5 aspects to help you choose your ideal career

Choosing a career is among the most important decisions you’ll ever make, so how do you know what your ideal career is? You've already narrowed down the options by selecting your degree, but the planning doesn't stop there.

Next, you need to think about which practice area interests you, what kind of organisation you want to work for and which industry you ultimately want to work in.

As a tax professional, you’ll have the opportunity to work in a variety of industries, from financial services to fashion. There are plenty of opportunities, so how do you decide? Here are five fast tips to help you identify your ideal career.

Assess your skills

When it comes to choosing your profession, it’s critically important to know where your strengths and talents lie. By aligning your natural skills with your chosen profession you’ll have a greater chance of success and career fulfilment. For instance, if you have a thirst for knowledge and are always looking for ways to improve things, it might be worth thinking about a career in tax, since tax laws change constantly.

Survey your family and friends

Often your family and friends represent a wealth of insight into your habits, behaviours and the areas in which you excel. That’s why it’s worth asking them to list your skills and talents as well as the character traits that they admire – you may be surprised at what this process reveals.

Take the time to write down your top 10 strengths and abilities. Be honest and list everything you’re good at. You might also like to make a list of qualities you’d like to improve upon. How does this match up to the options you’re considering?

Pay attention to what excites you

Often, the things that excite us offer powerful clues into the career that will fulfil us the most. So next time you feel a charge of excitement when you achieve something, don’t ignore it – that feeling is a clue to the kind of work you’ll find fulfilling. Make a list of all the things that interest you and that you enjoy doing. Then compare it to the list of your strengths and abilities. Where do they overlap?

Establish your priorities

It’s important your chosen career reflects your lifestyle aspirations and personal goals. If you value a work-life balance, it pays to pick a job that doesn't demand to toil around the clock. If you require a solid, steady income that will allow you to thrive financially, make sure you pick a stable speciality for which you'll encounter regular demand. As a tax professional, you can expect your specialised knowledge to be in high demand from business, government and private citizens, leading to steady employment.

Embrace internships and work experience

Internships and work experience will give you a powerful insight into what you love and what you loathe. Throughout your studies, take the time to approach companies you’d like to work for and offer your services for free – it’s an investment of your time that’s bound to pay professional dividends. Try working for organisations of different sizes to reveal what type of workplace you are most comfortable with.

Finding the right career takes time, as well as a good understanding of your own strengths, interests and priorities. Once you have a clear picture of what’s most important you’ll be on track to finding your ideal career.

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5 skills you never thought were necessary for a tax career

When it comes to choosing the right career, expectations don’t always match up with reality. Often the skills we associate with our chosen profession can differ dramatically from those we should cultivate in order to excel.

For Angeline Tan, tax consultant at financial services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the tax profession offers powerful evidence of this divide.

1. A thirst for knowledge

“It’s commonly perceived that tax is all about the numbers, but it’s also about learning the legislation,” says Tan. “Understanding tax is like learning a new language, so strong literacy skills are really important if you want to get ahead.”

Tax legislation is constantly evolving so you’ll need the ability to adapt to changes and stay up to date. Critical thinking and problem-solving skills are essential to help you apply changing legislation to your clients’ affairs.

2. Good communication skills

Tan says that communication skills are a widely overlooked aspect of a career in tax. The ability to communicate succinctly is critical for tackling client briefs, negotiating with different parties and reconciling professional requirements with client demands.

“It may not be a surprise that to excel in a career in tax, communication is important. But what is surprising is how paramount it is to success. To be a good advisor, you have to communicate what you understand to clients and make sure they understand it too. It’s not enough to be fluent in tax – you need to be able to communicate this with others.”

3. Lateral thinking

Although it’s easy to presume that taxation relies on hard facts and empirical knowledge, Tan maintains that there are plenty of grey areas – a fact that calls for a degree of open-mindedness as well as the ability to think laterally and consider problems from different perspectives.

“There is no right or wrong when it comes to tax. Often understanding and embracing the grey area can mean the difference between a good tax advisor and a great one.”

4. Leadership

During your career, you’ll be leading teams in developing creative ways to solve client problems. Tax professionals often work in teams, so you’ll need to work well with others and have good interpersonal skills to succeed. You could be leading members of your own staff, or project teams made up of a range of external consultants and agencies.

5. Project management

To succeed as a tax professional it’s also vital to have good project management and time-keeping skills to help you deliver projects from end to end. You could be called on to develop information management systems and business processes that underpin the delivery of projects.

Tan says that working as a tax professional involves a willingness to be challenged and learn from experiences. “The ability to be challenged and the opportunity to learn from mistakes and excel are the most rewarding aspects of my job.”

More than an ability to work with numbers, as a tax professional you’ll cultivate a diverse range of leadership, management, critical thinking and problem-solving skills that can be applied to any area of business, industry or government.

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Eva Ewe, FTI. A Tasmanian graduate striving for a career in tax

I joined The Tax Institute because I wanted to equip myself with a deeper understanding in the application of tax law. My firm’s partner also encouraged me to join the Institute because of the access to tax resources and the wider tax community. I am currently part of the Hobart Young Tax Practitioners discussion group. We meet on a weekly basis to discuss monthly tax updates, and a person within the group presents on a topic of their choice. It’s a great way to interact with peers within the industry, from different accounting firms.

