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PHOTO: ALAN CHEUNG AND SUNNY YU
waterhouseCoopers in London as an audit
manager.
Tong describes his office – 1 Embankment
Place, one of seven PwC locations in
the British capital – as really globalized and
international.
“There’s not just people from Britain. It’s
quite a good thing that you can meet people
who you wouldn’t usually meet in Hong
Kong,” he says.
Tong, who was promoted to audit senior
manager before being seconded to the
United Kingdom a year ago, can’t help but
compare work-life balance in London with
Hong Kong.
“You can see the difference... The people
in the U.K. are more focused during office
hours,” he says. “They try to get all the things
done in a short time so that they can leave
work earlier, but in Hong Kong people tend to
Joyce Lee
Director, audit
work long hours. But, I don’t think the workload
in Asia is much more than in the U.K.”
Having worked in the same office in Hong
Kong for eight years, assisting clients mainly
in Greater China, one of Tong’s biggest difficulties
came when he first moved to London
in November 2011. “I didn’t have much experience
working with westerners or foreigners.
Although the work is the same, I needed to get
used to a brand new client base and working
with brand new people,” he recalls.
With the subject of accountants and long
working hours constantly recurring, Tong
brings the topic to a more positive light. “For
young professionals, this is a very good investment
for your future, because you are
doing two or three times more than [what] all
your peers or other people are doing.”
Tong’s relative youth doesn’t mean he can
keep pace without trying hard.
“I don’t see any
major issues
with becoming a
female director...
It’s all about
enthusiasm and
professionalism–
[qualities] that
are most valued
by people in the
field.”
A PLUS
“All the accounting standards, all the auditing
standards are always changing, so
you really need to keep yourself up to date,
do some reading, training, and go to workshops,”
he says.
Learn from the best
Joyce Lee is attracted to fresh challenges.
This is one of the reasons why joining the
profession appealed to her in the first place.
She admits, however, that work pressure
and long hours are just some of the not-sonew
hurdles she encounters continuously as
audit director at Grant Thornton.
“One of the main challenges involves getting
and understanding new clients, their
organizations and their practices,” says
Lee, an Institute member in her early 30s,
who joined the firm in 2007 and previously
worked for other large CPA firms.
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