South African Chartered Accountants: Are you thinking international?
Hi everyone thank you so much for joining us see um we’ll give a couple of minutes for participants to still join perhaps at 32 minutes past we’ll kick start but I think I can see a lot of you entering the meeting now For cool we’ll just give a couple more minutes because I still see the numbers Rising okay I think we can get started once again good evening every everybody um welcome to Blue recruiting are you thinking International webinar this evening’s session aims to provide you with insights from a panel of South
African chared accountants who have successfully transitioned their careers abroad um specifically in this case this evening we’ll be speaking to panelists based in the UK um a lot of the information that they share will be specific to the UK but there is also some additional information that and
Sentiments that would be transferable to relocating elsewhere in the world we know that all of you are really busy at the moment um and we appreciate you taking the time out of your chaotic schedules to join us um and thank you to our amazing panelists for believing in
The benefit of this webinar and agreeing to share their experiences with us if you don’t already know blue recruiting is a specialist finance and data analytics recruitment consultancy and we are completely dedicated to helping you define your career goals make informed choices that align with your personal preferences as well as
Your professional hopes and Ambitions unlike a lot of the other recruitment agencies what we do is prioritize your success and your well-being and we’re here to advise you every step of the way from the start of the process till the minute you pack your bags hop on the
Airplane when you arrive in your in the next country we are here to guide you and advise you throughout the entire process at Blue recruiting we also understand that becoming a chartered accountant is an immense feat and your dedication and hard work will open up a world of opportunities for your future
Career however we also understand that with so many choices ahead of you making the right decision can be both exciting and overwhelming and especially so when considering moving to a new country this webinar aims to help you navigate this process by learning from firsthand experiences from our panelists who’ve made the move
Already and throughout the session they will be sharing their stories with us and providing valuable information about the various aspects of moving particularly in this case to the UK as a chartered accountant from South Africa their personal experiences will provide you with unique insights and a much better understanding of what to expect
When making the move following that we will then cover some more generic and general aspects regarding relocating as well as the different locations that are up for consideration we will also have a dedicated Q&A um where we’ll be addressing any relevant questions that arise from you throughout the discussion
So if you do have any questions please submit them to the Q&A that if you look at the bottom of your screen you should see where it says is Q&A if you post your questions there we’ll be able to see them and we’ll be able to go through
Them if you post them anywhere else there’s a chance we may miss them we understand that load shedding and Tide schedules is a concern for some of you this evening so in the event that load shedding strikes or you have to hop off to attend a deadline please let us know
And we’ll send a recording of this evening’s webinar I’ll now be handing over to our director recruiting and qualified casasa gr maray um and he’ll introduce you to our panelists and get the evening kicked off great thanks a lot Jade um and yeah thank you very much for all of you who
Are attending I know that you’re on most of you are probably on December year ends at the moment and uh it’s probably very intense um as Jade mentioned a hell of a long time ago I was in a similar position to most of you um getting to
The end of my of my articles becoming a CE and I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do um and I think um just to give you some comfort I I’m a firm believer that um only doctors and Priests really should know what they
Want to do for the rest of their lives at this stage of your of your career um so don’t panic about it and don’t think that your next decision is going to define the rest of your life um it definitely a a move overseas is a hell
Of a great option we do yeah we do support it when I popped out there was a world world recession so we had no opportunity of going overseas and probably do regret that attouch but a couple of my colleagues did go and one perfect example of of one of those guys
Who did go across actually ends up um ended up starting a thing called 6060 when you return so there’s um when you when you leave it doesn’t mean that you’re leaving forever and I think that’s an important thing to take into consideration I know we only got an hour
And the hour seems long but these things always rush on so I really do want to jump into it as quickly as possible um but just a just a word of advice from my side is that we’ve asked everyone to attend this whether you know that you know you want
To go overseas next year or not um and I think that’s important we’re not here to try and convince you either way um but I think it’s nice to be informed and be able to have an informed decision by someone who’s walked this road previously to you um and so finding
Firsthand from s and Damian who going to be chatting to us now um really asking the questions what what reality looks like what does it actually mean to move and I think that’s um it’s really going to shed some light and hopefully be able to inform you as to whether you would
Like to partake on this adventure or not um but yeah thank you very much to Damon and S both Damon and S are in London um importantly the majority of roles that are that do appear overseas is in audit and and it is in London um we will cover
Some of the other destinations and locations a little B later in the webinar um but that is where we we’ll touch a little bit about the type of roles um but specifically that’s where a huge amount of demand sits for for South African C in the AIT space um but yeah
Daman s thanks for joining um I’d love to just take you guys back to this moment that a lot of our panelists sorry our attendees might be um might be experiencing at the moment we kind of just finished second year some of you some of you may have finished third year
Um haven’t really considered this idea of moving next year it seems so far away how did you guys feel when at what point did you know that you wanted to go overseas and was it a process to go from cheapers that I hadn’t thought of this
To actually this sounds like a good idea so yeah maybe Damian if you wouldn’t mind just starting and just telling me you thinking of of how you got to you know thinking about going overseas sure I was going to say ladies first but I guess I’ll start how’s it everyone I
Hope everyone’s doing well on this what is it even today Tuesday busy season for everyone still um yes I think my decision laid on a few things it was either going to be Amsterdam or London always like I I always knew I kind of wanted to go and Inn a different
Currency and also Escape loting which is a big one and then and besides that my football team Arsenal is in London so that was the final cut of starting it so I always kind of knew that I wanted to come overseas for those various reasons like it wasn’t like there’s no detail
Planning it was mostly just lad inning a foreign currency get a passport come back or what have you so yeah that’s pretty much just as on the side did you uh did you watch the game live yesterday when they beat Liverpool no but I had a ticket I’ve
Been been to a few games I’ve been to like 10 or 11 games and it was really amazing I was crying the first time U but I had a ticket for Sunday and I had admin to do so I gave it to a friend um but I did once again from home thanks
For the reminder I’m a little full supporter um sorry I interrupted you there so so for you it was a a pretty clear decision um and um it’s interesting we we’ve actually screened a number of of f who went across and I think obviously load
Sheding is a is a factor but a lot of the time it’s positive it’s positive push uh pull factors that really attract people overseas um things like better currency work experience and abil ability to travel um so I think it sounds like there’s a combination how
About you Sate how is what is your decision okay so I originally wanted to study overseas in the UK um I just had this idea in my head that studing in the UK sounds really cool that didn’t happen unfortunately um I got a ban training in South Africa so I stuck
Around and then around the end of my contract when I was looking at options I figured if not now then when so I mean I don’t have a house I am not married I don’t have like ense insurance policies or anything so I have the ability to
