Find out more about our exciting overseas opportunities ....
Global mobility – SA today, London, New York, or Sydney tomorrow. Exceptional people, world experience.
The international perspective and networking knowledge of our people are particularly important in enhancing value for our clients.
To create such a pool of global citizens, we invest in one of the world’s largest global mobility programmes. One of the ways PricewaterhouseCoopers creates a competitive advantage for our clients is through the mobility of our people worldwide. This ensures we can bring the right resources to solve our clients’ complex business issues. This mobility is also an advantage for our people, in that there are exciting international career opportunities available in a variety of locations worldwide.
A business imperative
Building international business expertise is not only a business imperative that gives our firm a key competitive advantage anywhere in the world. It has also become an important part of our staff’s career development. International assignments benefit our clients, our people, and the firm. Serving our clients wherever they operate is an integral component of our client service philosophy, as is developing people who can approach client problems from both local and global perspectives.
For the global manager of the 21st century, experience in working on multicultural teams will prove to be a distinct professional advantage. International assignments also offer personal enrichment and experiences you can treasure long after you have returned home.
Benefits of the Global Mobility programme can be both personal and professional, such as:
- Career progression;
- Personal development;
- Improve skills and expertise;
- Cultural awareness;
- Global networking/relationship building;
- Creativity and innovation – exposure to new ideas and processes; and
- Opportunity to live and travel abroad.
Of the 151 staff members from Southern Africa who will be on long-term secondments in 2007, 118 are from Assurance. During the financial year to 30 June 2007, Assurance also had 259 people from various offices working abroad on short-term secondments, ranging from three to 12 months.
Popular destinations for Southern African staff:
| Short term |
Long term |
| Australia |
Canada |
| Bermuda and Cayman Islands |
Channel Islands |
| Canada |
Netherlands |
| Netherlands |
Switzerland |
| UK |
UK |
| USA |
USA |
Categories of international assignments:
Long-term international assignments are typically for two to three years, but may last longer. They provide tremendous opportunities to gain a deeper understanding of the host country’s culture, language, business practices and clients. There are various types of long-term assignments:
- Deployed assignments, which are driven by the benefits they will bring the home firm by developing skill sets of selected individuals. These individuals then also have a guaranteed right of return to the Southern African firm.
- International transfers fulfil an important resourcing role, meeting operational and project needs in host countries and providing opportunities for our people to achieve their own objectives.
- Short-term assignments last from three to nine months, and they meet a range of needs for the assignee and the firm – resourcing, staffing projects, transferring knowledge and skills, strengthening the network and developing the individual.
Experience - News from staff abroad
|
Lizanne Barnard |
| Home office: |
Sunninghill |
Host office: |
Amsterdam |
| Period of assignment: |
3 months |
“Working in Amsterdam was very similar to Johannesburg! I was booked on a banking client and coming from TICE that took a bit of adjustment, but it was interesting! ”
Would you recommend international assignments to other PwC staff?
“Yes” |
|
Martina Ling |
| Home office: |
Windhoek, Namibia |
Host office: |
San Francisco, California |
| Period of assignment: |
4 months |
“Best working experience: Senior of a team of at least four people, multitasking, US GAAP experience. Worst experience: Social security card application! San Francisco is a beautiful city with people from all over the world (very multicultural). I met so many new and friendly people and made very good friendships.”
Would you recommend international assignments to other PwC staff?
“Yes, definitely, it opens your eyes, you start to see things differently (from another perspective) and it broadens your horizons.” |
|
Kevin Moodley |
| Home office: |
Kimberley |
Host office: |
Canberra, Australia |
| Period of assignment: |
3 months |
“With PwC being a global company, the audit approach used by South Africa and Australia is the same, thus making the transition easier. Work ethics portrayed by client personnel in the private and public sector were of an extremely high standard. The only thing that surpassed the work experience was the friendliness of staff, which I know seems contrary to the atmosphere in a cricket and rugby match between the two countries! ”
Would you recommend international assignments to other PwC staff?
“I would definitely recommend people going on international secondments to gain experience and learn about other cultures.” |
|
|
