Firm plans to hire 100 graduates and support them all the way

With entry-level openings in all of its service lines, accounting and consulting organisation BDO will be busy recruiting this year, with plans to add more than 100 fresh graduates in addition to filling a number of more senior positions.

New hires will join more than 1,000 existing staff members as associates in assurance, risk and specialist advisory, tax, and business services.

According to Angela Wong, human resources director at BDO Hong Kong, one of the company’s main attractions is the support it offers to fresh graduates and the training that ensures their personal and professional development.

“Our caring and supportive culture is one of our core values that we highly treasure,” she says. “All directors and staff strive to create and foster a supportive, family-friendly and motivating environment for our employees. At BDO, no one is merely a grain of sand in the desert.”

A supportive environment and good teamwork are viewed as necessary conditions for achieving another of the company’s core values: superior service quality. Employees are encouraged to cooperate by sharing, consulting and respecting others, while supporting the company with excellent service quality and strong relationships with clients.

Integrity, while exhibiting prudent judgement, is also an important quality that BDO looks for in new recruits, and includes being open, straightforward and trustworthy.

“Our common goal is to be a leader through exceptional client service, with a focus on communication, commitment, people, value and clients’ needs,” Wong says. “Therefore, in addition to technical knowledge and soft skills, we are looking for staff who can share our values and who are uncompromisingly committed to integrity and professional excellence. At the same time, they should highly value teamwork and maintain trust and respect towards others. All BDO staff are expected to act as one firm.”

Associates in the assurance department perform audit and review engagements, while special advisory services covers corporate restructuring and business turnaround, insolvency administration, receivership, investigation and forensic accounting. Tax consulting provides clients with tax planning and advisory services.

Applicants joining these departments should have good organisational and analytical skills, energy, ambition, and passion. Fluent written and spoken English and Chinese are basic requirements, with skills in any other languages an advantage.

Staff are expected to be keen on developing their work and personal skills to keep up with an ever-changing global business world, including their communication skills, business acumen, international perspective and professional knowledge.

BDO offers systematic and well-organised training at all levels, starting with an induction and audit-skill enhancement course for new hires. After a one-day familiarisation session on the work environment and procedures, new graduates are offered training on technical and soft skills. They are also assigned a mentor who will help them with on-the-job coaching and experience-sharing.

Non-core programmes are available to meet staff needs at various stages, including update courses in accounting and auditing skills, and management and personal-development workshops.

Participation in international seminars and conferences helps employees to keep up with the latest developments at management level.

“Through our international secondment and internal secondment programmes, staff can widen their exposure and enrich their professional experience within the BDO network,” Wong says. BDO is part of BDO International, which has more than 1,200 member firms in over 110 countries and offers many opportunities for international secondments.

The firm also runs an internship programme, which gives university students an excellent chance to gain work experience and understand BDO’s company culture before they commit to a job.

“We start communication and engagement with candidates from the beginning of their university life. Each year, we organise a four-month internship programme with one week of structured audit training for undergraduates,” Wong says.

The BDO undergraduate club “Shiner” is open to all interns. Through the club they can participate in a range of training opportunities such as job-shadowing, workshops and professional examination training. BDO also offers scholarships through its “Best Intern” contest.