For the Dutch version, click here What is it like to start working at an accountancy firm in a time in which everything is online and working from home is the standard? In this article, Daniek Veldhuis will tell about her experience as a first-year staff member at EY. Who am I? To begin, I will shortly tell something about myself. My name is Daniek Veldhuis, I am 22 years old and I live in Tilburg. After obtaining my VWO diploma in 2015, I decided to make the move to the student city Tilburg. From 2015 to 2018, I studied Business Economics and after completing this bachelor, I continued with the master Accountancy at Tilburg University. Next to my studies, I was a board member at the study association Asset | Accounting & Finance. As such, I got the change to organize network events together with my fellow board- and committee members. These network events were organized for, among others, several accountancy firms,. Due to this, I was able to get a good idea of the various Big-4 offices and eventually make an informed choice to apply for a job at EY. Why EY? You might wonder which factors contributed to my choice for EY. First of all, I quickly decided for myself that I wanted to start at one of the Big-4 offices. For the many possibilities, but also the international aspect appealed to me. Another factor that was important to me was a good match with my colleagues. The actual work at the different accountancy firms does not differ much, which makes the social aspect even more meaningful. Working at EY During my master, I first did a thesis internship at EY in Eindhoven. During such an internship, you will have the opportunity to write your thesis at the office. As such, you can already experience the ins and outs and the atmosphere on a normal working day at the office. My thesis internship started in February, but unfortunately we quickly had to work from home due to the COVID-19 crisis. Fortunately, fear that this would cause less contact with colleagues was not necessary. At the beginning, all thesis interns were assigned a buddy group and mentor and we had a weekly contact moment with this buddy group during the duration of the internship.. Despite the special circumstances, I enjoyed this time so much that I started at EY Eindhoven as a Staff Audit last September. The first two weeks consisted of an introduction period with all the other starters from the same region in which we covered different cases to prepare us for the work to come, but also several informal activities were organized to create a good relationship with my fellow starters. “The activities as a Staff Audit differ throughout the year, from testing internal controls to analyzing the figures in the annual report.” After the introduction weeks, it was time to really get to work. A big step, but you will be guided in this process as well as possible and in the case of any questions, you can always contact your personally assigned coach.. None of my colleagues will have exactly the same working day. This mainly depends on everyone’s client package. My client package consists of different types of clients, including one large client from the United States that I have been working on for most of the time so far. The activities as a Staff Audit differ throughout the year, from testing internal controls to analyzing the figures in the annual report. You work on this together with the team, at the EY office or at the clients site. This year, it has been different and I have spent most of the year working from home. This is very different from what I had imagined my first year at EY to be, but we all try to make the best of it. Where you would normally meet in a meeting room with your senior to discuss something, this is now all done via Teams. Furthermore, we now have virtual work sessions to re-create the feeling of a normal working environment. All team members will join the session, so we can also get an idea of what the other team members are working on. Besides all the hard work, there is, of course, also time for other fun activities. Unfortunately, this year, events like the Christmas drink or ski trip could not take place, but online activities are organized as much as possible, with the entire region or within the team you are working with that week. For example, two colleagues of mine organized a Carnival pub quiz for the entire team a few weeks ago. In short, my first year has been an eventful year so far and different than expected, but precisely because of the way EY has approach this situation, I am still happy with the choice I made.
