February 28, 2019

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Meet Glen. 

A third year accounting student in Singapore Management University (SMU) Singapore and active student-volunteer, Glen enjoys meeting new people, eating and participating and organising school activities.

A two-time intern with CCS, we caught up with Glen to learn more about his internship experiences with CCS as a Tax Intern and highlight the key takeaways we thought would be beneficial for aspiring interns and accounting undergraduates.

 

Hobbies? What are you most passionate about?

I am passionate about improving current processes to better serve the community around me, hence, I chose to serve in the 11^th Management Committee of Special Interests and Community Service Sodality (SICS) as the Honorary Finance Secretary in 2018.

 

How did you first learn about CCS?

I first learnt about CCS during the ASoc Symposium 2016 and that it is an affiliate firm of Moore Stephens.

 

Describe your CCS experience in 1 word?

CCS is akin to family.

You do not have to always be the best, but to only do your best. CCS has provided ample space and support to me to reflect on what I have done and what I can improve on. Whenever I have doubts, not only my supervisor but, everyone around is able to take out some time and is willing to help. This has spurred me on to always deliver my best.

 

What made you decide to pursue a second internship with the tax department?

(i) The open-door policy that CCS has;

(ii) Not being confined to a specific job scope

were the main driving factors for me to continue a second internship.

 

How has CCS changed since your first experience?

When I had gone back for a second stint at CCS, it felt as if I had returned from a long break. I was tasked with heavier responsibilities which has trained me to be more sensitive to details. It has allowed me to discover deeper the responsibilities of the tax function apart from the preparation of tax computations and responding to queries.

 

What does a typical day look like for you as an intern in the tax department?

The morning usually entails looking through the clients’ financial statements and preparing the tax computations and request for information documents. For lunch, I will join the tax department for lunch at the Tanjong Pagar hawker centre or 100AM. In the second half of the day, the office will occasionally have a short tea break in the middle of work to celebrate the birthday months or colleagues give out goodies from their holiday trips/baby’s full month.

 

What do you like most about working in CCS?

I like the open-door policy in CCS the most as I feel that it is an environment where people believe in helping one another with the intention to reduce errors along the work flow, which creates a very conducive environment for learning.

 

What do you find the most challenging during your internship?

The most challenging part of the internship would be to continue where I left off in the previous year, as I was expected to continue from where I left off. It took quite a while for me to get back to my previous year work standard. However, it showed me how important it is to be able to adapt to changes in the environment as soon as I can as work was starting to pile up while I was getting familiar with the work processes again.

 

If you could switch roles with anyone else within CCS, what would it be and why?

I would not want to switch roles with anyone else at the moment as I believe that there is still more about the function and the associated soft skills to learn.

 

What have you gained from working at CCS?

Being tasked with greater responsibilities and not knowing how to execute them, I had to speak up and seek help from the team. As I usually get soft-spoken when dealing with people of seniority, this had helped me build my confidence with them and be comfortable in asking questions.

 

What is your proudest moment at CCS?

Knowing that the tax documents that I helped prepare at every stage of the tax process can finally be submitted to IRAS meant that I succeeded in delivering the first stage of providing Tax as a service. This meant that I could review the work I did to solidify my learning from this completed case and transfer this knowledge into the execution of other outstanding cases.

 

How has CCS helped you in your career development?

My educational internship with CCS helped fuel more interest for me to explore the tax function as I build up my career aspirations as a professional accountant. This was the key motivator for me to enroll in SMU’s Advanced Taxation module in the upcoming semester.

 

What advice do you have for prospective CCS interns/candidates?

To always be willing to learn. To not be afraid to clear your doubts and expect the work to get tough with an equal use of the opportunity to apply your accounting judgement, receive constructive feedback and reinforce learning.