Personal Advancement
The Apprentices |
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Toronto Sun |
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Loyalty and Flexibility Rewarded
Accountants cannot climb to higher rungs on the ladder until they demonstrate their commitment to the job. SNC-Lavalin, an engineering/construction firm with projects all over the world, hires about a dozen financial analysts each year. They all begin in the 90-person corporate finance division and are expected to complete their designations before moving elsewhere. “They have to give us two or three years, but eventually they are rewarded if they stay,” says André Allaire, CMA. He recruits proven juniors to positions that pay time-and-a-half for all overtime, a benefit that few other firms equal.Rising employees move to sector-specific business units, such as aluminum, transport, health or infrastructure, or to specific projects, such as the Brun-Way Trans-Canada Highway, the Alto Chicama gold mine in the Peruvian Andes, the Vankor Oil Field in eastern Siberia, or the Voisey’s Bay nickel–copper–cobalt project in Labrador.
Juniors who are mobile can move up even faster than their credentials might normally allow, says Allaire, citing one who was posted to Algeria. The New York post that the employee vacated was filled in March 2006 by Philippe Habib, a CMA candidate with an accounting degree from Concordia.
Habib appreciates the knowledge he acquired during his first three years at the corporate head office in Montreal. “You get to first and foremost learn at a macro level about the company and the products they have to offer,” he says. “You get to see practically every project in general detail. You can explain why things are going bad or why things are going better than expected. You get to do some pretty creative reports and inform your senior managers about why the company is doing well.”
Among the reports he wrote, Habib remembers one on whether SNC-Lavalin should acquire a certain company. “All the more senior accountants weren’t available and it was small, so they asked me to do an analysis about what it would be worth,” he says. “We have some templates, and they give you some direction about what route to take. I also had help from some of the senior accountants.” The firm went ahead with the acquisition, and Habib got to be in the room for the initial offer.
Habib’s success at handling this project, along with other such proofs of his initiative, led to his obtaining the New York promotion.
Diverse Mandates
Anne-Marie Laforest has had the opposite experience. She travelled extensively as a junior and intermediate, but her recent promotion to manager means staying put.— Anne-Marie Laforest
The auditor with Demers Beaulne S.E.N.C.R.L. joined her company in May 2000, after majoring in accounting for her business administration degree at Montreal’s École des hautes études commerciales (HEC Montréal). She achieved her CGA in August 2004, and began teaching a part-time course at HEC a month later.
As a junior and then an intermediate auditor, Laforest saw the same clients annually over three years, so she got to know their businesses. However, because they were spread out, she travelled to at least three different companies each month, making for a very diverse work schedule. “A junior’s job is never routine,” she says. “I went from one client to another, so I saw different companies, different people and different situations. That’s what I found very interesting.”
She cautions: “People who like being in the same place all the time wouldn’t like it. It’s hard to create friendships at work. The teams always change and you rarely see the same person again. I might travel with one colleague for two weeks on a project, but then I won’t see her again for months.”
As an audit specialist, Laforest is now looking forward to working more closely with her colleagues in other departments. “Not only will I have the chance to continue perfecting my own specialty, but I’ll be able to learn from those specializing in other areas, such as taxes, research and development, or finance.”
Did You Know?
To stay abreast of hiring practices, staffing firm Robert Half International (RFI) regularly surveys more than 270 chief financial officers at Canadian companies. In May 2005, RFI asked the CFOs which areas of specialization they would recommend to graduates who are just beginning their accounting career.
The replies broke down as follows:
• General accounting, 38%
• Cost accounting, 19%
• Tax accounting, 16%
• Internal auditing, 14%
• Credit and collections, 13%
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