Being a charter accountant is a life-long journey . It's not just a day job that you'll have . Being a charter accountant is way more than that . I'm Jeremy . I'm 32 this year . I'm a manager from Pressworth House Groupers , singapore . Oh yeah , so I'm a charter accountant of Singapore . I did major in engineering .
Interestingly , I did not major in accountancy , I did major in engineering . The charter accountant of Singapore . They do allow non-accounting graduates to take on this qualification paper which got me there . Why I decided to be a charter accountant is because to me , accounting I'm always interested in the business world .
Finance Accounting to me is the language of the finance industry . It allows me to understand the business world better through accounting and being a charter accountant allows me to get insights , more in-depth information on my profession . I have no idea what I wanted to do when I was young . In Singapore we go through our education system .
As I went to university , I took on engineering . My wife majored in accountancy , so she was a major influence in me picking up accountancy as a career . Yeah , so that's really a very condensed journey of mine . It definitely goes beyond the numbers . In my profession as an external auditor I see as a business of managing people . Communication is key .
You get to look at the soft skills that you've developed throughout your career . Definitely , numbers is part of your day .
You see numbers during your job , but aside from that , another big component is managing your soft skills , developing yourself , how you manage your stakeholders , be it your bosses , be it your clients , be it the audit committee in my career yeah , so that also played a big part in my role as a charter accountant .
And that is , and more importantly , as a charter accountant , aside from dealing with numbers , building trust is a very important thing . So trust we're in the business of trust how we develop that trust among our stakeholders that is also a big component in how a charter accountant operates . It really depends on how you define Difference Maker .
To me , a difference maker is simply providing a meaningful social impact to your community , to your company . It's up to your own definition . For me , as a difference maker , it's about instilling trust . At PWC , in my company , we focus a lot on building trust with our stakeholders , with our own teammates , as a family .
For me to be a difference maker , I'll have to uphold this ethics of the , uphold what we really believe in and that's ready to build trust among the people that we're working with our stakeholders . Accountancy is the forefront of all the changes that we are looking at in the world today . We look at the buzzwords like AI , artificial intelligence .
We look at sustainability , for example . These are the two key buzzwords that we have that we are reading on newspaper these days . Accountancy is the forefront . Why I say that is because accountancy is a profession where we can monitor the businesses how they manage their sustainability through frameworks that we have developed .
So , for example , the latest ISSB reporting framework for carbon emission , for sustainability . That's how we can monitor the carbon emission of these companies . What's the sustainability progress ? And that , to me , is really providing a social impact to the world . So it's not just numbers , it's more than that .
Being a charter accountant , or rather a career accountant , see , is a life long journey . You get to learn everything accounting . The frameworks are always changing , it's up to date , it's up to speed . You get to learn through your entire life . It's not just a day job that you will have . Being a charter accountant is way more than that .
It exposes you to all the changes technology changes , climate changes , whatever it is , we are always at the peak of it , and that itself serves as a very strong motivation for anybody who seeks a career accountancy and being a charter accountant . Well , I'm a lifer at my firm .
I'm in the external audit line for going eight years , so I have not changed my career since . So I'm not really in a good position to say that . But of course I have peers and I have colleagues who have ventured out and they are in all sorts of different careers , not just in accountancy . They are in corporate finance , consulting , real estate , even marketing .
I mean accountants are everywhere and it opens doors to all sorts of career that you cannot even imagine . So , yeah , being a charter accountant allows you to get that benefit you mentioned . Purpose , purpose varies in everybody's mind . I believe in making a social impact . Being a charter accountant allows me to do that .
I get to communicate with my stakeholders , building trust with them , working them through the numbers , working through with them the sustainability standards , and that itself gave me a purpose that we are important . They need us to drive what the agenda that we are looking at today . Of course we know that the perception .
I think changing the perception of accountancy that it's a challenge and we will need people to stand up and speak up on the perception of being a charter accountant . I think it's not just numbers , it's way more than that . And how can we get people to understand what we are doing ?
I think that itself is something that we definitely need to stand up for , and I strongly believe that our message will be heard . Find your purpose in life . Start early , think about it . What impact do you want to leave in a society ? I think that's very important .