Auditors face new challenges every day. Sili Lin, audit supervisor at Reanda, has met those challenges head-on and continues to seek out new learning opportunities. We talked about her growth and the support needed to gain the confidence to step out of your comfort zone and meet those challenges.
Sili’s plan was to start her career in the Netherlands as an auditor as it was the quickest way to learn the local accounting standards and law and legislations. “I knew Reanda by chance through a friend who had worked there and when I looked them up I saw they had a China desk. During the interview Gerard mentioned they had a big Chinese client. It spoke to me. It was a nice opportunity to work with a famous international client; it gives you the opportunity to understand their accounting systems. It was a strength for me to use my mother tongue and cultural background and at the same time I could learn more about the Dutch legislation because they would have to comply with the standards here.
A close-knit international team
She accepted the job and started three years ago as junior assistant auditor at Reanda’s China desk. “At that time Reanda was still quite small, but the team is very international and we were quite close working together. I was looking for an international company as they are more inclusive. Here in the Netherlands, I am an international. But if you’re an international in the international community or company, everyone is the same. You won’t feel like you’re the only one and you have more things in common. It would be an advantage instead of a disadvantage. I like working with people from different cultures. Here we always have lunch together. It’s a nice opportunity to have a chat with other people besides my team members.”
“It gave me the confidence to take on challenges instead of avoiding them”
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes
“I am very fortunate to have worked with good audit managers. I learned a lot from them and I see them as a work role model where I try to learn from their technical expertise and their people leadership. They helped me to grow in the company. What I’ve experienced at Reanda is that if you work hard and are open to learning, your efforts really do get noticed. One thing my manager told me early on was, ‘don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Prepare well, learn from mistakes.’ That really gave me the confidence to take on challenges instead of avoiding them. I think some of the biggest steps in my development came through these tough situations, where I really pushed myself.”
Stepping up to the plate
One of these tough situations occurred when Sili had just been promoted to senior assistant auditor and there was an internal change in the planning. Some team members were allocated to other engagements and she had to take on more roles and lead the team management. “That really gave me a lot of experience on how to work with the team, the management, and how to communicate with clients. It was difficult at first, because you feel the pressure. It was my first time in a supervisory role. Everyone is looking at you for answers or instructions. But after sometime, you get into it and I had the support of my team and the management who all understood the situation we were in. I could trust my team members and I knew that if I prepared and tried my best it would work out.”
“As an auditor in general we have new challenges every day.”
Returning that trust
The hard work had paid off and her efforts and growth were recognised. Sili was promoted to the role of audit supervisor. Here she is also responsible for the growth of her junior members and she gets to repeat the words that helped her grow. “You learn from the mistakes you make. I need to understand what the juniors can do and I need to teach them in areas they don’t know about. I give them learning opportunities and when I feel they do too much of the same, I need to give them a challenge to develop. That is unavoidable for an auditor. You can’t always face the same situations.”
“As an auditor in general we have new challenges every day. Personally, I always want to work with new clients because it means new situations. You need to gain an understanding of the entity, their internal controls and organisations. It’s a learning process. You have to invest time in a new client, start the workpaper from scratch and learn to get to know each other. As for my colleagues I think I can feel the same sentiment: we are not afraid to leave our comfort zone and we get the opportunity to do so.”
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