C&L and ACCA

I started working right after my STPM. My parents believed that we should be independent at the age of 20.

I went for a few interviews and finally, I received offers to work with Public Bank and Coopers and Lybrand (now known as PricewaterhouseCoopers). Public Bank offered me a cashier position with salary of RM420 per month, whereas, C&L offered me an Accounts Assistant position with salary of RM350 per month.

I was considering both options. I had a long chat with Siew Quen, who recommended me the C&L job. As my ambition was to be an accountant, we both felt that C&L should be able to provide me with all the relevant training and experiences. In addition, C&L also subsidised my ACCA course fee. Of course, the working hours with C&L will be long too.

At the end of the day, I decided to take up the position with C&L. My parents were surprise with the decision as they thought, I would choose the job that offer me the most pay. I rationalise my reasoning with them and I was glad that my dad supported me fully. My mom could not understand the reason truly as to her and economy then, working in a bank was a glamour job (not now for sure after so many banks collapse in US).

10 April 1989 was a BIG day for me. It was my first day at work and also my first day of studying accountancy professional course on part time basis at Systematic Business Training Centre in Jalan Sultan.

Initially, I signed up for CIMA course. Then, I found out most of colleagues in C&L studied ACCA. I had a long chat with a senior staff, Alex Chan. Alex explained to me the different between ACCA and CIMA. One statement that he said "CIMA is more towards manufacturing ... ", straight away I changed my mind and decided to switch to ACCA. I did not like to work in a factory. I like to work in a nice office :)

Then, there was another senior who told me "You want to study ACCA on part time basis? ACCA is very difficult, you know. A lot of people struggled ACCA on full time basis and you want to do it on part time?". Then, I asked a very naive and good question "Is it impossible to study ACCA on part time basis?". The senior said "No, but ...". If the answer is No, means its possible. Since its possible and I didn't like to work in a factory, I was going to study ACCA on part time basis.

Those were the decision making process on auditing life and ACCA and I was two steps closer to my Accountant profession.