INTHEBLACK October 2026 - Magazine - Page 34
MEMBER PROFILE
and providing the clear, actionable insights
that help businesses thrive.”
Determined to build his foundational
knowledge, he borrowed an accounting
textbook from his brother to study during
his free time in the army. “I started reading
through the basic accounting frameworks
and found the structured logic incredibly
fascinating,” he recalls.
This newfound career interest led Lim
to enrol at the Royal Melbourne Institute
of Technology in Australia, choosing the
program specifically because its practical
course structure suited his learning style
and professional goals. He initially studied
through distance education in Singapore
before an opportunity arose to transfer
to Melbourne for his final year. “It was really
one of the best times of my life,” he says.
“It gave me the chance to reconnect with
friends and build new relationships that
remain important today.”
Studying in Melbourne also broadened
his professional horizons. Lim discovered
that accounting was far more varied than
he had initially imagined, and he realised he
wanted firsthand experience of how
different organisations and accounting
functions operated.
STEPS TO SUCCESS
Like many accounting graduates before him,
Lim’s first goal was to land a role with one
of the Big Four Australian firms.
“As a university student, I initially faced
a string of rejections in my internship
applications,” he says. Rather than seeing
rejections as a setback, he used the
opportunity to gain experience elsewhere,
securing an internship with an accounting
firm in Singapore, alongside a six-month
stint working in China on a separate overseas
internship opportunity.
“I just knew that beyond classroom learning,
the best way for me to figure out what
I truly wanted to do was through internships,”
he says. “I wanted to give myself as much
exposure as possible and learn from different
environments.”
Lim believes that internships are as much
about attitude and environment as they are
34 INTHEBLACK October 2026
about technical ability.
“There generally are not huge expectations
of interns beyond having the right attitude
and a willingness to learn. There is also
room to make mistakes and learn from them.
More importantly, it is having the right bosses
to create the right environment — I was
fortunate enough to have great bosses.”
Those internships provided far more than
technical experience. They also gave Lim
the opportunity to learn from the people
around him. “I spent a lot of time talking
to senior colleagues and trying to understand
their career journeys,” he says. “I would ask
them about the challenges they faced, how
they ended up where they were and whether they
would make the same decisions if they had the
chance to do it all over again.”
Those conversations helped Lim build
a clearer picture of the career he wanted
for himself.
“I was trying to understand what I wanted
to get out of my career and, ultimately, how
I could contribute and give back.”
The next opportunity came when he crossed
paths with an employee from the accounting
firm KPMG and decided to reach out directly
to inquire about an internship. “I figured there
was nothing to lose. The worst thing that
could happen is he would say no,” Lim recalls.
Welcoming his proactivity, the KPMG
employee said the firm was always looking
for good candidates and encouraged him
to send through his résumé. Soon after, he was
invited to interview with a partner and secured
an internship with the firm’s transfer pricing
team. By the end of the placement, KPMG
offered him a priority graduate position,
guaranteeing him a role once he completed
his studies.
“As the saying goes — you miss 100 per cent
of the shots you do not take,” he says.
BUILDING EXPERTISE
Lim’s early years were spent developing
expertise in transfer pricing as a tax
specialist, which appealed because it drew on
many of the qualities that had first attracted
him to accounting: structure, logic and
analytical thinking. As he gained experience
and looked ahead, his drive to learn and
