Gabriella Szakolyi started her audit career in Cyprus, one of the financial centers of Europe. There, she enjoyed working at a Big 4 company for twelve years. Moving to the Netherlands, she experienced a shift in the work and transitioned to Reanda Netherlands, where she rediscovered what she was missing.
“In Cyprus I really liked the firm,” Gabriella starts. “We had a big variety of clients both local and international. What I liked about the work is that I was doing everything from A to Z; planning, risk assessment, the whole field audit, concluding and wrapping up—everything.”
From A to Z to a tiny fraction
Moving to the Netherlands didn’t interrupt Gabriella’s career. In just a week’s time she started at the same company and she could carry on with the work. Only in a different way. ”Unfortunately, there was quite a difference which meant that I would work on only a tiny fraction of the audit. I went from twenty to about four to five clients a year. Before, I had a full overview of the clients’ businesses, and it was nice to see the end result of your work in the audit opinion. But now I didn’t get that and just worked on some single sections. It was quite mechanical. Especially when the next year came around with almost exactly the same tasks. There was not much challenge as it was very by the book and more like box ticking.”
“You don’t get bored at Reanda, that’s for sure.”
– Gabriella Szakolyi – Audit Manager at Reanda Netherlands.
Trust and diversity
Gabriella had seen Reanda’s office in Cyprus as well. “It turned out that it’s an international company. Reanda’s clients are from all over the world and there is this cultural diversity in the office as well. Reanda was my obvious best choice after working at the Big 4; they offer a niche with a focus on international clients. That’s really unique.”
After one and a half years working in the Netherlands, Gabriella switched to working at Reanda. Again, it was a big contrast. “At Reanda I found what I was missing from Cyprus. What I liked very much is that from day one I was engaged with clients and handling full audit engagements. There was immediate trust. It is so much more interesting, working with a wider variety of clients from different sectors. These clients are medium or large in size, but still the full picture is there. And there is always something new to learn. There’s nothing mechanical. You never get bored.”
“People like it here and they stay. They are taken care of from day one.”
Feeling right at home
“People are happy here, we hardly have farewell parties, I can confirm that. Of course I had international colleagues at the Big 4, but here, it’s a completely different level. After being abroad for half of my life, this feels like home because we all share a similar background. Besides that, there is a warm environment and atmosphere at the office. Everyone is approachable, up to partner level. The partners work with everybody in the team, juniors, seniors, and always offer guidance. That was a big difference, even to Cyprus. There are so many of us and we are able to combine our knowledge and form the collective wisdom of the company.
Growth cements culture
With Reanda’s fast growth there was always the concern if such culture the people appreciate would be affected. In the end there was a very rational explanation from our People & Culture manager why that didn’t happen. “When the entity is small, the culture is still forming. And now that there are so many of us, it’s getting cemented in a way. It’s not easy to change it to something else. People enjoy the culture and it’s an important aspect of the firm. Our recruitment team is doing a great job with that; they know what they are looking for and they find the right people. I noticed it during my interview too; I’ve never had an interview before where fitting into the culture was so important during the hiring process. We had a very nice talk, no stress, no probing technical questions. Because if I don’t fit, it doesn’t matter how experienced I am. It was very striking. I’m glad I got to find what I was looking for.”
