Another year and another class of graduating students will say goodbye to their alma mater and start a new journey. The four years spent at UIC is some of the best years of their life. How many stories and sceneries have been treasured along the way? How much hard work has paid off? Year 4 Accounting student Lin Songsheng, who is starting his career at one of the Big Four accounting firms, shared his story with us.
When Lin Songsheng entered UIC’s Accounting Programme, he was determined to improve himself in study, internships, contests, interest clubs and more, to enhance his competitiveness for future career development. Lin Songsheng not only gained a wealth of experience and handful skills but also developed his way of thinking as well as achieving his goals. After graduation, Lin Songsheng will start his career at Ernst & Young in Guangzhou.
Gathering information for job-hunting
Lin Songsheng received the offer from Ernst & Young during his junior summer vacation. In his freshman year, Songsheng carefully planned his internship and actively seized various opportunities to enter his target company for an internship. "I planned to do internships first in a commercial bank, then to a large domestic accounting firm, and eventually join one of the Big Four," Lin Songsheng said.
On the winter break of freshman year, Lin Songsheng went to the Everbright Bank Guangzhou Branch for an internship through the opportunity provided by the College. During his time at UIC, he also actively participated in the campus recruitment activities organised by UIC in collaboration with PricewaterhouseCoopers Shenzhen Branch and KPMG Guangzhou Branch. He understood the company’s assessment standards and procedures and set out effective strategies on making a resume, taking written tests and interviews.
Before the junior summer vacation, Lin Songsheng received a project internship at Deloitte & Touche Guangzhou. After an intense five-week internship, he participated in the summer leadership training camp held by Ernst & Young Guangzhou and obtained a full-time job offer from there.
"Participating in fiercely competitive internships and full-time recruitment requires a good knowledge base. In my sophomore year, I wrote more than 30 pages about job searching strategies. In the campus recruitment, I got feedback from many employees in big companies about resume writing, which helped me to build a stronger CV and later it got accepted by Deloitte and Ernst & Young. Before the interview at Ernst & Young, I found a lot of students from other universities to practice group interviews on the forum, and this process also made me gain a lot of coping strategies for interviews," Lin Songsheng said.
Broadening horizon in College
“In high school, I was not good at speaking, and never got the chance to step outside of my comfort zone. In UIC, I not only broadened my horizons but also learned critical thinking, and became more innovative,” said Lin Songsheng. In the four years of study, many team projects have also made Lin Songsheng know more about communication, team spirit and leadership.
"I like UIC because it gives me a lot of opportunities to learn, think deeply and express myself. There is also an atmosphere of equality and openness at UIC, from teaching to student clubs’ activities," Lin Songsheng said.
Lin Songsheng also likes the active teacher-student relationship that UIC promotes. Also, he is grateful for the guest speakers from the industry invited by the College, as he learned the most cutting-edge information in the talks.
In the future, Lin Songsheng hopes to accumulate work experience and become Certified Public Accountant (CPA) as a way to continue his improvement. He also plans to go to a prestigious university after working for some time to advance his career development to a higher level.
From MPRO
Translator: Covee Wang
Editors: Samuel Burgess, Deen He
