Last year’s HKICPA Career Forum led to a memorable six-week summer internship at EY for Cindy Leung Nga-lam, a third-year accounting student at Baptist University.

“I handed my CV to an EY representative at the career forum and I was immediately interviewed. After the forum, I took an online aptitude test and then I was interviewed one last time by an HR staff member. Later, I was informed that I had been accepted into the internship,” Leung says. 

Leung was part of a batch of about 30 interns at EY that summer. She was assigned to a team of four full-time auditors in the assurance department. Her main responsibility was to review financial statements and audit files, and analyse data. 

At first, Leung didn’t expect to be of much use to her teammates. “I didn’t think I could do much because I knew very little about auditing. It turned out that I could still contribute in getting the job done and helping my teammates – and they really appreciated it.” 

Leung says searching for relevant data from a big pile of account files was the most difficult part of her intern8ship, while the most enjoyable was the camaraderie she developed with her teammates. “They were really nice. They were always willing to teach me, and they were just like my friends while we were working together,” she says.

Leung’s first, but brief, taste of the real business world gave her an insight into the challenging life of an auditor. “I learned the kind of work I’d have to perform and the career path I could take if I were to choose to become an auditor.”

She advises future interns to always ask how they can help their teammates. “If you’re always waiting for your teammates to teach you things, then your opportunities for learning will be fewer. You can’t learn much if you’re passive and just waiting for teammates to assign you jobs. 

“Be proactive and always ask what you can do to contribute to the team."