Member profile – Aaron Au

What was your first job?

Like most accountants starting their career, I began as an audit trainee in a local audit firm in Hong Kong. Audit allowed me to extend my knowledge, broaden my perspective, learn more, and also sharpen up the basic knowledge I had learnt in college.

Why did you want to become an accountant?

I think accounting gives the best training in business, and I have never regretted choosing to follow this profession. In my career, I have met many people from different parts of the world who hold management positions in their companies. Some have an engineering background, some are from marketing. But many, like me, have a finance and accountancy background. I think we have the most comprehensive training and can best understand our companies’ financial status.

How has your ACCA membership helped your career?

ACCA membership helps me in three main ways. First, ACCA training is comprehensive and covers not only finance and accounting but also other areas such as management. Second, ACCA is an internationally-recognised brand which says a lot about my business style and professional behaviour. Third, ACCA’s international network has helped me to establish my own networks when I travel around Asia. This is important to me because I have to build and use these networks in unfamiliar countries and regions to develop business. As an ACCA member, I can access a lot of useful business information and can quickly find the right people to talk to in different industries.

How do you use your accountancy skills in your job?

Car dealership is basically a retail business operating within the car industry. Retail businesses work in a low margin, high turnover environment; profitability relies on your control of cost, investment and inventory turnover – and an accountant is well trained in these aspects.

What plans do you have for your future career?

I like new challenges and do not like routine work. As a result, I have the ideal personality for business development, as this means being posted to different countries and always working in new environments. Having gone through all my ACCA training, and accumulated significant experience of working in an international environment, I want to move my career on from being an accountant to being a doctor – a doctor that can fix a company’s health.

 

"I think accounting gives the best training in business, and I have never regretted choosing to follow this profession"