Runjing Zhang’s very first week at Reanda Netherlands was a bit of a whirlwind, but in the best possible way. “During the first week, I had my first meeting with a new Chinese client and it was also the day where I had my final exam for the RA title. I was very nervous for both the exam and the new client meeting! But I seemed to pass both! Everything started from that day.”
While studying for the title of registeraccountant (the Dutch equivalent of the CPA) Runjing met with one of Reanda’s partners in the classroom: Olga Lukashenko, who was also studying for the RA title. “Olga told me a lot about Reanda and I was interested. From what she told me, Reanda was an international firm and very open. I wasn’t sure about the audit industry at first, as it’s known for pressure and overtime. But how she described Reanda… I found it different. It seemed more people-oriented. And it got me curious. So when it was time for me to change firms, I knew I had to contact Olga.”
Reanda’s China Desk
Starting as audit manager, now senior audit manager, Runjing’s responsibility is to lead the China Desk. This is where Reanda provides audit services for clients with a Chinese background or who speak Chinese. “The language advantage is very beneficial. Not just in the daily communication, but in the audit work as well as some of the documents are written in Chinese. That’s why the China Desk exists: so that we have a very dedicated team to make sure there are no language barriers and that we fully understand each other.”
“The thing that would carry you further in your career are soft skills.”
– Runjing Zhang, senior audit manager.
Runjing’s day to day work as manager is a bit of a mix; more on the managing side and a bit less on the performance side. “I make sure each team member knows what they are doing and I help them achieve their timeline. It’s an intermediate function where I help and support the team and report to clients and partners. A small part of it means being involved in the more complicated and challenging accounting or audit issues as a preparer.”
Technical skills and soft skills
As a fresh RA and audit manager, Runjing knew what was expected of her when she joined Reanda in terms of managing, but the new responsibilities made her switch priorities. “Before I always thought that if you wanted to be a partner or manager you had to be very good at technical skills. But the moment I got to this higher level, I realised there is a limitation of technical skills that one could have. You need years of study to be an expert on something and even then, there’s always something that’s new or updated so you’d need to keep up. But you can’t really know everything. There’s a limitation. And the thing that would carry you further in your career are soft skills. That’s where you start to think about your client relationships, your communication with your team, negotiation on timeline. There is a switch between being a performer and a manager.”
“I like it, in a way that it’s challenging. It’s dealing with people, not with numbers. It’s completely different. There’s no fixed formula that you can apply; there are other things to consider. People have emotions and everyone is different. You need to constantly adjust and customise for everyone that you talk to. It requires people skills.”
“I want to make a good impact. That’s the value that carries me to constantly contribute to make myself relevant.”
Contributing to a changing world
Runjing keeps working on her soft skills and is also looking for the next thing to sharpen her skills. “The world is changing. You need to keep up with your own set of skills to be able to adapt and keep making yourself relevant. It’s also my own personal value that I still want to—well, not to change the world, that’s too big,” Runjing muses. “But the things I do, the tiny things, I at least want to make a good impact on something. At Reanda, that’s audit related, the continuous improvement of our audit quality, but also the growth of my team. I want to make audit fun for the team, motivate them. Help them achieve quality audit work, but try to keep it within the eight hours a day. It’s my ultimate goal to keep my team happy and I don’t want to push them. We are humans, not machines.”
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