Pack up and move to a different country so the first time I left South Africa was actually to move to the UK just 13,000 km away nothing nothing big um but yeah no um you get to learn a lot um like massive companies huge clients it’s really
Interesting um yeah I just wanted to get as much experience as I can wherever I can can before I figure out what the long-term plan is yeah and um and you make a good point that that punctuation mark That’s in in every ca’s career it’s it really you
Want to take advantage of that um as soon as Life Starts happening and adulting starts happening with kids and and and all the rest it be it becomes impossible um and a lot yeah not impossible a lot more challenging um so really do take advantage of this time um
It’s an exciting time I went and worked as a game Ranger for two years it’s a it was a great thing to do um so don’t don’t be scared that you have to jump into what’s going to be the rest of your career I think just an advice for
Everyone um that’s helpful so maybe we can just chat to Damon you mentioned that it was Netherlands or UK for you um what is the thought what is the thinking between the two What attracted you to the Netherlands and ultimately why did you choose the UK I mean honestly yeah it wasn’t necessarily
Anything attracted me oh those were those are the two countries that are hiring the most C right so there was between Amsterdam or London and then obviously I had friends going to either but at the end of the day London won out because Arsenal was here maybe it sounds
Like a plain reason but then I have had the opportunity to also travel to Amsterdam and for me I prefer like I I did my articles in Cape Town but I’m sure people who work in jber would feel similar like I like a big city I like
Like just the vibe of the city like feeling alive and Amsterdam is a little bit smaller a little bit more like a niche um CH than London is and I I prefer the vibe that London has and in any case they’re so close to each other
That you can just hop over it’s like an hour and a half flight to go see your friends you can still go for their birthdays and stuff like that so is nice to go and visit every once in a while but I do prefer the vibe and people in
London sorry just to add to that yeah so I live outside of London actually my biggest client is in London so I go in two to three times a week but the rest of the time I’m in rating because London is too big for me so we kind of had the
Opposite and that’s C to yes sorry carry on Damian no I think that also would made it a little bit easier for me I suppose is cu I was at e and two of my friends moved over with me I share another one so we moved in to a house in
Southwest London which is also where all the South Africans stay so we moved in mates we were all starting at the same firm in the UK so it made it really easy to transition and have people close to you that’s kind of going through the same thing but then also with that being
Said like even now with the new joiners like it’s just people you know it’s people you did articles work like I would say half our floor it’s probably South African and the current office if not more and definitely like half the building so it kind of feels like a second home I
Suppose yeah um yes there a couple of good points I just want to touch on there so you’re not alone so in within one firm I think that the numbers are somewhere between 150 and 190 South African CA move across every year um so there’s so there’s a big chunk of
South Africans that do move um and that’s only one firm you look at some of the other ones you probably looking at 200 250 in each of those other firms so there’s a huge contingent of South Africans that go across and what we will do as blue recruiting if you do go
Across with us we’ll ensure that we have some events beforehand for you to be able to socialize and realize how many of your friends are actually on the same boat going across um and you end up on a WhatsApp group and be able to like kind of share information
And it really doesn’t feel like you’re alone um you’re kind of going on this adventure together I think it’s quite exciting and it’s a I think knowing that there’s that there’s quite a number of people doing it actually find makes makes it feel a little bit less intimidating and the second point that
You mentioned both s and Daman is personality wise there’s if you just even just look at the UK for example um there’s different locations for different personalities and I think that’s that’s probably where we we probably quite and where best you would fit in so so mentions reading there actually is
There’s a reading office um there’s Bristol there’s Gatwick so for those those of you who may not love the huge hustle and Bassel of London um there are alternatives there’s Southampton there’s Manchester and and each one has got its own sort of um intricacies and attractiveness about it for the right
Sort of Personality there are certain people that are born and Bre born and breed London and we can we recognize that too so just know that there are alternatives and and as mentioned Gatwick and reading it’s a it’s a short short train ride into London so you can
Still enjoy the benefits of being close to city um but you don’t necessarily need to be living in it um and I think it’s slightly cheaper too um so let’s let’s jump to the end and find out what it’s like living in London um I think one of the big
Question probably the first two questions are going to be we and can you afford it and closely followed by can you travel so let’s let’s hit those three questions weather affordability and travel um in any order whoever wants to go so now you can start the thought of this
Round okay so I’m going to do some Shameless promoting for bdr um what’s really good with bdr is they cover all of your Visa costs which means that that that’s a massive expense that I didn’t have to worry about um you get a interest free loan to cover whatever
Else you need so flights I mean I bought a new TV for my flat here and that counted because the plugs are different than South African TV’s plugs which is great I’m not complaining um so you get to claim back a lot of your moving costs um but that
Interest free loan gives you the cash up for to be able to pay for everything you need so I came here on a trainy salary um I did not have thousands and thousands of savings to just take out and put down to move to a new country um
And yeah without BDO honestly I had an offer from a different firm that offered me less for moving costs and that ultimately made me decide to go for bdr just because they made it as straightforward and simple as possible so in the end they want you
Here so they will take the steps they need to to help you yeah video does offer a very attractive package when you move over like you do have um like help with your fingertips basically because I also didn’t have a massive amount of savings and coming over that I kind of used the
3,000 loan over six or n months um to to kind of find my feet I mean after the first week or two we stayed in a hostel which was wasn’t very expensive then Airbnb and then we eventually found our place in Southwest so finding a house in
London can be a little bit difficult sometimes I think it was more difficult last year because a lot of my friends mve now have seemingly just easily found places so it it is definitely doable and the places you find like they are nice and they are worth the money and I think
On a am salary you do get paid enough you can afford staying in a in a decent place like not something that you would look down upon like a matchbox as some people will call it like you can find you can afford a decent place to stay in
A decent location um it won’t NE like I think one thing people Overlook and don’t address and London is London is big like it is infinitely bigger then Cape Town jber deran like maybe even all three combined for me to travel to work is roughly 45 50 minutes but also for me
To travel anywhere is roughly 40 to 45 minutes but yeah no like wherever you stay your housing your transport your food that you can afford it all um and especially the first three months because when you move here you don’t pay tax for the first three months so you
Bas you are balling the first three months there’s a relocation allowance like it basically feel like the money doesn’t run out and then once you start paying taxes like cool maybe I should budget a little bit um but but you do you do make a fun amount of money that
You can like I I bought myself a new phone I have an AMX now like like you do make enough money and then um I get to the SL out place I think I answer the question yeah great um and travel you mentioned Netherlands um have you been
Able to travel a bit and talk us through how how easy that is um yeah with that I was kind of a little bit dumb last year um I waited cuz also so something that probably like didn’t help with my decision moving over other girlfriend in South Africa she was
