Graduate Careers

No matter what your skills, abilities or background, if you are a bright star, you can find a world of opportunity at KPMG. Gone are the days of the old-fashioned number cruncher. Accountancy is a vibrant, fluid and rewarding career that can take you places — into management, across business disciplines, industries, not to mention the globe!

It’s no secret that KPMG is the fastest growing of the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms in Australia. This success depends greatly on its unique and personal culture. KPMG prides itself on choosing the ‘right’ people and the diversity found amongst its 120,000 professionals worldwide. As Graduate Recruitment Manager, Adam Buxton, says: ‘It’s not just about getting the grades. When you enter KPMG you become part of a friendly, open and global family so it’s important to be both an innovator and a team player’.

What’s most exciting is that KPMG can now extend its search for talent even further. Adam explains: ‘We are now able to take students from a variety of academic backgrounds, which is fantastic news. Recently, the Institute of Chartered Accountants introduced the Graduate Certificate of Chartered Accounting Foundations. Conducted by Deakin University, the course gives students from non-accounting backgrounds a comprehensive grounding in accountancy before they embark on the CA program to become a Chartered Accountant’.

One graduate who has taken this route is Brigid Ferguson, Accountant, Middle Market Advisory. Having joined KPMG in 2007, Brigid says: ‘KPMG has been very encouraging and supportive in my transition to accountancy from a financial services degree’.

A career with KPMG offers many opportunities to develop both personally and professionally. ‘There is often the misconception that KPMG is just an accounting firm’, Adam says. ‘This cannot be further from the truth. Besides audit and tax, there is a multitude of business services where KPMG has a strong presence. For instance, graduates can follow challenging careers within our advisory practice in areas such as sustainability, information technology advisory, financial risk management, and government advisory’. And once recruited to a particular business area, Adam says you are encouraged to take responsibility for your career by identifying experience you want to obtain down the track. This may include working with clients in a specific industry, or a secondment to one of the many other business groups in KPMG.

KPMG’s client list is extensive. It ranges from government enterprises, not-for-profits and large ASX 100s, to some of the most innovative companies at the cutting edge of Australian business. As Mark Geels, Senior Adviser, IT Advisory says: ‘What I love about KPMG is the flexibility in the type of work and the different industries we work with. You’re never doing the same thing’.

As Mark points out, there are always the opportunities for interstate and international travel. With international experience being an increasingly important part of professional development, assignments can be arranged to offices in some 140 countries!

But KPMG’s global interests don’t stop there. In response to the environmental and economic challenge of the 21st century, KPMG is at the centre of the climate change debate. It now has its own Climate Change Resource Centre to help organisations manage climate change issues.

KPMG encourages its people to get actively involved in the local community, and has partnerships with a number of charities including The Starlight Foundation and Earthwatch. We believe that successful careers come from balancing work with families, leisure pursuits and community work. And not forgetting having fun and rewarding achievement!