The holiday and new year period is often a time to consider your next career move. But where to start and what should you be thinking about as you reflect on your options? We asked KPMG’s Paul Vance and Laura White to share some thoughts on why KPMG could be the answer in 2025.
Paul Vance leads the recruitment team at KPMG and has many years’ experience hiring at every level from graduates to more senior hires. We began by asking Paul about the opportunities in KPMG.
“Many of Ireland’s sectoral strengths are in areas where there is strong and persistent global demand such as financial services, tech, agribusiness and pharma.” Paul says that this is reflected in demand for KPMG's related services.
“We have open, exciting roles across the whole tax, audit, deal advisory and consulting space for both graduates as part of our graduate programme and for experienced professionals – all based on growing client demand for what we do.”
Tech savvy
Technology needs smart, insightful people who understand the implications, the risks and the potential benefits of AI.
Given this continued healthy demand for talented people, what part does AI and technology play in all of this? According to Paul Vance, “Technology needs smart, insightful people who understand the implications, the risks and the potential benefits of AI. That’s where the opportunities are for our clients and for our business.”
So while some of the headlines might suggest that a robot could take your job, Paul is very clear that “getting the right people to make things happen in AI will remain essential for the foreseeable future. This is good news for tech savvy people.”
Meanwhile, for colleague Laura White, Associate Director of Experienced Hire Recruitment at KPMG, the changes that have occurred in the breadth of roles available at KPMG are hugely significant. “So many of our new roles are driven by change” says Laura. “Some of it environmental, some of it by technology, some as result of increased compliance requirements.”
Laura says that many of the newer roles are as a result of the dramatic change in the range and number of clients and the “almost eye watering scale of issues and opportunities they face. For example, we have biodiversity specialists on our team. Even ten years ago that might have sounded unusual – now it’s normal.”
Attitude matters
With all the focus on technology, is there a risk that other skills might be forgotten in the hiring process? Paul Vance says that KPMG continues to look for motivated, authentic people.
“We’re a people business, so it’s sound advice to be yourself throughout the hiring process. And while we put a high value on academic achievement, we’re also looking beyond exam results to find out more about you the person. What motivates you? What excites you? How do you relate to others? How do you work in teams? How do you work on your own? These are all indicators for how you might enjoy a career at KPMG.”
The interview
Meanwhile, the interview remains fundamental to the hiring process. So if you do get called for one, what should you be considering? According to Paul Vance, “While academic achievement is an important indicator, at KPMG we look for people who are also curious about the world, who are tech savvy, who are problem solvers and who are also interested in the business.”
Paul also emphases is that most interviewers don’t expect you to know everything, but they do expect you to “be ambitious to want to learn more, to gain qualifications and critically, to want to get experience in a fast-paced environment.”
Learning is a lifelong journey
Many of the jobs that people will be doing in 2030 don’t exist today. So what is KPMG doing to keep the workforce future fit and what can individuals do to keep pace with the changing environment?
Paul Vance says, “At KPMG we have a dedicated award-winning Business School on campus with a vast range of courses for people to take.” He compares it to a ‘fourth level’ experience and it’s still part of the appeal of a career that you never stop adding to your knowledge and insight. “What has changed is the range of courses – it has expanded exponentially and most of them are available virtually .”
Experienced hires
What about those who haven’t thought about a career in professional services before, but are now open to possibilities at KPMG? Paul Vance believes that there are more opportunities for experienced hires to join the firm from industry and this can provide quite a career switch for some specific roles.
“The candidate may be looking for a change of scene but doesn’t want to abandon their core expertise and experience – they just want to do it in a completely new environment and potentially working with multiple clients rather than the one organisation.”
An attractive working environment
It’s about making the workplace as attractive as possible.
KPMG has had a long standing reputation as being a great place to work. So what does this mean for prospective joiners? According to Laura White, “Employees often have choices and employers recognise it, so ultimately it’s about making the workplace as attractive as possible. This is fundamental to our approach. It’s also instinctively better to work with motivated people who feel that their employer shows some responsibility towards them.”
Does such an approach – say via the provision of well-being initiatives, actually pay dividends? “Most people want to work with a satisfied, well-motivated set of colleagues and to feel the same themselves says Laura. “We obviously can’t fix everything for people, but we definitely see the benefit in making strenuous efforts to be a really good place to work – we attract and keep people as a result.”
Getting it right
So how does KPMG approach staying competitive and attractive? Laura White says that “It’s no surprise that we keep everything under review and refresh the supports we offer to take account of changing needs of people as they progress their career and encounter different, often challenging life events.”
Laura says these issues can be age or gender specific, are often health related but they are all connected back to people feeling that they are being looked after. “There’s a lot of science around employee motivation but also a good amount of common sense and experience.”
Laura believes that if you’re leading or part of a team “where people feel they are being treated fairly and with respect, it’s much easier to ask them to go the extra mile. In fact most of the time they’ll want to do their best possible job regardless.”