COVID-19: The impact on various sectors of the Dutch economy
For the Dutch version, click here Earlier this year, the editors of Faces Online have published a reconstruction of the events surrounding the coronavirus. The lockdown measures are slowly relaxing, but the consequences of the corona crisis will be felt in society for a long time to come. The CPB and the DNB predicted at the beginning of June that a deep recession is inevitable. The economy is expected to shrink by 6.4 percent this year, twice as much as the credit crisis in 2009 and a historical low. It is clear that the current 1.5 meters society is affecting the catering sector, but what about the other business sectors? In this article we analyse the Accountancy and Financial sector, among others, and also reflect on the status of large Dutch companies. “An important difference with the previous major crisis is that the origin is now outside the financial sector and the financial buffers at banks are considerably higher than they were during the previous crisis.” The Financial sector (banks and pension funds) The banking sector is at the heart of this crisis as an aid provider for all sectors. With bridging loans and deferral of redemption and interest it is trying to help companies and consumers overcome the corona crisis. An important difference with the previous major crisis is that the origin is now outside the financial sector and the financial buffers at banks are considerably higher than they were during the previous crisis. This does not alter the fact that banks are becoming more cautious when issuing loans. Therefore, the acceptance criteria have been tightened in the second quarter. The purpose of the stricter criteria is to protect banking institutions against bad loans, which are at the expense of profitability. Though, the profitability was already under pressure due to low interest rates. The Dutch Central Bank does not expect the banking sector itself to run into problems in the moderate scenario. Only in the severe scenario, banks will be hit by a sharp recession, but they will still be able to fulfill their role as financial intermediaries. The pension funds have also been severely affected by the corona crisis. The decrease in the value of their investments have caused pension funds’ already vulnerable capital position to deteriorate further in the recent months. The policy coverage ratio, the yardstick for the current financial position of pension funds based on the average coverage ratio of the past twelve months, fell to 98 percent. This means that it is below the temporary statutory minimum of 100 percent. As a result, pension funds do not have sufficient assets to meet the mandatory benefits they have agreed on with its members. This can be remedied by either increasing contributions or reducing pension benefits. Fortunately, it seems unlikely to get this far, as a new pension agreement is about to be signed. In this pension agreement, the coverage ratio and actuarial interest will disappear. As a result, there will no longer be any promises for future benefits, which means that there will no longer be any shortfalls. Large Dutch companies The coronavirus also has a major impact on multinationals on Dutch soil. An example of this is the oil giant Shell. The combination of plummeting oil prices and the reduction in fuel consumption due to the coronavirus led to a drop in turnover of no less than 28% in the first quarter. That same quarter, Shell’s profits halved, forcing the company to reduce its dividend spending, for the first time since the Second World War(!). The decline in dividend spending is a bad sign for Shell, as liquidity was still reasonably good. It therefore deliberately reflects a rather negative picture for Shell’s future. A homegrown multinational where the corona crisis seemed to have a positive impact on is Unilever. Unilever has the ideal product portfolio, with sales of food, personal care and cleaning products. Due to the massive hoarding in the first weeks of the crisis, you would have expected the laundry and food group to have made a good start. However, this turned out to not be the case, as the sales figures for quarter 1 were roughly the same as in the previous year. The underlying reason for this is the fact that Unilever saw a decline in turnover as sales to catering suppliers stagnated. It is the sales to these consumers where they gain their highest margin. Lastly, a big player among the Dutch multinationals is the chip machine manufacturer, namely ASML. The corona virus had a major impact on the financial figures that the company had reported. The turnover in Q1 decreased by roughly 1.6 billion compared to the previous quarter in 2019. This was mainly due to the postponement of deliveries of the chip machines. Fears that transport would no longer be possible later also played a role for customers. The Accountancy sector The Accountancy sector appears to be one of the sectors that is quite capable of coping with the impact of COVID-19. Nevertheless, some of the largest accounting firms have prepared to withhold partner payments in an effort to mitigate the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic. It is only one measure envisaged among the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms – KPMG, Deloitte, PwC and EY – and medium-sized firms BDO and Mazars, to withhold cash if clients’ fees decline. Top Accountancy firms are also looking into the possibilities of a temporary postponement of rules and legislation. These include the mandatory rotation of accountancy firms, counting physical stocks and filing accounts. Here, they argue that the coronavirus outbreak has created ‘unprecedented challenges’ for the accounting firms. However, it appears to be that most firms are healthier in terms of liquidity compared to previous years and decades, mainly due to some major divestments and cash savings. Finally, this sector seems to be more likely to be affected in the long term by the major pandemic developments since the beginning of 2020. This means that the effects are currently only
