Accounting profession through the eyes of a recruiter

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byFred Lucas

CAREER UPDATE asked Fred Lucas to refl ect on his decades of experience in recruiting Accounting students.

The accounting profession off ers thousands of young people rewarding careers. Not only is it one of the highest paid professions, it gives many young people the opportunity to apply their skills in diff erent industries. In South Africa, qualifying as a Chartered Accountant CA(SA), enables individuals to be exposed and granted the opportunity of a rewarding career, travelling opportunities and working in diverse sectors. Needless to say, it takes hard work and dedication for at least seven years to qualify as a CA in South Africa.

I have been involved with this profession since 1994 and have seen thousands of young people qualify as Chartered Accountants. Beside the many structural changes within the profession, there have been multiple changes from a recruitment perspective. When I started my career in recruiting trainee accountants, it was a straightforward mandate for me as the Recruitment Coordinator to hire 20 accounting students to fi ll trainee accountant positions. Back then, with our South African democracy still in its infant stage, race and

gender were not criteria. Given our social and educational disparities, the candidates were mostly White given their family social capital. The decision makers were content with the status quo. In the early nineties, the focus of recruitment was on the historically advantaged universities with limited recruitment activities at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). With the introduction of legislative reforms such as the Employment Equity Act, No. 55 of 1998, accounting fi rms had to change their recruitment focus and strategies. At that time, legislation necessitated that 40% of the new intake had to be persons of colour. Many fi rms struggled to meet those targets and thus had to opt for recruiting from historically disadvantaged universities as well. Today, UWC is one of the top universities supplying the accounting fi rms, banks, fi nancial service companies, government entities and other sectors with accounting graduates.

Over the past decades, the expectation of these accounting fi rms has radically changed. Initially, candidates were expected to be academically brilliant. In recent years, recruiters looked for competencies such as excellent academic consistency, ‘allroundedness’, connectedness to causes and communities, whether an individual can work independently and in a team, and manage their personal time. Companyspecifi c and value-based characteristics are also expected from candidates. In order to standardise these outcomes, SAICA developed a competency framework that was infused across all subjects and study levels of the accounting curriculum. Here is a breakdown of the required competencies and skills you are required to develop during your studies.

Ethical behaviour and professionalism

Protecting public interests, acting with honesty and integrity, exercising due care, being objective and independent, avoiding confl ict of interest, protecting the confi dentiality of information, enhancing the profession’s reputation and adhering to professional conduct.

Personal attributes

Demonstrating self-management and leadership, taking initiative and showing competence, adding value in an innovative manner, managing change, treating others in a professional manner, understanding the national and international environment, being a lifelong learner, being a team member and demonstrating time management.

Professional skills

Critical thinking, problem solving, eff ective communication, supervising and managing, understanding the impact of information technology and considering basic legal concepts.

Considering all things, the accounting profession has undergone major structural, legal and human resource changes over the past 25 years. Despite more candidates of colour qualifying as CA’s especially via the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) Thuthuka Programme launched in 2002, much needs to be done to facilitate the entry of African and Coloured graduates into the profession - it should be regarded as work in progress. CU