Still a third year last year at the um so we did long distance for a year which isn’t ideal wouldn’t recommend it but we are still making it and if you want to do it like you can do it it is possible we’ve done a year we’re going on a year and
Three months now and then she’ll hopefully move to London um but anyway so dur during June July went to turkey with her she came over to London got her UK Visa went to Turkey so there’s a couple of places where you can go um without a
Visa getting a Visa a shenen Visa can be quite difficult there is kind of like a a black market for visas yet it’s not the easiest process I like if you put in the effort you can get it easy I think I paid £150 like yeah £150 for the entire
Process and I did it rather painlessly cuz I had tickets for the France World Cup last year and like stuff like that like you can just go to like you can go to the World Cup like people wi to the final like people were just swiping their mxes they were like I’ll worry
About these cost some other time and they just went to the World Cup leag you can’t just do that you can’t do that from South Africa yeah you can just go to Paris now for the Olympics or what have you but yes I went to
France um went to Mars for the World Cup game had a few days in Paris went to Amsterdam and then last year so I got lucky I got a six-month Visa me and all my housemates we appli at the same time um most uh let’s say 75% of us got a
Six-month Visa the other guy unfortunately only got a three-month Visa so it is also like it does depend but then hopefully after your first or second shenen um you do get longer period so CU if you can um like back it with recover L saying you your year
Permanently you’ll travel they they do tend to give you a longer period which is really nice but then I remember the one weekend I just had a off weekend um and I think my friends weren’t here so I just got a list of the top or the top 10
Cheapest placees to go to booked a ticket to Milan booked accommodation went to Milan for the weekend which you can’t yeah you can’t really do that from anywhere else um yeah brilliant man um so I’m not sure if you want to add anything to that maybe also can you
Discuss head into that the weather situation probably now is not a great time you actually just come off a huge storm and now you got to more more febr news to deal with um yeah any travel for you and also yeah is the weather is bad as you think especially when you first
Arriving there yeah so I arrived I literally flew out of South Africa on the 31st of December and then I landed here on the 1 of January so new year new country exciting stuff um but that’s also the middle of winter in the UK um so it was
A bit of a dramatic switch from Summer and AC in December to middle of winter here um but to be honest it’s not that bad um I think up north it’s a lot colder um but like even with the storm now I think I’m very spoiled in rating I
Will admit that um we didn’t have any issues like it was just some rain and we have like one River going through the City that flooded but that was as bad as a got so yeah no it’s actually I prefer it honestly um it’s not like deathly hot like you can get in
South Africa and it’s really not as cold as you think and everything is insulated like the UK is built as a cold country so as soon as you get in indoors you’re sorted one proper jacket for outside the rest not an issue oh and my 20 minutes by the way to
London 20 minutes yeah in comparison to someone who lives in London yeah that’s probably cost you more though oh no B pays for it fair enough yeah I know I likeed out um so just in general guys like expectations so happiness is defined by reality minus expectations um your expectations of
What your life would be like in London and what reality looks like how does how does that compare um and maybe you can touch on some of the best and most challenging parts of sure I’ll go for that one um yeah I don’t think I had too much of an
Expectation I suppose because you you’re used to your life like you have your best friends you have your family at South Africa and then you come over and you you you do kind of start over like you have your friends here but you can’t necessarily be be your full self that
You were back then that people knew because there is an office I would say there is a culture difference not a culture Clash but just you you have to get like we we have different senses of humor right so you kind of have to get used to that but it’s it’s a fun
Experience like the English people are nice and then further than that there’s there’s so many other like demographics and cultures here like in our just on this floor alone there’s probably 20 if not 30 different cultures which is a really cool and fun experience and then
Besides that I think like I already had friends here who did their articles here and seeing them and meeting up with them again and becoming friends like that’s been amazing and I think a big thing that I’ve also realized going back over this past December there really aren’t
That many of your friends left like majority of my friends have moved to London and or Amsterdam and the ones who are lets essay are planning on moving over in the next few years as well so you kind of have like your friends will be overseas most likely but yeah for
Reality versus expectation I think it’s it’s what you make of it like it’s what you put out there you can just have South African friends if you want you can never speak to a British person if you if you so choose to um but it’s it’s just about what you put
In yeah it’s a great Point um can we tell about the work guys um so how does how does work life compared to what you had in Cape Town or jobu um yeah is it bigger clients more intimidating yeah talk me through and and your hours like how how how hard is
Is the work so now maybe you go first this time um so I think what’s really good at least about my experience thus far is it’s kind of what you make of it so a lot of people come in as assistant managers and they do that role and they
Have their weekends to go traveling and everything um I’m a bit less well if I do something I do it properly so I jumped in and I put in a lot of extra efforts and I actually got promoted in November so yeah for any ambitious
People in the chat um it is possible to be promoted in your first year but because of that um my workload is a bit more but like I said what’s your title now today I’m still an assistant manager but I’m at a higher grade level got you got you okay thank you
So yeah um so I do have more things happening and I have a whole project portfolio now whereas when I came in you’re booked full-time to a job um it depends on what clients you’re working on um I think in London you tend to get really big clients I have one
London client that takes up most of my year but other than that everything else is I wouldn’t say it’s calm but it’s definitely manageable and what I’ve experienced as well with my office specifically in Bia rating is um you get assigned a people manager so someone
Hire up an order that you can talk to about your work goals how your life is going how you’re settling in and they’re very receptive to actually hearing you out if you say okay there’s too much happening I can’t do everything assigned to me please help they will move around
Like jobs they will make a plan to help you which I really appreciated so yeah it’s depends on how much you are up for and how much you’re committed to and what your plan is for being in the UK any you Dam yes sir um well congrats of the
Promotion um haven’t gotten that on this side but also with that being said I don’t I came over here with the expectation of not staying in audit so it’s not like I’ve worked extra hard to get a promotion and auditing I’m or working to get out of auditing but
Further than that if you compare let’s say work life balance to South Africa and South Africa I was on sunlam like I was on B CLI listed clients I would work for let’s say like 50 60% of the weekends in like during my third year last year I worked two hours on a
Saturday in total like that’s the only weekend I worked the entire year um in busy season now from let’s say Jan to April I’ll have some overtime um I’ll have some overtime let’s say like two three days I’ll work two three hours more but nothing nothing
As hectic or bad as I’ve experienced in South Africa and also like I’ve had I’m pretty much a one client so I used to be an insurance back in South Africa and then I got moved to asset management and capital markets which I’ve really actually enjoyed and I’m basically on
Investments now and testing investment models testing inputs and stuff like that’s what I really find enjoyable um so after the you you do get given more responsibility like it’s it’s kind of the same like managers kind of trust you if you say like I’ll do this later or
Like I I have a sporting event now I have a dentist appointment whatever like whatever you have um but yeah work life balance it’s light years away from you know you don’t work nearly as hard as you do an essay it is a lot more choll thanks um I think you touched on
