Accounting and advisory firm William Buck advocates for employing international students and graduates, who bring both diversity of thought and experience to their team of more than 170 staff in Adelaide.
“When we’re hiring for graduates or any role at William Buck, there’s a certain set of attributes that we’re looking for - things like initiative, self-motivation, drive - and we find that international students tick those boxes,” said Meaghan Matthews, People and Culture Manager at William Buck.
“International students bring a level of enthusiasm, a great work ethic, and often they’ve had to work quite hard to gain their degree and to get to Australia.”
Simran Dhariwal from India and Becky Yap from Malaysia are great examples of the resilience shown by international students. Both completed their studies in Adelaide, and undertook volunteer placements, internships and work experience before being recruited into William Buck’s graduate program.
As part of the graduate program, Simran and Becky were each assigned a ‘buddy’ to teach them the ropes and help them settle in and understand the office culture.
“I’ve settled in really well to William Buck, and that’s because everyone in my team is really friendly and helpful,” said Becky.
“From Senior Account to Director, if I have any questions that I don’t understand, I’m not afraid to pop into their office and ask them.”
International students bring a range of skills and experience to their roles, as well as helping South Australian workplaces increase the diversity of their staff.
“Since joining William Buck, I feel I have been able to break down a lot of stereotypes about working with different cultures,” said Simran.
“I also feel I have been able to bring a lot of different skill sets.
“For example, we use MS Excel heavily in India, and ever since joining William Buck I’ve become the go-to person when it comes to Microsoft Excel related queries.”
Meaghan is keen to break down the misconception that it is difficult to hire international students.
“We find it’s no different to hiring any other grad into William Buck,” she said.
“My message to other businesses about employing international students is that it’s easy, they’ve brought great value to our business, and if you’re not doing it, then potentially you’re missing out on a really great talent pool.”
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