As we did in early 2018, in January 2019 Harris Black again participated in the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ) Achiever Program and offered a couple of accounting graduates the opportunity for a 3 week ‘paid industry experience’ at our firm. The program is designed to give employers such as Harris Black access to some of the most exceptional graduates and in turn to give accounting graduates a real taste of working as a team member in their chosen industry.
The graduates joining Harris Black for the CAANZ Achiever Program were each selected from hundreds of final year tertiary accounting students who applied to be part of the program and were required to participate in quite a rigorous selection process before ending up with placement at Harris Black. The selection regime included an initial online application followed by some serious interactive cognitive testing, a video submission, phone conversations and a personal assessment before finally attending a one on one interview with HB Director, Renee Bettenay.
Prior to last years’ CAANZ Achiever Program, all Harris Black Directors and staff collaborated on an induction and orientation process for use with our visiting CAANZ Achievers which covered all aspects of working as a Harris Black team accountant. It was quite a successful program previously and after some review and update, it was again put into action for our 2019 participants. With an exceptional team effort by all HB staff members, our CAANZ Achievers were able to actively participate in a variety of accounting work under supervision and had opportunity to apply and develop their learning further. Everyone in the HB team participated and had a part to play, something which our visiting grads found incredibly impressive and well exceeded their expectations with regards the attention, support and training they received.
Ultimately, the program was a resounding success for both Harris Black and for participating graduate, Matthew Mok. During a ‘debriefing session’ with Renee towards the end of his stay, Matthew expressed his sincere gratitude and admiration of the Harris Black team culture and their commitment to clients. Harris Black on the other hand were so impressed with Matthew’s ability and enthusiasm over his time with our firm that we offered him a permanent position as a graduate accountant… which he readily accepted!
Welcome to the firm Matthew. All are excited to have you on board!