Something which I’m sure there’s going to be a ton of questions about um so there are there are a lot of guys who want to stay on in udit there are a lot of guys who don’t um moving across from South Africa into a finance role or
Financial Manager role um if you don’t have a a Visa or a passport it’s extremely hard um so there’s not a lot of so in order to be able to go and work in the UK you need a employer to sponsor you and because of the huge demand that
There is for South African cosos the order firms are willing to pay for that that Visa so I mentioned it and it’s not an immaterial cost um but there having said that there’s a large number of people that have gone across to the UK spent a reasonable amount of time within
Those watered firms and then eventually moved on to potential clients or wherever it is in a Finance in a Financial Manager role the expectation I suppose from a from an employer perspective is there’s a certain timeline that they that they need to get their return on investment and it’s
Somewhere around two to three years at least um so I think if you leave within the first year there’s probably some sort of re rebate that they’ll provide that they’ll require from Your sponsorship um so just be aware of those permutations I think there’s probably a ton going on especially in that first
Year when you first arrive in your new country um that just doing stuff that you know what you’re doing is probably helpful um there’s enough other variables in your life and then another year of being able to really deliver value at least um and then you potentially can look after that but um
But just I’ve no doubt there’s a ton of questions about that um and unfortunately it’s a demand situation so the the the employers that are willing to spend the money on the Visas and um dictate what kind of skills they’re willing to sponsor and that’s just for
By the way I’m sure they’ll CLE questions on that one um cool guys and then um just let’s just wind this down I think we can chat about um the process so we can help a little bit for for now so the initial interview stage um maybe
Jade you can talk through when these firms start start um start interviewing and then we’ll come back to Damon and um and S just about at what stage in the process do you need to start actually making decisions because I think people think you need to commit right now
That’s not the case so let’s just go to Jade quickly and just explain sort of what the timelines that some of these attendees can can consider thanks grahe thank you s and Damian it’s been awesome hearing your experiences and thank you so much sharing that with us and I think there
Are some more questions so we’ll definitely jump back into that but in terms of the time frames and sort of setting your expectations for relocating our goal is to help you make the right decision we want to make sure that you have as many options available
To you as possible um and the more options that you have the better your decision making would be because you’d be able to base your decision off of multiple options that suit you the best instead of just going with the first option that appears to you so in terms
Of when to start now is the right time to start exploring and having those conversations as Graham said rightfully so like you don’t need to necessarily commit 100% to the process right now but you do need to start having the conversations and start actively exploring that and what that means is
Submitting your CV going for interviews um and if you’re not submitting your CV and you’re not going for interviews you’re not opening up those options in terms of how the clients work and the time frames what generally happens is now is the time that we start sourcing candidates for potential International
Opportunities around May between May and August the clients are interviewing and it also depends on what their headcount is so what their demand is as well as like how many candidates they’re willing to sponsor so if you think about organizations that are looking to sponsor a lot of candidates and hire a
Lot of head counts they’re going to start that search much sooner than those that have one or two head counts to fill so if you’re look so in particular most of the demand comes from the UK so if you are willing to consider the UK in addition to other opportunities your UK
Process generally start much sooner than any of your other International processes and that is purely because the demand from the UK for South African CA is higher than any other country we’ve seen so I feel like I’m running a little bit on a tangent Graham I don’t know if
I’ve given enough detail but and I think just the important thing is Jay’s 100% right long the time to explore um but unfortunately I know that you’re busy but get the CVS out there start start having conversations with guys who’ve gone across to the UK or the Netherlands
Or wherever it might be and start having those chats those serious chats because it’s it it feels like it doesn’t matter how much time you have it does feel like it comes quickly so just rather prepare earlier than later but importantly no one’s asking you to commit right from
This word go so if you’re interviewing in may go for the interviews have the conversations you absolutely have the option afterwards to say this is not for me thank you um but importantly I think especially if you’re working with us I think it’s a good principle in general
Is just be honest with us we’re not going to we’re not going to jeopardize your your um your opportunity because you aren’t sure yet our job is to make sure you doing the best thing for you so we’ll help you get a more informed call on it and we definitely won’t be
Pressurizing you and but I think what is misleading for us is to say I’m absolutely wholeheartedly committed in and in and then we start incurring Visa costs and at the 11th Hour you pull out that that for us is a little bit frustrating so play open cards it’s absolutely fine to explore multiple
Options um but honestly absolutely is the best approach here um and we’ll try and encourage you to to do the right things for yourself so that’s a that’s an important aspect um but it does happen earlier than you think so interviews will happen from May um and afterwards the interview process is not
Long so that’s another thing it’s almost feels like speed dating you’ll sit there meet meet a partner 2 minutes no half an hour hour maybe and afterwards you’ll know if you’re getting an offer or not so it does feel very rushed so even at that point you can pump the brakes and
Say thanks it’s great let me just think about this part of the while um you do have a reasonable amount of time but it’s not an infinite amount of time um but I think just knowing what to expect is equipping you because otherwise you feel a little bit
Flustered yeah and just just to add on to what grahe said about playing open cards and your open communication like the last thing we want to do is force you into making a decision that you’re not ready to make but if you stop communicating with us and if you don’t
Tell us how you’re feeling and where your head is at and what’s running through your mind if you’re scared there’s no way that we can defend you in inverted commas if the client has put an offer out and they want you to sign they expect you to sign unless we
Advise them on what is happening and we try and give you additional time but we we are unable to do that if we don’t know what is going on on your side so again there’s nothing worse for us than someone making the wrong decision and relocating and arriving and like being
Super upset with their decision and deciding to come home that’s not what we’re trying to achieve here we want to make sure that we can get you the best advice and help you secure the right position but we can’t do that if we don’t know where your head is
At um just on the interview process and how you guys felt at Daman s any any points on that I think it’s just important to remember that just because you’re going for an interview it doesn’t mean that you are now signing your life away um the entire process up to when you sign
Your contract you can still say no without any issues so just try to be as open-minded as you can and don’t say no to something just because it seems a bit intimidating now you have options consider them and yeah just take it as it comes the interview process feels very quick but I
Believe that you end up where you should be so just yeah enjoy the ride yeah I had um I was in contact with blue recruiting and cap talent but I wanted to do a a conment before I eventually move over and I chose to be recruiting just because I
Was in constant contact with my recruting person um I think her name is Emma I was in contact in Conant contact with her where the person cap Talent was from the UK it was a little bit more difficult to keep in contact with her and then I actually got approval from
