Today is the first day of my 6-month internship at BDO, Kuala Lumpur. Stayed in Ipoh, I came to Kuala Lumpur around one week before, I spent this whole week exploring the surroundings and of course, the tourist spots in Kuala Lumpur, short to say the food here is not comparable with the one in Ipoh, another thing I feel is the working life in Kuala Lumpur is hectic, all the working adults are either suffer the burdensome traffic jam or waiting for the long queue to reach to their working places, for me, this kind of lifestyle is tedious but it can be denied that the public transport system is here is definitely the best we have in whole Malaysia and I firmly believe this 6-month internship will be an eye-opening experience for me!
To kickstart my first internship day, I woke up 30 minutes earlier, dress up, and took my breakfast, luckily for me, I just need to walk around 10 minutes to reach the office. I reached the lobby and the receptionist welcomed me and brought me to level 7, to meet with the Human Resource colleague, she introduced herself, and after that, she passed me the laptop and my access card. We spent around 30 minutes for me to check and set up the laptop, I was given my very own BDO email which I will be using as the only communication way to reach the clients and my colleagues. After that, I befriend another new joiner who is also joining the same department as me. After that, our Human Resources colleagues briefed us a little bit about the company's background and rules.
From the short orientation I joined, there are several things I have been told and learned. Starting with the services offered by BDO, there are six main lines of services which are audit & assurance, advisory, tax, and business services & outsourcing. Next, I learn about the hierarchy of BDO, it is headed by Managing Partner, Dato Gan and followed by four heads of departments that monitor the six service lines. Then it is the partner (for the audit line) or executive director that take care of the managers and the executives. We are also being briefed regarding the rules and culture in BDO.
Then our Human Resource colleague brought us to have a tour to visit the whole BDO office, we were informed that level 7 consists of finance, admin, learning and professional development, people, and culture department. On the same floor also have the facilities of the gym and swimming pool. For us, our line is namely technology advisory service which is grouped under the Advisory department which is located on level 8. Reaching level 8, the Admin colleague showed me the place I am going to sit and I was being placed behind the assistant manager, Miss Thao who will be teaching me and supervising me for the whole month before her resignation. She introduced me to the team and two of my colleagues are my university time seniors, I am glad to meet them in the same office. Then Thao showed me the teaching material for me to go through then starting tomorrow she will brief me and teach me all the things that are necessary for me to do during the six-month internship. The time then come to 5.30 evening, then I packed my things and walk back to my room to rest and digest the things I have learned.
Main things that have learned
I learn about the company's background and culture of the company. In addition, the service lines offered in the firm and a tour of the office surrounding.
Comment/idea/opinion
I would say joining a big firm like BDO is eye-opening for me, I did work in a small audit firm before that, and I would say the working environment, company sizes, and facilities are astonishingly different. I also found out that the majority of my colleagues here did hold accounting professional paper qualifications or another relevant professional certificate, this has made me have the firm mindset that I need to get one just like them. On the other hand, all my colleagues are nice and friendly, I believe I will not have a big issue working with them in this six-month period and instead I will extremely enjoy to be with them in the same department!
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