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According to a survey conducted by Hudson Global Resources last year, three of the Big Four made it into the top five most desirable companies to work for in a survey of young people. Three Big Four audit and accounting firmsare most desirable companies to work for graduates.

The Kyiv office of Ernst & Young, an international audit and consulting company, is filled with lots of young employees with their eyes fixed on their monitors. They seem annoyed by distractions from their work.

The emotion is understandable. Yesterday’s students worked hard to get one of these coveted spots. And now they are working hard to stay there, racking up overtime and working on weekends.

The work and studying never seem to end, with some preparing for their next Association of Chartered Certified Accountants exam. And all this for an average of Hr 6,000 a month!

But the long-term career prospects are promising. Major international accounting and audit firms – commonly referred to as the Big Four – hire people without experience and train them on job.

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Hunt for students

According to a survey conducted by Hudson Global Resources last year, three of the Big Four made it into the top five most desirable companies to work for in a survey of young people. Overall, more than 11 percent of students and recent graduates majoring in different fields would choose one of three Big Four firms – PwC, Ernst & Young and Deloitte – as their first employer. Only KPMG didn’t make the cut.

Boris Krasnyansky, managing partner at the Ukraine offices of PwC, has been working for the firm since 1993. Working with young graduates keeps him excited about his work. “Every year we hire from 40 to 80 graduates,” Krasnyansky said. “They pump fresh blood into the firm, and keep the business from going rusty.”

Audit firms advertise their career opportunities at employment fairs and recruitment websites. Ernst & Young also started using the popular vkontakte.ru social network. Just two months ago, the firm opened a page dedicated to career opportunities and already attracted 410 members.



But most of the efforts are concentrated on direct contact with students studying economics, accounting and finance at Kyiv National Economical University, Kyiv Mohyla Academy and a couple of other national universities.

The Big Four keep an eye on students from other cities as well. “The company’s office in Donetsk works with local students. And where we do not have offices – for example, Lviv – we have ambassadors from the student organization AIESEC who promote us,” said Maryna Zakharina, head of human resources at Ernst & Young.

Big Four companies now have to compete intensely with other international firms. “Lots of companies come and tell people how awesome they are,” Zakharina said. “But now it is not enough for students. They want essence and professional knowledge.”

So the Big Four gives lectures on audit, taxes and accounting available for students both at their universities and at the firm’s offices. Graduates are well-informed about the Big Four and often willing to join. After all, it’s a job with an official salary, social package and insurance, clear career prospects and intensive corporate training. In Ukraine, for a person without work experience, this prospect is a dream come true.

Last year, Natalia Butenko, a human resources manager at KPMG audit and consulting firm, saw as many as 100 young people competing for one vacancy in one of their departments.

Accounting is not a difficult science. Multiply, divide, add – that is what anyone can do. And the training we are giving allows them to learn all the ABC’s of this science. So we do not even demand education in economics.

- Oleksandr Gavryliuk, director in the audit department at KPMG.

The good news is that the Big Four firms hire numerous entry-level employees compared to other sectors. Since October, KPMG got 68 new entry-level employees, Ernst & Young hired 60 last year, while PwC hired 65 students just out of universities.

To select them, the companies test applicants’ IQ, their general awareness and command of English. “I had to describe a technological process. And it was rather easy. I come from Zaporizhia and went to Zaporizhstal steel mill where some of my relatives work,” recalled Mykhaylo Pryhodko, a 21-year-old student and intern at Ernst & Young.

The Big Four companies generally do not demand knowledge of accounting and finance, due to the poor level of university training.

“Accounting is not a difficult science. Multiply, divide, add – that is what anyone can do. And the training we are giving allows them to learn all the ABC’s of this science. So we do not even demand education in economics,” said Oleksandr Gavryliuk, director in the audit department at KPMG.


Hard routine

One graduate who made it into the Big Four is Olexandra Kuimova, 22, who has worked for KPMG for five months. “It is a good opportunity to start a career. You are given books, training, you get ACCA qualifications. Every year they review your position and you may be offered better work conditions,” she said.

However, working in the Big Four is not a piece of cake.

“No doubt people work a lot. More than eight hours [a day]. We know that there is no work-life balance here,” said Ernst & Young’s Zakharina.

The younger an employee is, the more time he or she spends on business trips.

- Natalia Butenko, a human resources manager at KPMG audit and consulting firm.

“I remember working all night long when I was about 27 or 28,” confessed Gavriliuk from KPMG. He recalls that in 2005 and 2006, when market growth was strong, he could not find an empty seat at the office on weekends. That’s tapered off a bit, but long hours persist.

Out-of-town business trips are common – welcome to some employees, a hardship to others.

“The younger an employee is, the more time he or she spends on business trips,” said Butenko from KPMG. “Assistant auditors who are working first or second year may spend 70 percent of their time on business trips all over Ukraine and sometimes abroad.”

Even more surprising is that, despite such tough working conditions, some employees refuse vacations.

At Ernst & Young, some 50 people out of 510 did not take their annual leave. “There are a large number of young guys who like to work and hang around in the office,” said Zakharina from Ernst & Young. “They do not yet have families but still have health.”

To counteract workaholics, Gavryliuk now lowers job evaluations of those who don’t take vacation.


Getting out

Contrary to popular opinion, auditors do not make a lot of money until they climb the ranks of management.

Kyiv interns start at Hr 3,000, rising to Hr 5,500 for entry-level jobs before hitting Hr 11,000 for supervising auditors – positions that can be achieved after two or three years. Veteran directors can earn more than Hr 48,000 a month.


Mykhaylo Pryhodko

The slow salary growth and long hours take their toll, prompting some to quit within five years. Those workers who tough it out find themselves very marketable.
Many get ACCA certification, a good job reference, solid experience and then leave for better jobs. Company finance directors or controllers can command Hr 15,000 to start with.

“Young people leaving us to go for industry jobs are part of our business model. Our largest client System Capital Management [owned by Ukraine’s richest citizen, Rinat Akhmetov] hired more than 20 of our employees over, the years. And we are happy to be the industry launching pad,” said Krasnyansky of PWC.

Living abroad, you look at your home country as if you were in space staring on earth.

- Oleksandr Gavryliuk, director in the audit department at KPMG.

Plus the organizational structure is pyramid-shaped. “Hiring 70 graduates, we have lots of people at the bottom. Then 50 of them move up, while the company needs only 5-8 managers. So it is natural that people have to leave,” explained Zakharina of Ernst & Young.

It’s not always happy, however. Alexey Podryadchikov, a former KPMG auditor, started a blog called alexeycus-kpmg.livejournal.com. On it, anonymous users discuss salaries and bosses, talk about sex for career promotion and compare their companies to religious sects.

Still, on balance, it appears that those with the nerve and work ethic to stay in accounting and consulting have excellent opportunities around the world. The Big Four firms have global mobility programs. Gavryliuk of KPMG spent one and a half years in China and enjoyed the change.

“Living abroad, you look at your home country as if you were in space staring on earth,” Gavryliuk said.


Kyiv Post staff writer Kateryna Panova can be reached at panova@kyivpost.com