By Luyanda Mngadi,
I am a dynamic lady who is a travel addict, a foodie and lover of good books.
My journey as a Chartered Accountant began in 2004 when I studied BCom Accounting at the University of Johannesburg. This is a 3-year course, the pre-requisites of which are mainly Accounting and Mathematics.
To be a Chartered Accountant however, you need to add an Honours/CTA year to your studies. In CTA, the major subjects are Accounting, Tax, Finance and Auditing. I joined PwC in 2008 where I did my 3-year articles and during those articles, I wrote both my Board I and Board II exams. Board I exams are written shortly after CTA and Board II results are written about 18 months later. After a total 7 long and challenging years, I qualified as a Chartered Accountant and so my exciting journey in PwC began!
As qualified Chartered Accountants, some people leave professional services firms to pursue other career opportunities in corporate such as Financial Controller, Financial Manager etc. Having stayed at PwC, my career has mostly been in Auditing, and I am primarily focused in the Energy, Utilities and Resources sector. That said, I have a lot of experience in the mining sector. The beauty about my career in PwC however is that I have had different career journeys within the firm, my favorite being international exposure.
PwC is a multinational firm with offices in 157 countries, so the global opportunities are endless. When I completed my articles in 2010, I went on a 6-month secondment to our office in Chicago. It was nerve-wracking, exciting and challenging at times as I not only felt the pressure of working in a new environment, but my mind was opened to working with people of diverse backgrounds. It made me a stronger person both personally and professionally. Today, working in teams, networking and meeting different kinds of people is one of the reasons why I love my job so much and I am so passionate about it. I also travelled a lot throughout USA in that time.
In 2015 I did my first Global Audit Quality Review where I was in a global team performing quality inspections of another PwC firm. We were in the PwC Toronto, Canada office. Through the same exposure I also went to Ghana and Namibia. I am very passionate about the mining industry and was part of a team that wrote PwC’s annual SA Mine publication, which highlights trends in the South African mining industry. In 2016 I was part of the global team that wrote our annual Global Mine publication, which highlights trends in the global mining industry.
This is a project we did in Melbourne, Australia. In the same year I moved to our office in London for an 18-month secondment where I was a Chief of Staff to our Global Markets Leader. Again, a career pivot but within the same firm. The travel bug bit again and I travelled in Europe, USA, Asia and the Middle East. This was quite a rewarding experience for me, not only from an international exposure point of view, but also because I was working with and learning from the Global leaders of the firm.
I came back to South Africa in April 2018 and today I am a Partner in the firm and couldn’t be more proud. I still do the things I enjoy such as working with teams and developing people, adding value to my clients and travelling the world while I’m at it.
The advice I would give to young people is that nothing worth having comes easy. Hard work pays off, so it is important to be consistent, stay focused and be intentional about your dreams. It’s true when they say that it takes many years to become an “overnight success”. I recently read a book by an inspirational entrepreneur who stressed the importance of service before reward. If you are not sure about the career you want to choose then make sure that you ask those important questions and get a mentor where you can. Also important to make sure that you give back and develop others as you climb your ladder of success.