BDO to go to New York go to Z conment before I sign with him so I played open cars from the start and they were willing to make that Amendment for me um unfortunately the firm wed my articles failed to send us onto Convent so that
Didn’t really matter at the end of the day but you just the interview process everything was really smooth like I felt really supported by the recruiting like I had we had interview trip and everything I think I had the interview with a partner on like a Wednesday and
On Thursday I got the offer so it’s really smooth and easy process and I felt really supported throughout their process thanks for that D um the one part that you do need to get your ducks in a row with guys is your passport so we’ve learned the hard way um from a
Recruiting firm but a lot of unfortunate um potential employees they think that they’ve got a passport that’s valid and then on at too late in the process they look and they see that their their passports expired so if if you are starting to consider this seriously please VI your passport earlier um it’s
The most frustrating thing for everyone when we realize that too late in the game um but there’s a long process so from May all the way to your start date in around January um I think most of the Visa processes are actually H happen around October October time so there is
Some time maybe September but there’s some time to be able to get your documentation correct but don’t don’t do s of that um sorry on the passport thing it’s important to note that you won’t receive an offer unless you have a valid passport from any organization and the
Reason for that is that your offer is conditional on the fact that you can actually join the business and without a passport you can’t relocate so you won’t be able to join so if you are interviewing actively and you don’t have a passport you can expect major delays
In receiving an offer and potentially missing out on offers because other candidates that may interview after you who have passports could potentially get that job instead so if this is a serious consideration you need to get on those applications ASAP if you don’t already have a valid passport so also check your
Passports see how long they valid for because if they were expiring at the end of this year or beginning of next year it still wouldn’t count as being valid um we’re going to open up to some questions shortly but I just want to take five to 10 minutes quickly just to
Run through a couple of the other um destinations that we do look after and typically CA end up moving to um probably the next two after the UK um from a volume perspective is the ne Netherlands and Ireland um Netherlands has probably grown a little bit more but
Ireland seems to be catching up pretty quickly um the Netherlands the attractive thing from the Netherlands perspective I think Africans is always helpful although a lot of the work is actually done in English um so we’ve placed a number of people in in the Netherlands um and the offer conss yeah
Is not a prerequisite but they feel it is helpful um so it doesn’t mean if you only if you offer CS must you consider the Netherlands um there are substantial tax savings for expats to move to the Netherlands um at a lower within a salary bracket so that makes it attractive um
From a blue recruiting perspective We There are some head there is some head count that we can assist with um into the Netherlands but all intents and purposes a large number of people move to the Netherlands without a recruiter so you may need to go through your own
Um your own firm see if they can make introductions for you um but yeah unfortunately there isn’t huge volume for us to be able to assist into the ne Netherlands but we are seeing a growing demand from a candidate side irland is growing at a huge Pace um it’s I feel
Like if you live a good life you die and you go to Dublin um I absolutely love the place myself um the nice thing about Dublin is a couple of things firstly you earning Euros um you are part of the EU so um it makes it makes for a little bit
More easy transition if you do get your Irish passport to be able to travel around um it’s one of the most attractive visas sorry passports um and it’s relatively exper friendly well is exper friendly and it’s quite easy to be able to get your passport um and we
Seeing a large number of big multinationals like the Googles Facebooks Etc meta they all establish their businesses in Ireland so there’s been a huge growth uh Rampage in Dublin um and I think it seems to be continuing for quite some time so quite an exciting place is is the island growth um and
Then other places are Middle East um Dubai specifically um Bahrain um Saudi Arabia um Australia we see is starting to open up they were very reluctant um during covid and postco it took a long time for them to start hiring um they’re starting to open up a little bit in
Australia New Zealand um and the other the other places we see is um British Virgin Isles Cayman Island um Bermuda those sort of tax Haven islands is there big demand for South African SE in that space so um I think the important thing for us is and for you is to start the
Conversation firstly are you interested in moving yes great let’s see where it is see if we can help you with that if we can’t we’ll try and give you the best advice that we can um but I think the big demand is in the UK and so that’s
That’s where our need is and that’s where the employers needs are um but there are other opportunities at a smaller sort of volume elsewhere and we’ll try as much as we can to try and assist you with your ideal destination um USA is still very very tricky ironically when they’re under supplied
From a CPA perspective but you need to do a CPA conversion in order to become uh audit manager across there so there’s some complications around that we working on that to try and open up USA hope in time um yeah have I missed any locations J that are prominent
No I think you got most of them Graham and if there are any other locations that individuals are interested in hearing about or exploring we happy to give you our inputs based on the information that we have so if we have Al ironically opportunity in Hungary which a number of people have G
Over for adventure that’s that’s always been good cool specifically buest buest yeah um great we’ve got quite a number of questions um J can I can I call on you to try and ask those questions on yeah so I think that there’s quite a lot of questions that I could potentially
Answer here but while we’ve got our panelists I’d like to pose those questions first I think some of the questions are around the cost of living and I know that you mentioned that it is Affordable and you are able to live a pretty decent life in the UK as well as
Travel and potentially save but just in terms of like your day-to-day expenses or monthly expenses for example if you’re based in South Africa you won’t be using or if you’ve got your own cars and stuff you’re generally covering the cost of a car insurance petrol all of
That in comparison to what your expenses look like now can you define that going out can be quite expensive so if you can just elaborate a little bit more on that your rent and then also perhaps the NHS um and the your grocery shopping is that comparable call first
Um yeah so most things I’d say rent is probably a bigger proportion of your salary year than it would be in South Africa like rent is quite expensive but you do like you do earn enough money to pay your rent so that’s not necessar a problem it it’s just a bigger proportion
Of your than it would be in South Africa but then groceries are really affordable and there’s um salmon and prawns of the aisle of Scotland so stuff like that is actually really really affordable compared to South Africa but like steak and mince and chicken and all your usual
Things are really in line vegetables are really cheap like asparagus is really cheap um so my probably run me like 40 so 800 Rand I suppose but you shouldn’t translate but it roughly comes to like £40 a week which is very affordable I think going out can be expensive um
Being South African we do still have a lot of or and at least I do have a lot of trees and we do have a lot of House parties so you do just buy booze buying booze at a liquor store is very cheap and they have these things called off
Licenses which are just um like small little shops that sells liquor and one of the nicer things about the UK that you can pretty much drink anywhere which is very not if you do enjoy alcoholic beverage and it’s very nice in summer cuz you can basically just go to the
Park and sit there with your mates and have a casual drink um with us for hour or the entire day um going out can be quite expensive I’d say beers in central so your afterwork beer um it’s on a Thursday would it does it’s about 7s
Which is quite expensive but you do kind of take that into account to your budget and you don’t you make it your your largest nights and a double other club so would be quite expensive but you can you do make it work um you don’t have to
