I have been working for PwC in Turkey for nine years and for some time I contemplated coming to Greece, mainly for family reasons. Last year, the opportunity emerged to join the Advisory practice at PwC in Greece and thus I now reside in Athens.
Being here for six months, I have found that my career is developing in a very postivie way: I continue to develop myself in many ways within Advisory, and IT auditing specifically, for top tier clients and industry leaders from a wide range of sectors. I continue to improve my skills with the coaching and feedback of my managers. I am still liaising with specialised PwC teams from different countries and work in an international environment. I have more opportunities to develop my management skills, leading my own teams. My international mobility did not cede in Greece; I will participate in audit engagements for Financial Sector clients within the Balkans.
PwC in Greece provides me with a great social environment: All my colleagues are very friendly and helpful, and I meet many new colleagues at the regular social events. PwC in Greece has a theatre performance group, soccer, basketball and sailing teams. In addition, we have the opportunity to participate in PwC's social responsibility programmes. There is also a big expatriate community in Athens, if one prefers to socialise in an international environment. PwC in Greece sponsors my private Greek lessons. Yet, the working languages in our office are both English and Greek.
Athens has many cultural attractions. Many music artists hold concerts in Athens: I could listen to Manu Chao and Nick Cave here. Last night, I went to an ancient Greek theatre where I attended a concert of the Turkish-Greek Youth Orchestrate which is led by one of the most important maestros in the world - Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Athens is great city to live: It is a city with 300 sunny days a year. I live in a house with big balconies and a garden, not far from the city centre. The PwC office in Athens is located in an easily accessible neighbourhood, I can reach my office in half an hour with public transportation. Athens has a very lively nightlife and is one of the safest cities in Europe. Of course, no need to comment on the Greek culture and cuisine. Being able to swim in the clean Aegean sea on the weekends is a big luxury. I will spend my annual vacation on a Greek island just a few hours away from here.
Considering all these, I am very happy with my decision to move to Athens and to work for PwC in Greece. PwC in Greece is really the place where I can realise my dreams. I plan to settle here for the rest of my life. |
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When I first came to Athens I could not have guessed that I would be working with managers and partners that lived in Canada, let alone attend the same University I did back home in Montreal. If there is anything that strikes me the most about PwC in Athens, it is the diverse background of the colleagues I work with.
I moved to Athens six months ago after having lived one
year in Lisbon, Portugal. I am originally from Montreal, Canada but decided that I wanted to try living in Europe. In Lisbon I worked for the same firm I worked for in Montreal so the move was easy and the fact that my background is Portuguese obviously made life much easier there, especially at work. So when I decided to move to Athens to live with my boyfriend, I really thought that my career as a C.A. in Audit was going to end because I was convinced that not speaking Greek would hold me back and I did not know anything about Greek GAAP. Portuguese GAAP was complicated enough; I could not imagine how I was going to manage to learn Greek GAAP.
I have been with PwC for four months now and although I came from another firm, the transition was not difficult. I was given time to adjust and familiarise myself with the PwC methodology before taking on any client. My colleagues were very receptive. At times I was stopped in the corridor by other colleagues whom I had not met before, asking how I was, where I came from and letting me know they would be available to help me, should I need anything.
Being part of a smaller office makes me feel like people know who I am, compared to having worked in a bigger office where I used to feel like a ‘number’. Everyone in the office speaks English so communication has not been a problem for me from the start. Many of my colleagues and client staff I work with have studied abroad and so English is not really foreign to them.
Currently, I am working as an Assistant Manager on two shipping clients which are Foreign Private Issuers (listed on the SEC). PwC has a number of large US listed companies particularly, in the shipping industry, giving me the opportunity to work on English speaking clients, reporting under US GAAP. I could never have imagined how relevant my background and designation could be here in Greece.
Athens is a bustling city; it has a lot of traffic, noise, lots of people and movement. Getting away from the city is necessary at times. There are so many different places to visit in the country and given the proximity of the islands and beach side towns, it is quite common for me to escape away from the city on the weekends. The weather and food is wonderful, that goes without saying and the nightlife is in my opinion one of the best and most exciting I have experienced. |