In 2009, I completed a bachelor of law from University of Tasmania and became a qualified legal practitioner. However, I decided to embark on a Masters of Professional Accounting in order to provide myself with an edge. In my penultimate year, I managed to secure an internship with Accru Hobart via the Chartered Accountants Achiever Program and was offered a job upon completion of the internship. I’ve been with Accru Hobart for close to 4 years, and became a Chartered Accountant in September 2015. I am hoping to start The Tax Institute’s Graduate Diploma of Applied Tax Law in 2016.

I am involved in tax and audit within the firm. I deal with a lot of not-for-profits and SME businesses. This involves tax compliance matters, providing written statements of advice, advising on business structures and related tax implications, and more.

I’ve enjoyed the learning process I’ve had throughout my career. There isn’t anything specific, but the challenges that have come along have pushed me to work harder in providing solutions that clients need. I always get a sense of achievement when clients are happy with the services provided.

Are you looking for career progression? Find out more about The Tax Institute's education programs and subjects.

5 ways to enhance your digital footprint

Your online profile can be a gateway to your career, so how can you use your digital presence to move swiftly into your next role? Here are five things you should know about your digital footprint.

A digital footprint is the trail of data that users leave on digital services. From websites to social media profiles, your digital footprint can be used to showcase your career – so make sure you know how to optimise it.

First ask yourself: how will people find me? Then follow it up with: what impression will they obtain from my digital presence?

1. Make your mark

Potential employers will almost certainly plug your name into a search engine, so make sure you have a digital presence in the first place. If you have a common name, try to distinguish yourself with your middle name or a creative tagline, e.g. ‘aspiring tax specialist’.

2. Leverage your presence

Having a digital presence can help you find networking opportunities as well as push your name into someone’s sights. A career-oriented social network like LinkedIn is excellent for showcasing your skills, education and experience in a professional manner and acts as a searchable résumé for when an employer is looking for someone just like you. Websites are now so accessible and cheap that you may also choose to build your own for this purpose.

3. Eliminate the bad and irrelevant

Growing up online has it benefits, but it also has some drawbacks. You need to be aware of all the not-so-good stuff that can pop up in a search, which may include everything from angst-ridden poetry from when you were 13 to websites where people may have posted rumours or insults about you. If you can’t delete or hide these, at least make sure the good things rank higher.

4. Curb questionable behaviour

Everyone acts differently at work compared to how they act around their friends. Online, this distinction is often blurry, so it’s good practice to behave as if future employers are watching. This is the same rule you should apply whether you are engaging with others on social media or commenting on blogs and news articles. This means no negative behaviour such as posting anything unnecessarily aggressive or defamatory in nature.

5. Be yourself

While you don’t want potential employers to stumble upon something embarrassing and get the wrong idea about you, having an immaculate digital footprint is also a little unnerving. Authenticity wins over ‘too good to be true’, so don’t be afraid to be human.

The web is a great tool used by employers to find and research potential employees. Make sure you’re on their radar and primed to give the right impression when they do.

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If you are a tertiary education student, The Tax Institute can help you progress in your career journey.

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A to-do list for first-year tax students

In a competitive environment such as the tax and accounting industry, it’s never too soon to start laying the groundwork for your future career. Here are five things you should aim to get sorted during the first year of your university tax course.

Develop a good grasp of the tax system
You can't build a house without a firm foundation, and gaining a solid understanding of the Australian tax system as soon as possible is the first step to a great tax career. You can – and probably will – spend a lifetime learning all its intricacies, but you'll want to nail the basics early on. (You may find enrolling in The Tax Institute’s CTA1 Foundations taxation course an effective way to achieve this.)

In particular, get your head around GST
It's the aspect of the tax system you’ll encounter more often than any other and, as you’ll soon come to learn, there’s a lot more to it than just whacking 10 percent on top of the cost of many (but not all) goods and services.

Join The Tax Institute
This one should be a no-brainer. Aside from free access to the leading Taxation in Australia journal – which can make all those assignments much easier – you will find the support you need to not only get you through your studies but to set you up for a successful career in tax plus it’s FREE! Join up right now.

Set up an internship
There's no better way to acquire practical experience and make some useful connections than through an internship. Australia's Big Four firms – Deloitte, PwC, KPMG and Ernst & Young – are the prestige destinations. All four have student programs, so bookmark these pages and visit them as often as you can:

• Deloitte
• Ernst & Young
• KPMG
• PwC

But don't limit your search to major (or even minor) accounting firms – companies in almost every industry have finance departments where you can pick up practical experience.

Attend at least one industry event
Getting your name out there at networking events is a perfect way to make contacts that will help you down the road. The Tax Institute has a calendar of key industry events that are listed by state so you can find one close to home and at different levels in your careers.  

Your first year at uni will be a remarkable period of personal and intellectual growth. By all means enjoy your new environment, but don’t forget to do the legwork that will set you up for a great career when you graduate.

Give yourself the edge with free Student Membership
If you are a tertiary education student, The Tax Institute can help you progress in your career journey.

Find out about Student Membership.