Thijs Kerstens | Staff Audit & Consultant Climate Change and Sustainability Services

Thijs Kerstens has been working at EY as Staff since September 2023, having previously completed an internship at the Audit department in Eindhoven. At EY, we offer you a flexible career with many opportunities for advancement. This provides the opportunity to seize new opportunities. Thijs has arranged his personal development through a dual package with both Audit and also Sustainability.

Who are you and how did you end up at EY?

I’m Thijs Kerstens, 24 years old and born in Rucphen, a village between Roosendaal and Breda. After high school in Roosendaal, I started studying Business Economics in Tilburg in 2018. After this, I did a master’s degree in Accountancy and a master’s degree in Strategic Management, still at Tilburg University, which I enjoyed. During my studies, I was active in Asset A&F and attended many accountancy events this way, where I ended up being most enthusiastic about EY. Then, in 2022, I did an internship in the Audit department of EY in Eindhoven.

Why did you choose to do an internship during your studies?

During my studies at university, mainly during the Bachelor of Business Economics, I noticed that in my opinion we did not get much of what possible work would look like later in practice. This was the main reason why I wanted to learn more about what work was like in practice during my Masters in Accountancy. During my time as an active member at Asset A&F, I attended several formal (and also many informal, but that is another story) accountancy activities and here I had several positive experiences with EY. So from these experiences, I can recommend all students to attend activities of study associations and if possible to organize similar activities yourself. I am convinced that you can gain a lot from these kinds of experiences later on, but I would especially like to mention that I experienced these as very nice extracurricular activities. Finally, because of the positive experiences, I decided to do an internship at EY, where I was able to combine writing my thesis with shadowing and working in the field.

What motivated you to apply to EY next?

Ultimately it was mainly because I liked the internship I had done, I liked the people I was able to work with at the time and I also liked the work. Eventually, after finishing my master accountancy, I still doubted whether I was ready to start working, especially since there had been the Corona period in between and I wanted to do something else before starting my full ”working” life. At the time I discussed this with several fellow interns, with the recruiter from EY and with friends, after which I eventually chose to start a second master’s degree in Strategic Management. Here I came into contact with several consulting companies, which was mainly due to the track (Consultancy) I had chosen. However, I always compared the companies with my internship at EY in Eindhoven and, this combined with the contact I had always kept with several interns and colleagues within EY, made me want to come back here at the end of this master. After an extended period of contact with Lisanne van Ree (the predecessor of Madelief Berendsen, campus recruiter of EY Eindhoven/Limburg) I was eager to return to the place that had pleased me very well during the internship.

You chose a dual package with both Audit and CCASS. Why did you choose this?

I noticed during my internship in the Audit department that I enjoyed the work, but also that I wanted to see more things. So this was one of the reasons I chose my second master’s at the time. Eventually, during my studies, I found out that there was a lot of legislation related to sustainability coming up (think of the European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, CSRD), which I was very interested in. So I ended up writing my master accountancy thesis, for which I did a thesis internship at EY on this topic.
During my internship I also got in touch with several colleagues who worked in the sustainability department, which I found very interesting and after which I noticed that I became interested in both audit and sustainability. This eventually made me want to combine them.
At the same time, during my internship I also found out that I wanted to use my background in accountancy, and would like to develop further to become a chartered accountant, which is why I am still following the postmaster at Tilburg University. EY was open to this and that made it possible for me and allowed me to pursue this combination.

“My interest in sustainability and the legislation surrounding it, combined with the diversity and challenges in accountancy, led to the unique opportunity to combine these two fields”

What does a workday look like for you at EY and what are the aspects of your job that you enjoy the most?

This is a fun question for me, but very difficult to answer. My first six months are now behind me (I started on September 1, 2023) and I don’t think any week has been the same for me, let alone an average workday.
Generally, I have college on Fridays for the postmaster, but this has been on hold for the past 3 months (from January through March you are free from the postmaster because during this period many companies prepare financial statements and therefore there is a lot of work for accountants), so I’ve been able to focus a lot on work for the past few months. I enjoyed being able to focus on work the past few months, but I am also looking forward to the start of the postmaster again, which means that as of April 5 I can be found on the Tilburg University Campus on Fridays. Furthermore, I like that at EY the days are different and you can learn many different things from many different clients. Ultimately that makes me enjoy the work and I can look back on a positive first six months.

What career ambitions do you have for the future at EY?

I can’t say what my future ambitions are yet, but I do notice that at the moment I still have a lot to do and learn. This is both in sustainability reporting and also in auditing. When I talk to friends I have met at Asset Accounting & Finance, I notice that many of them have a similar experience. At the same time, this combination, especially also combined with the postmaster Accountancy in Tilburg, means that I am still mainly focusing on what I can learn during these upcoming years, and have not yet set any clear long-term ambitions.

Could you talk about your experiences as an Asset A&F member during your time as a student and how these experiences have supported you in your current role at EY?

In my experience, being an active member of Asset A&F is a very nice and accessible way to connect with multiple firms, practitioners, and possible future colleagues. You learn skills in a very accessible way that you don’t easily get during college, thinking mainly of things you learn in practice. From my own experience, these are mainly tasks such as communicating with multiple stakeholders, drafting emails, dividing work and making sure you keep track of what still needs to be done.
Here I focus on the formal committees I did for Asset A&F, where we organized an accounting symposium for about 140 people. However, a big part of being active in a study association, in my opinion, is also the informal activities. I also cooked for several committees within the A&F Cooking Club, and organized a party weekend with members and former members in Leuven, and I am convinced that organizing and facilitating these kinds of events and activities also helps students further develop certain skills.

Do you have any other tips or advice for students?

I can advise every student, besides obviously enjoying a wonderful student time, to orient as much as possible to a future employer. From my history at Asset Accounting & Finance, I can highly recommend the formal accounting events (such as Accounting Insight, the Accounting Expedition and the Audit Activity). Furthermore, without wanting to repeat myself, I think there is added value in experiencing and, if possible, organizing things in addition to your studies.

I think it is good for all accountancy students to get to know different accountancy firms and find out if you feel a possible click with a firm and if this is the case explore in which areas you feel a click. Ultimately, I can recommend to every student to do an internship in order to get in touch with possible future colleagues at an earlier stage and to see if there is a mutual click. In any case, it worked out very well for me.

In conclusion, I can only wish all students the best of luck with these difficult choices. In case of personal or other questions, you can always send me a message at 06-37353314 or via LinkedIn (Thijs Kerstens).