I rejected the CPA Scholarship when I was a junior at the university
Because I’m working as an advertising consultant, besides my family and close friends, not many people know my major in university was finance. I studied corporate finance for 4 years with a vague dream of being a forex trader although I didn’t know exactly what a forex trader usually did. However, an event happened that completely changed my career path.
Early in 2012, when I was in my third year at the university, I attended a career event where Ernst & Young, one of the four big audit firms, talked about their CPA Scholarship. Basically, all the third year students could apply for this scholarship which had 3 rounds: application, writing test and group interview. I didn’t think a lot when I wrote my application; to me, this was sort of an opportunity to practice for the real application war that would be coming in the fourth year. Then, right before the Lunar New Year, I received an email announcing that I made it to the second round.
When I arrived at the writing test location, I recognized there were many top students in my department and other departments who also applied for this scholarship. I immediately thought that I would never be able to compete with the auditing students because I was sure the questions would all be about auditing, which was not my strength.
Surprisingly, I passed the writing test, which included multiple-choice questions for general and auditing knowledge. In the auditing part, I chose my answers randomly because I had not yet studied that subject. I guess I did well on the general knowledge questions while the other students did not. Then I went into the group interview round with 19 other students. In this round, each of us would pick a topic randomly from a box, get 10 minutes to prepare, 10 minutes to present the topic and 10 minutes for questions from the judge and other students. The score was decided based on the speeches we delivered and the questions we asked other candidates.
My task was to describe one of my part-time jobs. I decided to talk about my film translation job, which I did in my first year at the university and then I dropped in my second year to focus more on my studies. I chose it because it could showcase my exposure to English, which is good for an international audit firm. Moreover, I was able to show them how I prioritized my part-time job and my studies at the university. I think I did well because the judge listened to my presentation carefully and had some follow-up questions, which I could easily handle. I also asked some questions of other students, and there was one impact question that made the three judges nod their heads in agreement. After a girl from the auditing faculty talked about the movie industry in Vietnam, I asked her what she thought about the current trend of remaking Korean movies and dramas in Vietnam.
Two weeks later, when I was in the university canteen with my friends, I received a call from the HR person of Ernst & Young, telling me that I was selected for the scholarship. To be very honest, I didn’t feel happy because I got the scholarship, I felt happy because I was the winner. Everyone congratulated me for getting the scholarship, but I wasn’t really sure whether I wanted to pursue the CPA program and then work in an audit firm or not. Then came the day when I went to the Ernst & Young office to sign a contract for the scholarship. Essentially, I would be able to study the CPA program for free, with their financial support, which was around 10,000 USD. However, there was a condition that I would have to work for them for at least two years after I would finish the program. Normally, it takes at least two years to earn the CPA certificate. So, if I studied the CPA program right after graduation at the fastest speed, I would finish it when I was 24 years old. Then I would have to work for them until I was 26 (which was last year). That condition was a tough one, especially since I wasn’t excited about being an auditor. I still signed the agreement though, because being able to secure a job as a junior was a miracle.
When the other winning students were still discussing how they would create a group on Google or Facebook for us to communicate easily, I went to the restroom. In order to go there, I had to pass by the working area. I still remember that image vividly. At 5:30 pm that day, there were about 50 people working in that room, all of whom were focusing on their computers and I thought of them as ants who were working too hard. Then I asked myself the question: do you want to work like this for the next 5 years? The answer was absolutely NO. However, it took me a week to think about it carefully and eventually reject the offer. The HR personnel at Ernst & Young were shocked, my friends and family were shocked; but I felt relieved. At that moment, I felt I made the right decision, and I told my mom that I believe that when a door is closed, another door will open, which will potentially lead to many other opportunities.
After that event, I had more thoughts about my career path and what kind of job I should take. Eventually, I realized that I love the Internet and I would love to have a job that is related to the web and can leverage my analytical skills. That’s why I decided to join digital marketing, the industry that I enjoy working in today.
