EXPERT TALK

Albert Wilson (Tax Supervisor at RSM US LLP-US Taxation-SALT Partnership-Ex Deloitte)

1. So how was your experience of interacting with Rajagirians?

It was really great. This is not something I wanted to do recently; I've had this plan for nearly 5-6 years, ever since I graduated and joined Deloitte. After a year, I realized there was something I could do in Rajagiri that I had missed. In Deloitte, there were almost 15–16 people who joined along with me. During the working days in Hyderabad, we used to sit together after the usual working hours, and of course Rajagiri was one of the subjects of our discussions

2. Is there any advice that you would like to share to your fellows, especially those who are interested to be into the Finance sector?

Yes, a few things. In general, learn your fundamentals. Identify your potential and the role that best suits you in a firm, and then adapt yourself to what the firm actually seeks. All of this cannot happen overnight. If you want to work for a specific company or job, you must start planning early. You should be aware of the largest companies and their specific roles in each industry. When I wanted to get into Deloitte, they came here by the end of the first year; that's when I first heard about Deloitte. People were raving about Deloitte, so I assumed it was a good fit. "OK, this is the one firm I've been looking for," I reasoned. I was doing horribly during my internships. I interviewed for 14-15 firms; I did well in all of the other rounds; it was only in the interview round that I failed. I wasn't performing up to par. By second year, I felt compelled to focus on my areas of weakness. I spent an entire night to redo my resume only because I didn’t want any loopholes in my performance. Taxation in the United States is a distinct industry. I didn't have any taxation basics because I did BBA. I spent some time learning about US taxation concepts such as assessment year, fiscal year, and so on. I was attending a number of Management conferences. I'd lost track of time. The disappointing part is that I did not participate in any events during my first year.  I was actually participating in lot of Management fests. I had lost the count of it. It was after the selection in Deloitte only, I understood the value of participating in these events and how it actually molded me.

So, I was given the opportunity to be in a review role, as I have done so many roles and worked with almost every aspect in such a short period of time. After a year, there were more clients, and I was in charge of selecting the team. That was a boost in my career; I got promoted very fast, and that happened because of all these reviews. It had grown from 5 or 6 people to 30 to 40 people when I left about a year ago (after working there for nearly six years). That was a well-known team at the time. As a result, senior management began to recognize my name as the leader of the tax team. So totally what I want to tell here is always try to do more than what is expected from you. You may be exhausted after making 100 steps but try to make that additional 5 or 10 steps which will ultimately make you stand out of the crowd.

3. Is there any peculiar soft skill that you found beneficial and necessary for the employees?

Internally, what we needed the most was constructive criticism as well as empathy. In general, junior employees tend to disregard important emails or updates that must be responded to by the end of the day, believing that they are not that important. It gradually began to affect others as well. Junior employees who responded to all professional communications in a timely manner stopped doing so because they believed that those who did not put forth as much effort in their work received the same treatment as they did. What I did was call them one-on-one, ask them about the issue, acknowledge it, and then explain to them that the work they've been doing is really being monitored.