Mayuri Parmar graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Forensic Accounting from the Fiji National University’s (FNU) College of Business, Hospitality and Tourism Studies (CBHTS) in December 2019. Parmar recalls her memories from FNU as a joyous one.

“FNU has been a very good experience. Between travelling to Ba and Namaka campuses from Lautoka, I made many friends and good memories. The lecturers have always been supportive and responsive. Classes were conducted well, and notes were uploaded well before time and in a well-presented manner. The contents of the courses were always on point and relevant to practical work.”

Sharing her views about the programme, she said, “I enrolled in the postgraduate diploma programme as this was important for my professional growth. The course structure was well planned out. The assignments given expanded my knowledge, and I have become better at doing research and writing research papers. This has made me confident that I can pursue a master’s level education, and I am sure that I can conduct research studies.”

“It required thinking beyond the calculations and accounting equations. My favourite unit was Advanced Financial Reporting. Some terms were rarely used in Fiji as our economy is small, so not all accounting standards are directly applicable. Hedge accounting was one of the newest topics for me; it was interesting,” she added.

Parmar began her professional journey at Ernst and Young Global Limited (EY) as a Level One Graduate Auditor in the Audit and Assurance section. After three months, she progressed to Level Two Graduate Auditor in the same unit.

“EY is an internationally recognised firm, and I was overjoyed when I was recruited here. This was also my first full-time job, so it was double the joy.”

One year later, she joined Praful Patel & Associates as an Accountant in the Business Advisory Services and Taxation section.

“I liked the accountant role more. As an auditor, I only used to overview the accounts while as an accountant, I had to prepare the accounts and tax returns. I learnt a lot more as an accountant as my job was more in-depth. Further, I also assisted in property management and investments.”

In October 2018, she was promoted to Senior Accountant in the same unit.

After completing her postgraduate qualification in December 2019, she applied for a job at Pherrus Pty (Fiji) Ltd as a Senior Accountant – Financial Services (Compliance and Consulting) and was successful.

“The company only has Australian Clients. We work in teams with Accountants in Charge (AICs) being the head of each team. Most of the AICs are in the Sydney office (Head office). Junior Accountants report to Senior Accountants who report to AICs.”

“What I liked about my job was that it made me an all-rounder; from taxation to business advisory to financial accountant to operational accountant. It pushed me and challenged me to think outside the box. Because the nature of work was such, every single day, I was learning something new. Also, because it is an Australian client based company, I learnt a lot of new things thoroughly, which I did not when I was an accountant for Fiji based clients in my previous jobs.”

Parmar resigned in August 2020 to pursue a Master in International Trade at Chungnam National University in South Korea.

Sharing her top three tips for graduates starting in their career, she said, “be open to change, do not get discouraged when things are not going your way. Do not be afraid to make mistakes; it is part of growing and learning. Take feedbacks and criticism positively; these are given to improve yourself and bring out the best in you.”