Essential advice for the next generation of accountants

Contemplating his career achievements and a senior leadership role at one of the world’s largest professional services firms, Wei Hock Lee FCPA is forever indebted to his late father.

Now the deputy assurance leader at EY Singapore, Lee admits he once considered becoming a mathematician and teacher. However, his pragmatic father suggested pursuing accounting “because you’ll never be out of a job”.

“His rationale was that whether you’re setting up a business, running a business or even winding down a business, you’ll always require an accountant to be involved,” Lee recalls.

Equipped with a Bachelor of Accountancy from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, he has forged a successful career at EY, becoming a partner in 2016 and serving two years in the firm’s New York office on global audit engagements.

Also serving as CPA Australia's Singapore Divisional Council member, Lee leads a team of EY professionals across audit, financial accounting advisory, climate change and sustainability, forensic and integrity, and technology risk management services.

“I took my father’s advice and I’m glad I did,” Lee says.

Highs and lows

Becoming a partner at EY remains a “bittersweet” moment for Lee. While he says such acknowledgement is the “dominant highlight of any professional career”, the promotion came just a year after his wife, Merlin, passed away.

“I still remember that she would always say, ‘Oh, how I wish that I could see you make partner,’” Lee says. “There’s this bittersweet feeling that, well, I had finally made it professionally, yet she’s not around to witness it.”

The personal setback has provided even more motivation for Lee to succeed professionally, and he has drawn on a mix of talent and dedication to make his mark. Despite the talk of artificial intelligence easing the workload for modern professionals, Lee’s advice for up-and-coming accountants is clear: do not underestimate the value of hard work.

“If you don’t put in the work, you are not creating opportunities for success,” Lee says.

An advocate of being genuine and authentic, Lee strives to practise what he preaches every day as he oversees the EY Singapore assurance practice, seeing it as his role to lead a harmonious team that can, in turn, deliver great results for clients.

“What I do day-to-day is try to make a positive impact on employees’ lives and make their life a lot easier in order for them to be able to focus on serving our clients to the best of their ability.”

Deepening the talent pool

With a career-long commitment to the assurance sector, Lee is committed to nurturing the next generation of accounting talent and shaping the future of the profession. In addition to his role at CPA Australia, he is an advisory board member of Singapore Management University's School of Accountancy and a member of the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA) Salary and Career Review Taskforce.

Like many sectors, Lee believes the greatest challenge facing the accounting profession in Singapore is generating sufficient talent. He believes the root cause of the talent shortage is that “there are a lot of misconceptions about the accounting profession”.

Lee believes that such misconceptions include that younger accountants must give up their personal life for their career and that technology will soon replace the role of auditors and other workers.

“These misconceptions deter people from really looking at the positive sides of this wonderful profession, which continues to play a pivotal role in building trust and confidence in the capital markets.”

To combat these challenges, Lee says EY has been encouraging flexible work arrangements for more than a decade, with technological advances making such work options more viable than ever since the pandemic. 

“That continues to benefit our people,” he says.

The firm also views technology – such as generative AI – as an opportunity, not a threat. “AI can help make the profession and the work that we do more interesting and more engaging and, therefore, we can attract some of the younger talent who have a misconception about the accounting profession.”

Lee notes that EY globally has committed to investing more than US$1 billion to develop assurance technology tools and platforms that will help streamline and deliver high-quality audits that respond to the ever-growing expectations of governments, regulators and standards bodies.

The firm has also rolled out EY SCALE, a management associate program designed to develop skillsets and accelerate the career growth of aspiring talent in four distinct career tracks: assurance, tax, strategy and transactions, and consulting.

“We recognise the fact that younger people nowadays like to be exposed to multidisciplinary practices and knowledge,” Lee says.

Add an EY Tech MBA and an EY Masters in Sustainability, and it is clear that EY is not resting on its laurels in the quest to recruit and retain talent.

Sustainability in the spotlight

Part of Lee’s role is to work with organisations to enhance decision-making and navigate risks and opportunities arising from climate change and sustainability issues.

Lee says the aim is to assist clients as they formulate a multi-year sustainability roadmap that includes sophisticated decarbonisation plans. EY is also entrusted with the crucial task of supporting businesses with sustainability reporting and assurance.

A recent EY global survey of institutional investors found that 99 per cent of respondents agreed that environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosures are an important part of their investment decision-making. However, many cited a lack of sustainability assurance as a barrier.

“This is an area where EY can really make a difference,” Lee says.

Elsewhere, he is proud of his CPA Australia divisional councillor role, which serves as a bridge between the CPA Australia board, members and the broader organisation.

“It presents me with a platform to engage with practitioners as well as with CPA Australia members across all walks of life.”

A highlight of the role is regularly hosting the Dinner Talk series for CPA Australia members at which they can discuss topics and trends of the day and connect with their peers socially.

“The talks are a wonderful opportunity for members to network with one another on a regular basis and to broaden connections.”

Three keys for the future

As he looks to the future, Lee believes accounting and finance leaders and employees should keep three things in mind.

First, they should be adaptable as they consider new technology options. Second, they should seek to be “anti-fragile” in a way that goes beyond mere resilience as they respond to serious work and life stressors. Third, they should “earn their right” to success and advancement.

In the latter regard, Lee notes that younger people, especially, often have ideas about changing the world.

“I always encourage them to keep those ideas coming forth, but they also need to learn about having to earn their rights.

“This mantra also guides me,” Lee adds. “I remind myself every day that rights are not handed to you. They are earned.”

One piece of advice

Become a storyteller

“Finance leaders are in a wonderful and unique position of having a full view of how business strategies and decisions manifest into financial numbers.

Nevertheless, the role is not just about assessing what has happened to a business in the past 12 months, but also communicating with stakeholders where the business is heading over the next 12 to 24 months and beyond. To do that, finance leaders need to have a great storytelling ability.”