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KPMG Australia

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3.9
  • #3 in Accounting & advisory
  • > 100,000 employees

Rui Yi Woo

The firm invests a lot in the development of its people, so as long as you are willing to learn, KPMG will help you get to where you want to be.

What's your job about?

I’m in the Global Transfer Pricing Services team in the Sydney office. Our work can be categorised into advisory and compliance services. An example of the former would be strategizing and implementing international transfer pricing policies for our clients, whereas the latter most commonly involves documentation of clients’ existing intercompany arrangements.

I’ve been fortunate to have been involved in a wide variety of engagements despite only having been in the firm for four months. My specific tasks include drafting engagement letters, finding companies similar to the client so as to benchmark a client’s level of profitability, compiling the financial analyses of those companies, searching for legal cases to support a client’s arrangement which the ATO is disputing, and writing memorandums of advice. It’s pretty interesting stuff, and I continue to learn something new every day.

What's your background?

I grew up in Singapore, having lived there till I was 14. My family then moved to China for two years, before I went to Melbourne where I finished high school, then I came to Sydney for uni. During uni, I went on exchange to Boston for a semester. I’ve led quite an international life so far and have forged lots of wonderful friendships and amazing memories along the way. One great thing about KPMG is that there will be lots of chances to keep doing so through secondment opportunities. In our Sydney team of 30 or so members, there are people who’ve worked in the KPMG offices of Germany, the US, China, the UK and Singapore.

I was a vacationer in this same division over the 2014/15 summer, and got offered a 2016 graduate position two weeks after it ended. I had had a great experience as a vaccie, so was thrilled to learn of my graduate offer.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Absolutely. I had very minimal knowledge and understanding of transfer pricing before I started, but everyone here is really supportive, and helped me get up to speed relatively quickly. In our second week at work, all the tax grads nationwide were whisked away to Terrigal for five days for an induction program, during which we built our technical tax knowledge and general business skills. The firm invests a lot in the development of its people, so as long as you are willing to learn, KPMG will help you get to where you want to be.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

The people. The people here are so diverse and at the same time, welcoming. I sometimes have conversations in the lift or hallway with people I’ve never met.

What are the limitations of your job?

You get some real responsibility from the very start, sometimes being thrown into the deep end. You might have to struggle for a bit, but the team will always ensure that there is a lifebuoy should you need it. Of course, you’ll emerge a much stronger and more skilled person.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

  1. Seize as many opportunities and get involved with as much as you can, whether these be extra-curricular activities, job experience, uni subjects or life in general. This is so especially if you don’t know what you want to do after uni. You never know where something can lead you.
  2. Have a balanced lifestyle. Clichéd but true.
  3. It can be a difficult time when applying for internships and jobs. Even if you’ve received a hundred “No”s, keep trying. Keep in mind that all you really need is one “Yes”.