This post has been edited by andrienne: Jun 9 2012, 11:50 AM

this is the unfortunate truth...

In oversea (especially western countries), auditing is purely audit work.
In Malaysia, auditing is audit + everything else. Just see how we treat our maid you will get a rough idea.

Feel so disappointed that i called PwC and was told that my job application was put under KIV status.....is there any chance that a KIV application being called for an assessment and interview

care to share what position u applied for and when u called?

applied for tax associate position, was called by PwC recruit ppl on last month and they told me that they will review my application. Yesterday i called them and asked for the status then i was told that my application had been put under KIV status....

This post has been edited by xDingx: Jan 18 2011, 09:41 AM

fresh grad?

why not try audit then? maybe chances are higher?

by the way at least they call to tell you that ur application is being reviewed. haha.

This post has been edited by lilster: Jan 18 2011, 09:54 AM

6 months working as audit.....m i considered as fresh grad? not really like wat audit do.... ya, they called me on december said will review my application and then put my application in KIV status in Jan 2011, sad.....hope will receive good news from PwC in future...

goodluck bro, i am waiting for reply from them for audit associate position hehe

audit also can be wrong right? they don't know the detail right?

In Malaysia, yes. Because there are not many companies that will hire someone just for tax advisory. If they do hire an in-house tax advisor, it will probably include compliance work as well. Even then, only very large companies will pay for this role.

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Added on January 18, 2011, 2:04 pmAudit is not about being right. It's about verifying whether accounts are "true and fair" within acceptable range of error.

This post has been edited by CKJMark: Jan 18 2011, 02:04 PM

so if that is the case, what other field that tax advisory can venture into?..

Tax advisory is very specialised. Your career options are quite limited not by the work, but by the number of companies who can afford to hire you.

Who needs a tax advisor in-house when you don't face tax problems on a daily / regular basis? That's what the tax firms are there for, to provide ad-hoc tax services. To need a in-house tax advisory, your employer will probably have to be a big group of companies or a company with businesses in many different juridictions.

However, despite the limited number of employers there is still a demand for this role, just not as wide as a finance manager or run-of-the-mill accountant. Also bear in mind, in commercial, tax advisors often have to do compliance work, service tax, GST and deferred tax, not purely tax advisory.

And if you happen to like pure advisory work, you would probably prefer to stay in the professional field

Thank you for the advice, I find it helpful as I'm going to start in tax soon Hopefully there will be enough job opportunities in the future should I choose to leave the professional field.

If you find you like tax, make sure you keep an open mind to the type of assignments you take. Most tax staff start out in compliance, and that is important to build your foundation.

Try to get involved in work on transfer pricing, GST and incentive applications. Those will help build your experience base further and improve your skill set beyond pure compliance work.

Also, having specialised industry knowledge can be a huge benefit when looking for jobs outside the firm (i.e. insurance, banking, petroleum tax, aviation, intellectual property companies, agriculture, property development, etc).

Interesting. But of all the 'specialised industries' which do you recmmend to pursue?

I'm starting out in the Services industry under Tax Compliance... I think if I want to learn TP and GST got to change division after a few years.. wah like that can take a long time to learn everything T_T

learning process never end.i have been working in taxation firm for 8 years
i still learning to dealt with tax audit and investigation matters.but enter into taxation line quite hard to find a jobs in commercial line as we are too specialised too bad.commercial firm prefer audit staff.

I think Banking / Insurance / Financials institutions are very good to specialise in because tax people in these industries are in high demand locally and regionally. The variety of products offered and being created results in a constant need for tax input on the impact of the products and solutions to clients and the service provider (i.e. special structured loans, embedded derivitives, SPV structures, investment advice, etc). Products and offering become more and more complicated these days, and being conversant in tax rules for banking issues is an advantage. Right now there is a shortage of tax people in these fields.

Also banking groups tend to have many subsidiaries that have a diverse business portfolio (property management, asset management, unit trust, insurance, etc) and can afford to hire in-house tax professionals and justify their presence. Not to mention banks have very nice benefits like lower loan rates, more annual leave, good medical coverage for you and your immediate family, etc.


@ Morgana_jaya:-

You don't have to be in the TP division or GST division to learn these things. I'm assuming when you work for the firm, you have a fixed portfolio of clients. You can see clients that have TP issues (inter-co charges) and when there is work for that, ask to get involved because its your client. Same with GST. If there is GST project for your clients, offer to get involved because it is your client, you will be the one who has to deal with them after the project anyway. I'm sure the TP / GST managers would be happy to have staff do their work for them.

Of course, that also depends on how your firm works. The firm I came from let me get involve with non-compliance projects so I learn a lot from that. I am not an expert in those topics, but at least I know the basics to be able to identify the problems and understand what advisors are telling me now. That is all you need in commercial. You are not expected to fix the problem yourself.

Thank you so much for your reply CKJMark. It's vey useful for me to know that even though it's a very specialized work there's still demand for it Didn't know banking field wants such specialized employee as I don't see them with openings of such. But I do know they are hiring very aggressively for mgmt trainees (on class and not for sales type la...) as I've been offered a few on that. But the bonding period sorts of made me think twice.