Go out every single night um and yeah I don’t necessarily go to restaurants and stuff that often as I would in South Africa but you do you do you can’t travel you can’t go to restaurants it’s it’s about what you enjoy cuz at the end
Of the day you set your own budget so it’s about what you enjoy and what you spend your own money on but you do have a large enough budget to do that the the things that you’d enjoy yeah so for me um I’m renting my
Own place so living alone is a bit more expensive um we pay council tax here which is basically like paying municipalities for services um and I think it’s based on how much space you take up so if you live alone um you have more space per
Person than you would you shared a flat with someone so my council tax is a bit High um but I think it’s just about prioritizing what you want out of the experience so for me it’s really important to live somewhere where I’m really comfortable like I want a little
Safe Haven after work um and I would rather spend more on my accommodation and cut back in other areas like maybe travel once s twice less than other people so that I can cover my living costs and it’s completely manageable um I actively do not translate to Rand because that will make
You very very ins sad um though to be fair I think a meal dual hair is5 pounds so that’s cheaper than it would be to get food in South Africa if you pick something up for lunch so I will argue that and and what what is part of a meal deal
If you can share that with everybody because I think it’s a pretty good deal okay a meal deal is one of my favorite things about the UK um you get a main something to drink in a snack for5 pounds and then you tend to kind of be very strategic and pick
The most expensive things that you can within that so yeah meal deal is wonderful um that covers like I’ve gotten into this horrible habit of buying lunch while I’m at office um I’m sure Daman can a taste to the London be cafeteria situation yeah um I’ll actually add on
That just because it is quite nice coming from the office that I was at um we have free coffee year same as much coffee as you want during the entire day you can have 12 cops CS if you want you will get a warning they like are you okay um but
You can order as much as you want and then we also have a cafeteria where they basically have five six different meals every day and all the meals are subsidized so you never really have to go out anywhere to pay for lunch which is really nice and convenient um just to
Have at office which is a huge Plus in my point one my books and have either you oh sorry carry on um just in terms of groceries um like I said I am a bit spoiled with living things so I do hellofresh which is 30 a week that covers six meals like big
Proper meals for me in a week so in terms of groceries I pay my 30 for my hellofresh and then I’ll buy breakfast stuff and maybe like some fruit and snacks and things but nothing massive espcially like y cook for those who aren’t aware of cool and a large number of sorry last
Go ahead J sorry have either of you had like any encounter with the NHS because I think like government healthare is a big thing for South African moving across like we don’t really trust that the system would work what is your opinion or experience of that um no I think it it definitely
Works um it’s not as convenient um as it would be give you have private Medical Aid and you can just see a doctor you can go see a doctor um but your NHS and your ni gets deducted from your monthly salary so you don’t really see it go out and then when
I need the doctor you basically have to register with a practitioner a NHS practioner in your area which also doesn’t really take that long most people wait till they’re sick to do this which is the opposite of what you should do but if you get there register with a
Doctor dentist the things that you will need throughout the year then it’s really easy um and then on the day they they they the things here are more online um and I will say customer service is probably better in South Africa than it is here but you just fill
Out a server on the day or you call into the the practice and then they’ll either give you an appointment that day or you’ll write out your symptoms the doctor will come back to you and then also people are a lot more trusting than they are in South Africa so you don’t if
You take a sick day you don’t necessarily need uh doctors not or anything like that like if you don’t feel well you can’t work you just tell your manager all good we move on um I will say the dentist dentist can be quite expensive I would probably go
Private you can do NHS but I would probably go private I’ve had a dentist experience it wasn’t it wasn’t the best but I mean my teeth worked fine um I’ll probably go private and I know my flatmate last year flew back to sa to do her tee cuz she had some hectic
Operations but it is it is just all on what you prefer nothing ofday but it oh and also it is quite affordable the one time I needed antibiotics it was like9 and I only paid for the antibiotics didn’t pay for the doctor or anything like that yeah and you can also get a
Prepayment certificate so I’m on chronic medication so I get something every month um prepayment certificate I think you pay £15 a month and then anything that is prescribed to you is covered so in comparison to all of the additional add-ons that I had to pay in sa say £15
A month is really it’s not an issue yeah and I think it’s also worth uh noting that if anybody is considering relocating and does have a monthly script or um yeah would need to bring that over with them you can get your doctors to communicate with the doctors
In the UK too and they can then prescribe the medication on behalf of your South African GP so you wouldn’t necessarily need to be Rednosed or anything as long as you keep those communication lines open and a lot of your doctor’s consultations are actually free and all you’re paying for is the
Medication as opposed to like jber if you go for any sort of consultation it’s at least 500 Grand and you can take six months of medication over when you move so I did that and I was covered well like into the year so it gives you a lot of time
To figure out how the system works and everything um cool guys I think um just conscious of time here and there are a whole host of questions and I think Jade and I can probably be equipped to answer most of those as a Parting Shot just for
San Damon FY thank you but any lasting advice and also Shameless promotion of BL recruiting um what is your experience of recruiting any advice to the guys about uh yeah just Recruiters in general um yeah please go ahead I I’ll turn my volume down so at least you can be
Honest um sorry I’ll just go first because my laptop battery is screaming at me right now so while I still have time um blue recruiting has honestly been a really good experience for me um they were available the entire time even before I had committed to anything
And they knew that like okay I’m now signing with B through Bo recruiting they are willing to help and in the end like they also want you to be happy where you end up because okay look away recruiters but um it’s bad for their reputation also if they’re recruiting a
Bunch of people that go over and then they quit after a few months so they put in extra effort to make sure that you are comfortable and that you are happy with where you’re going and even after I’ve moved over my recruiter still messages me every now and then like if I
Put something on my WhatsApp status if I go traveling in the UK she’ll respond to it so it’s not as if it’s just okay we’re getting you to sign and then we leave you you’re not like left to your own devices you have a lot of help available so
Yeah yeah I can I can attest to that um I think my video is a littleit funky my battery was also dying and so I have to move and if there’s any background noise but yeah I think that’s also why I chose blue recruiting in the end
Because they didn’t just try and get your signature on a piece of paper it was about the journey like understanding your wants and needs and getting those met and then getting the process um over so yeah I I was in close contact with my recruiter um she even asked me like how
Iing this side like close which has been really nice and just shows that like caring aspect and then any L advice um just take it as it comes uh def get that shingun if you coming if you know you’re coming over because I sign my contract in a you have enough time
Get that shingun do it in South Africa because you probably get a longer period as well and it is easier to do from that side so that’s one thing that I would really recommend and then also if you know you’re coming over with a friend or something like that um maybe just align
That accommodation sooner brilliant G thank you very much I really do appreciate your time I know things are busy at the moment um I feel like most of the other questions Jade we can feel if there are any other questions that do pop up that relate to S Damian
