Q&A with Dee Nguyen
UWA Bachelor of Commerce – Management and Accounting graduate (2019)
Dee is a junior accountant, who has been working in the accounting field for 3 years and is currently studying towards her CPA accreditation. Dee came to Australia in 2017 for her bachelor's degree and graduated from UWA in December 2019.
The technical knowledge gained through her study and experience in the field has proven Dee to be capable of working on challenging projects and striving to meet high demands. Dee enjoys working on challenging tasks where she can use her critical thinking to apply suitable technical knowledge to deliver supreme work.
What aspects of working in accounting do you most enjoy?
I have always been passionate about the finance and accounting world. Seeing how each and every index relates to and supports each other has never failed to fascinate me. That is why I am always eager to learn and know more to equip myself and qualify for career progress. I always try to solve a problem in the most time-efficient and accurate manner. My approach to problems is solving them in a way that we will never have to deal with the same problem ever again.
What do you love about the field?
Though accounting may sound like a hard and dry subject, the degree offers a lot of flexibility in career pathways. With an accounting degree, you can be involved in various roles, for example, tax accountant, auditor or in-house accountant.
Working as an accountant, I am exposed to many aspects of finance in an entity, seeing how the cashflows might affect operations and how important each item on the income statements is to the entity. It is helpful to understand these figures not just for your career but for daily life where you have to manage your own finances.
Reflecting on your time at UWA, what experiences were most important for your development?
The most important things that made my journey with UWA so memorable and enjoyable were the society and the people I met. Having served as the social officer in UWA Guild International Services, I got the chance to organise events for international students in the University and help them overcome any difficulties they might have. The University also offers a wide range of events and programs for career development. Those events are great places for networking and meeting professionals in the field – it’s also where I met my mentor and got my first chance to work in the field as an intern.
The degree in Accounting and Management has provided me with the technical knowledge I apply to work. While I use the accounting principles learned every day, what I learned during my Management major helped me deal with unexpected work situations. It is not only the knowledge I learned from university that helps, it is that I got to meet people and make friends who’ve led me to my current path. All the help and advice I received from tutors, lecturers and mentors is invaluable and has played a great role in my current success.