CV Building: internships
For the Dutch version, click here Applying for a job at a multinational without a rich resume is usually a hopeless mission. To find your dream job, you first need to demonstrate that you are able to participate in the business environment. For many students, doing an internship at a company is, therefore, the ultimate opportunity to get into contact with actual business for the first time. It provides the perfect chance for young talent to prove themselves in the job market. In general, companies prefer students who have already gained some work experience during their busy student years. A while ago, Faces Online editors started this section which is about experiences of students who were working students besides their studies (see CV Building: working students). In this week’s article, the focus lies on (graduation) internships. Four (former) students tell us about seizing the opportunity of doing such an internship and their experiences. Doing an internship: why? Large companies often hire a number of interns every year. They do so to support current staff, but also to discover potential new employees. For students, this provides a good opportunity to develop themselves within the business environment. This was also one of the reasons for Djanmar Sorber, who is an intern at Unilever: ‘‘I chose an internship to get a better perspective on how financial and analytical skills are applied in a large company, and to get a good impression of the working atmosphere and cooperation.’’ Carlijn de Block, a thesis intern at EY, stated the following as her motivation: “I wanted to start my thesis internship in order to get to know more about the working atmosphere and culture of EY. I also wanted to gain some practical experience before starting my career as an accountant. In addition to writing your thesis, you also get the opportunity to visit clients to work as an accountant.’’ Finding an internship Companies find it important to have an idea of their potential interns. As a result, finding a vacancy or internship via Google is not always the desired method. Jet Slijkhuis, who is an intern at Baker Tilly, found her internship via an event of Asset | Accounting & Finance (A&F): “During the cocktail workshop, I had a conversation with the campus recruiter of Baker Tilly. The next day, I received a message with an invitation to come over for a coffee.” Carlijn also found her employer via Asset activities: “During various activities of A&F where accountancy firms were present, I always had a good click with the people of EY Eindhoven. Therefore, I thought it would be nice to do an internship there.’’ Timing Doing an internship besides your studies is something which does not suit many students’ agendas. The right moment for an internship is often hard to find, as students often have enough other things on their minds. Djanmar gives the following advice regarding this: “In my opinion, the end of your bachelors is the best time for an internship. By then, you have both a theoretical and practical impression of the direction which interests you.’’ According to Stan den Boer, who is an intern at NIBC Bank, there are several moments which suit an internship. “I think that the ideal path would be a summer internship between the second and third year of your bachelors, which you could find at a smaller firm. During your masters, you can search for an internship you really aim for.’’ “For M&A, PE and finance in general, an internship is an officious commitment which considerably increases your market value. An employer has to invest less in you and you can start working right away.’’ Additional value The main reason for an internship often comes from the ambition to gain practical experience and getting an impression of the relevant company. Regarding whether it really yields something, Djanmar says the following: “You quickly realize your actual interests and motivations. Many students choose a study direction with a certain expectation, which lacks practical experience. Maybe you want something completely different after your internship due to disappointing expectations, or you discover something new where you gain satisfaction from.” Stan said the following about this: “It improves your CV and you gain experience and closely participate in the project. Yet mainly, the pace at which you learn to process information is very convenient, for other purposes as well.’’ In addition, Stan believes that it has a positive effect on your personal position in the job market: “For M&A, PE and finance in general, an internship is an officious commitment which considerably increases your market value. An employer has to invest less in you and you can start working right away.’’ Tips To conclude, the students give their personal tips. Jet focuses on choosing an internship. “Consider well for yourself what you want to gain from a potential internship and discuss this with the company where you will potentially do your internship. It would be unnecessary to spend a lot of time on doing an internship which does not yield the results you expected.’’ Stan states the following: “Make sure you start applying in time. NIBC did not have any places left in March for the intake period of September. Applying for an internship half a year in advance is definitely not too early. Also, make sure to think well about your motivation before you enter into potential internship applications.’’ Djanmar gives the following advice: “If you want to do an internship, particularly look for a company which suits you and where you think the working atmosphere is good. You can only get the best out of yourself if you enjoy your internship.’’ Finally, Carlijn gives some personal advice as well: “I definitely recommend doing an internship. I have met many new people, gained new experiences and developed a better perspective of the job of an accountant.’’ Doing an internship can give a student the additional lead necessary to get a future dream job. Are you ready for a new
