. I loved to sport and being busy with different things. Therefore, I decided to do my master in two years instead of one. In my extra year I did an internship at the intern audit department at Rabobank. The purpose of this was to gain knowledge and experience as it was not entirely clear for me what an accountant exactly does. Through the internship at Rabobank I got a better view about what an accountant actually does and I knew since that internship that accountancy was certainly something for me.

After my internship I completed some deficiency courses for my Post-Master Accountancy and have been very active for Faces-Online. During this period, I interviewed multiple CFO’s and a CEO of big companies. This experience definitely helped me to give me more courage in contact with clients and I have had quite some interesting conversations with leaders of companies.

Currently, I am still busy doing a lot different things, but now at the office or at the clients instead of at the University. The knowledge I have gained during my student life certainly is of great value for me today. My extracurricular activities, my bachelor Business Administration and my Master in Accountancy help me in all practical issues at the office today. Besides, I learn a lot of my fellow colleagues. That is one of the best parts of the job:

“You get to know a lot of new people who want to help you with your development by working together on different cases.”

That is one of the key things I found out at my employer. Before I decided to work for EY I have broadly oriented myself. By participating in in-house days and accountancy days organized by A&F, I connected with a lot of different employers to get a clear view about the differences between these employers. That is one of the reasons why I did my graduate internship at an office of the famous ‘Big Four’. At the end I got the opportunity to start at EY and I am sure this was the right decision.

Post-Master Accountancy

Besides my work I started my Post-Master Accountancy which means I am still a student for one day in the week. The Post-Master takes a lot of my spare time. Every week I have to hand in a case which usually takes at least a couple of hours to complete. A solid planning is needed considering I still want to work out and do fun things with my friends in my spare time. The famous student expression ‘starting on time’ certainly is applicable to this situation. Even more when you do not want to work until midnight.

The working life took some time to getting used to, but I am slowly getting used to it. During the week I am working hard with my team and I learn a lot of things every day. In the evening there is still some time to go to the gym or do something for my study. At the moment of writing, I am looking forward to my journey to United States of America next week. A chance which I am aware of not everybody gets. I am very pleased to get this opportunity and therefore it is time to seize it!