Um we’ll pop them in the email and we’ll we’ll respond to everyone afterwards um but yeah you guys are welcome to head back to work um if you want to just maybe just turn your video off and and and microphone on mute and if we do need
You we can we can call you on um jade to you perfect thank you so I do see quite a lot of um questions here and so I’m going to try my best to answer as many of them as possible there’s no specific order just so that I don’t miss some of
The important ones um so I think first things first that we probably need to cover off and if it wasn’t clear in the beginning I just want we just want to make it clear now in terms of securing a job overseas businesses do need to put up
Like a sort of motivation as to why they’re looking to hire someone from a foreign country so if we put it into perspective say for example you’re in audit now and you’re looking to move out of audit when you apply for those different jobs that opportunity isn’t
Guaranteed to you just like if you’re applying overseas that job isn’t guaranteed to you you also have a lot of other individuals from different backgrounds applying to that same job so it means that if you’re applying for a role in a foreign country that a lot of other local candidates are applying to
Too that that business has no reason to sponsor an individual from another country to do that job the reason why audit works is because there is low Supply and really really high demand um so if you are looking for a job out of audit it becomes really challenging and
Unless you have a foreign passport in the country or region that you’re looking to relocate to so if you have a European passport and you don’t need sponsorship you could look for roles outside of audit in Europe if you’ve got a British passport you could look in the
UK out of audit but for the most part if you’re looking for sponsorship you’re generally going to get sponsored in a role where there’s high demand low Supply and you actually have the right skill set and I think if I can just add to that is there’s an opportunity to be
Able to move with within your firm so these audit and advisory firms have extensive offerings that really can extend you um and so if they’re going to be paying for that um that that Visa you need to yeah they need to be able to get their return on their investment I’m
Sure we all understand that however if if you can prove yourself and you’re achieving exceptionally and you’ve got a a want or desire to get into data analytics or you want to try and get into transaction services and you’ve proven yourself you can navigate the corporate ladder to be able to get
Yourself into that area um but from from jobber Cape toown PE to get yourself into a job that’s highly desirable um that’s sought after from all UK people as well it’s it’s extremely hard um and yeah just understand that the parameters J expanded GRE well perfect and then there are also a
Lot of questions around agsa so this is a really challenging one um and the reason being is that the public sector here and the government sector here are run very differently to how they would be run anywhere else in the world so if you think about a bank
Or if you think about an fmcg type organization a lot of their processes and a lot of like the things that they have to go through are similar their standards are similar whereas when it comes to the public SA that differs largely so it means that your experience in the public sector in
South Africa isn’t always transferable anywhere else in the world so there will be times where organizations are open to considering public sector experience particularly if they’re looking for KN for profit experience or something along those lines but those are very few and far between so it does become very
Challenging for us to place you if public sector is the only EXP experience that you’ve got okay um in terms of the Visa that you would secure if you were to get sponsorship so if you’re getting sponsorship outside of your firm so it’s important for you to probably bear this
In mind if you’re getting an opportunity to move within your firm so an interc company transfer you need to look out for the type of Visa that the company is going to offer you so generally if you look at your short-term sment the Visa that you get sent on is an intercompany
Transfer visa and that’s a short-term Visa you won’t necessarily be able to get citizenship in any location if you move over on that visa and you will generally spend three six or 12 months in that location and then have to return to your home country South Africa most
In this for most instances here um when you look at opportunity with BDO for example or looking to move with other firms internationally on a more permanent basis the Visa that they issue you with is a skilled labor visa and in most cases not all so it is important
That you have this discussion with your recruiter when you are going through each of these processes but in most cases the Visa that these companies sponsor you on are the types of visas that you can later on apply for citizenship with so in the UK in particular it’s called a skilled labor
Visa initially they cover a three-year visa for you and that’s because you might decide before three years that you no longer want to stay and you want to leave but if you wanted to stay on they would then issue you an additional twoyear skilled labor Visa once you’ve
Been on that visa and in the UK for five years you can then apply for what is called your indefinite leave to remain and that means that you are no longer a sponsored individual and you are now halfway or closer to closer than halfway to securing citizenship in this country
So it means that once you have your ilr you are able to apply for other jobs in the location without sponsorship so for a lot of those looking to move out of audit who might not have been able to do it within the five years would certainly
Be able to do that once you have your ilr then after you’ve had your ilr you can then apply for citizenship and then you get your British citizenship or UK citizenship um in terms of the EU it works slightly differently but we can definitely advise you on all of that um
And make sure that when we are submitting you and sending you over that the clients that we’re representing are offering the right visas that will allow you to secure citizenship at the end of the day if that is what you’re looking to do and just to add one thing is a couple
Of the questions there relating to costs so generally speaking the employers incur all the costs on your behalf um the only time you’ll be liable for anything is if you leave within their guarantee period um and each firm is a different guarantee period um so there’s
No Financial cost for you um if you are married Etc that does depend on the the country that you’re going to um if they do support um a spousal Visa it does get complicated if you’re not married um so the the spousal Visa stuff does add some
Complexity and we need to chat you through that detail um and I think yeah rather rather not speak about that generically um but ultimately there’s no costs for you as an individual to be able to get that Visa yeah and also importantly to note is um this it’s called a clawback that’s
Basically put in your in your contract and that stipulates the amount of money that the business has put into your relocation and your Visa this amount for most instances decreases incrementally the more time you spend with the employer so from your first six months you would pay the full amount but
After six months that amount decreases slightly until you reach predominantly predominantly it’s a two-year clawback the thing is like the amounts once they start decreasing are not like an astronomical amount where you feel completely stuck and trapped and you’re not allowed to leave or you’re not able
To afford to leave you will be able to afford to leave if you really want to it’s not advisable but it’s possible also in some instances if you do leave before your two years is up a future potential employer is able to take over Your sponsorship and incur
That cost on your behalf again like it’s not always advisable to do that so soon after relocating but it is possible if you decide that it’s absolutely the wrong decision for you and you need to get out and explore a different option um just one one question which I
Thought was great um we may need to pull Daman back or name back but um we’ll probably just pop it on the email but the the transition from Big Four to Mid tier um and I think that’s a that’s a really good question um j’s got more
Detail around this but a lot of it to take into account is um your overtime I think there’s something really important to have a look there I think other other than that it does depend on those kind of personalities so the PWC in London is massive um the number of people that are
Going to be there are like it dwarfs whatever we would have had in the biggest firms at ey in jic for example um whereas a mid tier firm in the UK probably actually aligns a little bit closer to what our big four from a numbers perspective looks like like um