Working At EY
First, a brief introduction of myself. Just like any other lost high school student, I chose the bachelor business economics because it was quite known that there are broad career opportunities after you completed this study. After completing the bachelor, I chose to follow the master accountancy to gain more knowledge about a new field of interest of mine: the audit/control practices. In addition to this, it appealed to me to work at a bigfour accounting firm in the future. During this master I attended an in-house day of every bigfour firm. With that being said, I experienced the in-house day at EY as the best one. As a result, I managed to be hired for a thesis internship at EY Eindhoven. I had a nice, pleasant and educational experience at this thesis internship. Afterwards, this formed a fair reason for me to start my career at EY. On the day of writing this article, November 20, 2019, EY Eindhoven is dealing with a 23-year-old starting accountant named Robin Hu. A day at EY is different for each colleague and mainly depends on the client you are working on. For example, you may have to go to a client with the team to carry out the control. Besides this, you can also work with the team at an EY location if it is not necessary to work at the client. This occurs, for example, when all required documents and information have been received from the client. For me, the day looks slightly different than for most accountants at EY. So far, I have only been working with one client, the largest client at EY Eindhoven. Due to the fact that it is a big client, this requires some time and it also explains why I have only had one client so far. It is important to mention that I requested this prior to my start at EY. I saw that this was possible and saw it as a challenge for myself, to start with the largest client. My team and I mainly work from the EY Eindhoven office. It is a large team and most colleagues are already quite experienced. Because of the fact that we are often together as a team, we have the opportunity to discuss a lot with each other and to support each other well. Although my work is fairly new to me, my more experienced colleagues help me a lot to carry out all my tasks. At the same time, I learn a lot about the field and about the client with the help of my supporting and supervising experienced colleagues. They believe that it is important for me to learn a lot and that I also develop myself. To EY, the development of its employees is extremely important. EY offers me many opportunities to develop myself as a person, for example the time EY offers us to study. Each person is also assigned a coach and a confidant. These people support me with the work-study-life balance and any problems that I experience both in business and in my private life. Moreover, informal and formal courses are given internally at EY to help you with your development, such as accounting courses and work-life balance courses. “I don’t really see working at EY as “working”, but more as an experience to develop myself as a person and an accountant, and to have fun and work hard together with my colleagues at the same time.” EY has a lot to offer, but what do I think of EY? It will probably sound very cliché, but in the end it’s all about the pleasant atmosphere ad culture within EY. The bigfour firms offer almost similar conditions, but the atmosphere and culture can be very different between these firms. The atmosphere and culture that I have been able to experience at EY (Eindhoven) is open, warm and informal. I am very happy with all the colleagues I have met so far. It is also often very pleasant and fun at EY, and everyone is willing to help each other. After all, we all work together. Furthermore, we also work very hard at EY and there is also space to do this. EY organizes periodic events where we get to know each other as colleagues in a different way. I have experienced these events very positively. Finally, I want to mention that you do not notice much of a hierarchy, which I also like. Whether you talk to a manager or a partner, you do not notice a certain dominant attitude. Finally, I want to give some advice to the students. -Start with or keep connecting with new people. This helps you a lot to ultimately find your optimum workplace. Moreover, it is always nice to meet new people and to share things. -Participate in events that are organized by both Asset and the accounting firms. Try to be as diverse as possible and to visit as many events as possible. Of course, this takes some time, so it is recommended to compile a top x list of offices that appeal to you the most. -If this article doesn’t provide enough information about my experiences at EY, don’t hesitate to contact me via LinkedIn! -Don’t rush through your studies! Enjoy your student time and think about taking a little longer on your studies because you will be working enough soon. This comes from someone who has completed his master in one year.
Working at EY
Who am I? My name is Diede Hoenderboom. 22 years ago I first saw the light in the Achterhoek, in Aalten to be exact. After getting my VWO diploma (Economics & Management) I moved to the oldest (fact) and most beautiful (opinion) city of the Netherlands: Nijmegen. There I graduated from the bachelor’s Business Economy at the Radboud University in three years, after which I started my master’s Accountancy in Tilburg last year. I am pleased to take you along my story with EY! EY Experience My very first contact with EY was in the beginning of 2017 during an In-house day at the office of Arnhem. This resulted in an informative afternoon and a great dinner. Half a year later I got called by a recruiter with the question whether I was interested in applying to partake in the Business Course. Four days with EY and 25 students from the whole of the Netherlands to a (back then) unknown location, that really interested to me! After an application round at the office in Amsterdam I got called with good news: I was selected to partake in the EY Experience. A month before we left the destination got announced: Paris! In a hotel with a view on Arc de Triomph and a fantastic group the days were over before I knew it. The days were well-filled with working cases at the office and many informal activities to get to know each other and EY better. A good example is the concluding partner dinner in Rotterdam, where twenty partners of all offices in the Netherlands came to answer our burning questions. What I can recall to great extent about these days is the nice and accessible atmosphere that surrounds EY. ”During my thesis internship I tagged along when visiting a large retail customer and a local government. These weeks gave me a good image of the work and duties of an Auditor and then I knew for sure: I want to be an Auditor at EY.” Thesis internship at EY During the Master Accountancy in Tilburg there is a lot of room for a thesis internship at an accountancy office. I wanted to use this opportunity, preferably at EY. When this option got offered to me, I took it with both hands and that’s how I started at EY Eindhoven at the start of this year. There is a great deal of advantages of writing a thesis at a company. We get an extra mentor from EY, we got offered the opportunity to go along towards customers and experience what working in audit is like, got to know more about EY and even got a generous monthly compensation. During my thesis internship I tagged along when visiting a large retail customer and a local government. These weeks gave me a good image of the work and duties of an Auditor and then I knew for sure: I want to be an Auditor at EY. Before I could realise this, I still had to graduate. Thankfully, also due to the good mentoring from EY, I managed to do this after completing my master thesis. I still had a few months left to enjoy my last summer as a student before my working life began. EY Induction My career could not have started better: A week with the starters of EY Netherlands and France to Greece during the EY Induction. This week was filled with trainings to train us for the first customers that would quickly follow. The evenings consisted of informal activities like a partner presentation, a Mr & Mrs EY election, EY’s Got Talent and different theme parties. An intense, but wonderful week. My first month Back in the Netherlands with a backpack of new knowledge I started as an auditor. I positively look back at the first month, where I met my first customers and teams. My customers for the coming year are very different, from large listed corporations to small care-institutions. The reason for this is to gain as much knowledge as possible and to see what is best suited for me. Because I started my Post Master Accountancy (PMA) at Tilburg University, I work from Monday until Thursday. Fridays are filled with working groups and colleagues at the university. This will continue until January when busy season begins: The busy season for auditors, when studying is put on hold for a while. Support from EY Just as with my thesis internship, as fresh new employees we get a lot of support from EY during our career. Everybody is divided across Development & Learning Teams (DLT): five people from your year and a senior that gets together four times a year to discuss experiences and challenges in an informal matter. Besides that, everybody gets assigned a counselor. With this counselor a study-plan is devised and discussed to help your career at EY. My advice Just like you probably noticed, I’m extremely happy with my choice to work for EY. During my orientation period I have been in contact with different Big4 offices. From my surroundings I often got the advice to pick ‘something that feels good’. Back then that was a tough choice. When is your feeling good enough? Now that I’m looking back at the past time, I can surely say that I chose based on feeling. In essence the jobs at different Big4 offices are very similar, which is why the company culture and its employees became more important in my choice. Within EY I appreciate the accessible culture that prevails amongst employees. My advice to students that still have to make a choice: Choose what feels best for you! How can you find out? By visiting different companies and their employees during in-house days, business courses and/or (thesis) internships.