In in South Africa um I think if you look at boo I think it’s got the largest number of listed clients mostly on um on the altic um but you get smaller group of people a little bit more culture sorry like a a different culture of
Smaller Community um and I think the big four are are just big beasts and you might find yourself as a cog and a big machine um but some people Aspire for that for that aspect of it and and ability to grow into a big corporate um I think there’s a lot more south
Africanism in in a mider firm or the ones that we work with um a lot of the partners end up being South African guys um and it just feels a little bit more more personal I think um and more relational um but I think yeah just just
Pay attention to the overtime Ms I think um some of the mid firms will pay over time and the big four generally speaking as far as I know don’t am I right Rish no you are right so um most of the firms don’t pay overtime um they just expected some of
The firms particularly BDO UK which we work with they pay overtime to all audit seniors to assistant managers um but as Daman mentioned your overtime is far less than it is as an article clerk in Johannesburg or in South Africa um so yeah you might not always be able to
Claim the overtime because you haven’t worked it but there is the opportunity to claim if you have um in terms of the mid tier moving from Big Four to Mid tier what a lot of the candidates have said is that they’ve enjoyed gaining more detailed in-depth exposure to
Certain sections of an audit so if you think about it um a lot of your big four experience if you’re with big four you focus on really large clients and with that means that you only have access to small sections within those clients so when you move to a a mid-tier firm that
Works with slightly smaller clients your access or your broadness of exposure is is optimal or is is a lot wider so like it also depends on what it is that you’re chasing if you are art and art big four and that’s all you want to experience and you don’t want to
Consider mider that’s Al okay you don’t have to um but it is also worth just being open-minded about it especially if you’re looking to at some point Branch away from audit to gain detailed industry exposure and Broad industry exposure is sometimes more beneficial to Future employers than if you were focused
Predominantly on a specific SE section within a specific industry or specific organization um this also kind of relates to to some of the questions that we’ve seen where there are some candidates asking about the chances of someone from a mid-tier firm being able to secure different opportunities abroad
Um and if big four is preferred so generally the big four prefer big for experience um the reason being is because internationally they all work similar clients and similar sizes obviously like if you’re comparing UK head officers to South African head offices some of them are a lot bigger in
The South African Branch but the types of exposure to specific sections within a large organization is the same um but if you are mid- tier looking at mid-tier your chances are great um a lot of the organizations are happy to consider what they will do though is test how much
Information that you have and like just how deep your experience and knowledge runs so your interviews you might not H have had as much big exposure but if you’re able to express some of the specific sections that you’ve covered related to particularly the interviewer that you are opposite so one of the best
Things with blue recruiting is we will prepare you for your interview based on who you’re interviewing with if we know the personality so we’ll help you prep your answers to suit what it is that they are looking for based on the experience that you have so certain IND
Certain firms are open to Mid tier because of your broad exposure but other firms would prefer the big four experience cool guys um I’m conscious of time I think what we what we’ll do is we’ll respond to these questions over email you’ll get a follow-up email after
This um I think I think let’s let’s bring this to land I think um the final point is just what to do from here so um as you mentioned don’t feel pressurized but absolutely start thinking about it soon seriously um if you are interested have a chat with us um we’ll get our
Email addresses um in the email afterwards just open the conversation again there’s zero commitment at that point in time and we can discuss various options we’ve spoken at length about the UK but we can speak about all the other locations that you might be interested in and we can field all these questions
We’d love to just open that conversation with us and let’s have have the chat to know to understand what is your level of interest if there is an interest to be able to pursue the UK for example as we said that’s the most urgent one we would
Need a CV and most of you are busy will help you with that CV and at at this stage of your career there’s not a lot of variety to it so we can assist you in in building that for you um but ultimately we need to try and get those
CVS across to cl to the clients round about March April um so there is a little bit of a timeline for us to be able to ensure that if you are interviewing in May that your profile is sent across to them by that stage again we’ll we’ll make sure that the client is
Aware of your level of commitment and it’s absolutely fine to not be sure have a chat to have a chat to the partners a lot of them may be JO South Africans already um chat to them meet them face to face ask them the questions that
You’ve got for us um about all of this big four to Mid tier mid tier how what kind of clients do you got do have and I think there’s a lot of very interesting conversations you can have and if also big four I’d probably be asking I don’t
Know like how big is it is it too big for a South African um ask about the opportunity for growth ask those questions firstand and afterwards you can make your decision we’ll tell you when it’s time to decide um we are not in the business of pressurizing you to
Get a signature on a on a piece of paper however there is a time where the client’s going to be saying to us are they in or aren’t there and at that point we’ll need to be pushing you um but it won’t be our agenda that we
Trying to trying to drive we’ll try to ensure that you have as much time as you can possibly have to be able to make an informed call but the first thing is let’s start having a chat with you yeah sorry grem and I know we want to wrap this up but I
Think there’s one more very important question that we should probably address and that’s around the APC results because I think that’s very relevant for a lot of the candidates on this webinar um we know that a lot of you are still awaiting your results fingers crossed if
You are unsuccessful with your APC it does make relocating very challenging a lot of it has to do with potential potentially visa requirements so you have to be a certain skill level with a certain qualification for businesses to be able to sponsor um in addition to
That in audit for a lot of the firms if they’re going to hire you into an assistant manager position they would want you to be able to register um as a casasa so if you are unsuccessful you won’t necessarily be able to relocate to certain regions
There are some clients that are open to it but it’s very few and far between um so just to set your expectation there but it doesn’t mean the end of the road for you there are still potentially offshore International opportunities that you could explore or opportunities
In the local market that you could look at whilst you rewrite and await your future exam results um but yeah just worth noting that should your results come through on the 23rd of Feb and it’s not favorable your chances of international are limited substantially all right guys well thank
You for all of you that have attended it’s been a great attendance this evening and thanks for all of you who stayed all the way to the end um hopefully it’s been informative um as I mentioned just please guys speak to team we’re here to help um and we’re here to
Answer any of your questions thank you very much for your time have a lucky evening just
Newly qualified Chartered Accountants: Unsure about your next steps? Thinking about relocating internationally?
In this video, Jade Nel, Head of the International Division at Blue Recruiting, and Graeme Marais, Executive Director at Blue Recruiting, chat to South African Chartered Accountants that have successfully made the move abroad. Find out everything you need to know to make the right move when the time comes.
——- Contents of this webinar ———
0:00:00 – Intro
0:08:05 – What International opportunities are there for CAs?
0:18:00 – What is it like living abroad?
0:34:40 – Interview and selection process
0:43:00 – Get your ducks in a row – Visas, passports
0:44:53 – Other international destinations
0:49:33 – Questions & answers