Working at EY
Where do you come from and what did you study? My name is Bram van Corven and I was born 22 years ago in Tilburg, where I have also been raised. Do you remember those booklets which you had as a child and in which all of your friends wrote that they wanted to become a professional soccer player, an astronaut or a professional ballet dancer? Quite quickly I started to fill out that I wanted to become a CFO. In the fifth year of my secondary education I had the opportunity to do an accounting course at university to find out if I liked it, sooner than most other students had this opportunity. Without mentioning all the details; I chose Accounting 1: Financial Accounting. Judged by the enthusiasm Bob van den Brand brought to his lectures, I could hardly choose something else right? Notwithstanding, I did visit the open day to see if I would rather start in a law program. Accounting 1 had brought me some doubt as its course material could be quite dry at times; I missed some applications in all the theory from the lectures. In the end I discovered that law was even drier than accounting and I decided to start in the Bachelor of Business Economics. After a minor in Accounting and getting in contact with the Big-4 (and some smaller firms), I concluded that accounting is far less dull than I expected. Next to verifying the numbers, we also audit the internal control procedures of companies. In order to do this we spend a lot of time interviewing our clients and outlining a firm’s business processes. Why did you choose for EY and how did you get in touch with EY? When I finished the minor in accounting I decided that this field was sufficiently interesting to continue in it. I started to orientate myself towards the kind of office I wanted to work for: Big-4, Middle Market (BDO, Baker Tilly Berk, etc…) or small. As I participated in the Accounting and Controlling Expedition organized by Asset | Accounting & Finance I realized that the Big-4 was speaking to my mind. This was mainly caused by the professionality Big-4-offices carried out. In my leisure time I like to play soccer, so the parallel I like to make is: if I were to choose a soccer club which I need to play for, I’d rather play soccer at the absolute top. As a citizen of Tilburg I enjoy Willem II performing well, however, when I need to choose between playing soccer for Willem II or a club like Real Madrid or Barcelona (or change this to any random other European top-class club), my choice is quickly made. When this choice was made, four firms were still left: PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY. By participating in a variety of formal and informal activities like the Inhousedays and the Accountancy Orientation Day in the Economic Business weeks Tilburg (EBT), I found out that the combination of the informal work environment and the goal-oriented approach of EY fits best to my personality. After this conclusion I decided to do a traineeship at EY for three days by joining. When I also liked that a lot, I decided to apply for an internship with the opportunity of writing my thesis at EY. The latter is very much recommended. It more or less forces you to work on your thesis, and if you get stuck you can brainstorm with the other interns who are working on their thesis. Eventually in May I got offered to start working at EY in September of this year. However, not as an intern, but in the position of first-year staff audit. When you’re at work, what do you do and what does a normal day look like? To give an example of one typical day as an accountant is really hard. Clearly there are patterns, but the contact with clients, seniors and managers, ensures that no day is the same. In addition I should mention that an audit has two phases: the preliminary audit and the year-end audit. In the preliminary audit, as described above, you review the internal control procedures a company has implemented to make sure that information that will end up in the balance sheet is validly, accurately and completely captured. You normally do this by interviewing one or multiple employees, and consequently conducting a walk-through procedure. To give an example: in the human resource process you take a look from the beginning (start of employment) until the end (termination of employment) and everything in between (e.g. salary raises). To demonstrate that the process functions well, you can review the contract of the new employee, his first paycheck and the bank statement that shows that salary has actually been paid. What people often think is that accountants are calculating some numbers all day long, however the opposite is closer to the truth. In the year-end audit, when we audit the realized numbers, here and there we need to calculate a bit, but to give an idea; I am hardly spending 5% of my time calculating stuff. Needless to say in the year-end audit you do spend a lot of time inspecting numbers. If you have to verify the working capital, you might look at bank statements to equate the ending balance of December 31st with the opening balance of January 1st. Due to the strict deadlines by our customers, in this period it is not irregular to have days on which you work long hours. As a future accountant, therefore, one should definitely not develop a nine-to-five mentality. On the other hand it is important to free up some time for your hobbies. Myself, I like to play soccer a lot. When I want to go to practice on Monday evening I discuss this with my senior and most of the times I can leave a little earlier. Obviously, I try to help the team at EY by