Sample SOP for Maters in Professional Accounting, Australia

I have been very fortunate to grow up there. I have always been a meritorious student, clearing my intermediate and high school examinations with 72% and 78% marks respectively.

My Bachelor’s in Commerce from 2007 to 2010 at Deshbandhu College helped me cement my choice of career in accounting. I was rigorous in my understanding of corporate and cost accounting, along with taking tax and law subjects. My one year of working as an associate at Hughes Communications India Ltd. showed me the path forward to a Post-Graduation Program in Finance Management and Marketing at ICFAI, where I studied from 2011 till 2013, securing a CGPA of 7.9. During this time I interned at Aditya Birla Money Ltd., to understand the working of a large corporation and learn about regulations and exchanges in the commodity market.

The work experience I garnered has been a five-year period of tremendous professional growth for me. Starting out in 2013 at Bajaj Allianz Insurance as Assistant Manager, I concentrated on IRDA compliance, billing and commission, onboarding, tracking and renewal along with MIS. I ensured accurate record keeping for all brokers and agents, and assisted the accounts team with month-end close processes. Without limiting myself, I took initiative to coordinate the selection and hiring process for other agents, for which I received an award from the CEO for achieving excellent recruitment numbers from the top management university in India. Continuing in the same way, I built relationships with all our channel partners and assessed the financial impact of their new products, which led to me being awarded the title of Best Management Trainee. 

As I moved onto a senior position in account management in 2014 at Perfect Data Technologies Pvt. Ltd., switched to maintaining day to day accounts of the company using Tally ERP 9 software. I also tracked, prepared, submitted and managed government and private tenders on a pan-Indian scale, and maintained billing folders for all tenders, including monthly invoices and expenses, in accordance with standard procedures. I consistently followed up with the government or priate organizations in question for their RFQs and tenders. I was responsible for the general upkeep of the filing and accounts system, and for the preparation of bid prices and sales invoices. While juggling these duties, I voluntarily assisted the writing of quarterly audit reports and closing reports and also worked as a Risk Advisor to many reputed clients in the education industry of India.

Since 2016, in my current role as Regional Manager for India’s largest online B2B platform, Indiamart.com, I have developed a keen sense in budget forecasting and financial reporting. As an affable person who enjoys building inter-personal relationships, I work with multiple teams in my day to day work, in addition to my individual responsibilities. My leadership skills have been honed by heading the supplier development team in conducting audits. I efficiently handle a separate client acquisition team as well. Along with this, I ensure regional compliance and quality adherence in my sector. I also contribute creatively by designing promotional schemes for clients, ensuring that all initiatives are pushed within the allocated budget. I further enhanced my skills by successfully completing Fincorp’s certification course in Tally ERP 9 software from 2018 to 2019, in order to remain up to date with the industry’s accounting demands. I have been very fortunate to have had my perseverance recognised in the form of awards at the national level from the company.

Although I feel fulfilled in my career, I seek a fresh challenge. Choosing to go back to the classroom is a critical decision for me, and I’m willing to invest time and money in order to receive training and formal degree from a world-renowned institute such as CDU. In India, the focus in Masters courses tends to be more on theoretical knowledge and high examination scores. All of them are also not recognized globally. Therefore, I wish to be part of a program that is practically strong, and will allow me to use the skills I have gained in my professional career. I seek to now become an innovator and solve complex commercial problems at the multinational level, rather than being only an executor of tasks. I see myself at a position of business leader; one who understands nuances and fluctuations of global markets, and is able to devise effective solutions and financial strategies using this knowledge. In short, I want to take advantage of the great leap forward that I will be able to gain after completing my studies. 

I will also build a strong foundation for becoming a Certified Professional Accountant, which has been a lifelong aspiration for me. I eventually plan to enrol in a suitable CPA program which will award me the certification which is highly revered in all accounting firms across India and Asia as a whole and will help me consistently climb the career ladder. Not only will I be able to expand my area of expertise to work at positions in consultancy, taxation, financial analysis, risk assessment and treasurer; I will also be able to, with confidence in my abilities, apply to global firms such as Price Waterhouse Co, Ernst and Young, Deloitte and many more, to work in upper-management positions. While my progression in my career and balance of lifestyle is paramount, the monetary gains from such jobs, which can range anywhere from INR 30 to 40 lakhs per annum in India or 100,000 to 120,000 dollars in Australia, will allow me to build a secure future for myself and my family.

CDU was a natural choice for me when I decided on pursuing a Master’s degree, owing to its respected position worldwide and its excellent stats, which I have taken the liberty to recap briefly: 

• CDU is one of 5 top Australian Universities with respect to post-graduate employment and salary outcomes.
• It is ranked in the top 2% of all the universities in the world.
• It comes in at number 34 in the Top under-50 universities globally.
• CDU is identified by Times Higher Education as one of an elite global group of ‘rising stars’ – a new generation of challenger universities quickly rising in world rankings.
• Each year CDU teaches over 4,000 Indigenous students in over 150 locations across the NT.

CDU is a dual-sector university, which offers flexibility and choice to me in picking the right study pathway for myself. The smaller class size and low student to teacher ratio will ensure that I am able to approach my professors and avail their advice when needed. I thrive in different work environments and am an excellent communicator, and I want to take that a step further by taking advantage of CDU’s focus on multiculturalism and diversity – which comes from a representation of over 55 nationalities in its student pool – to make myself feel comfortable in any professional interactions globally. I would also like to divide my time between the cities of Darwin and Sydney or Melbourne, allowing myself a college experience based on life in a vibrant tropical setting as well as a fast-paced city environment. Finally, there is a small comfort in the fact that as Australia’s northernmost university, CDU is a bit closer to home. It offers the perfect mix of new Aboriginal culture to learn from, and yet the familiarity from some strains of South Asian traditions is present as well.

Australia is a beautiful country and the balanced quality of life enjoyed by the local people is an attractive prospect for me. Alongside the natural beauty, it is renowned globally as a leading educational hub for people the world over and the protection given to international students under the Education Services for Overseas Students Act (2000) is second to none. Purely in terms of student life, Australia currently boasts of having five cities out of the top 30 university towns in the world, owing to its mix of cultures, affordability, quality of life and employer activity. Due to these factors and my own initial research, I have concluded that there is vast choice afforded to students in terms of internships and observer-ship opportunities that will prepare me to move forward into acquiring a work visa to get employed in the field and gain experience of working in the Australian financial industry.

I am looking forward to experiencing Australia with my wife, who will shift base with me while I study. She is planning to undertake client servicing and handling, drawing on her wealth of experience gained from 6 years of working in this industry. She is a highly talented and motivated individual, who will be an asset any job she chooses in the service sector. As a couple who is open to change, we personally identify with the vibrant and inclusive ideology of both, the university and the country, which makes us extremely confident that we will be a wonderful fit in the local community of Darwin and other metropolitan cities as well.

I have witnessed India’s exponentially growing economy, in terms of trade and exports to a multitude of nations including Australia. Given this globalisation of markets, I seek the necessary exposure to remain at par with an inter-connected financial world. I am fully aware of the rigour demanded by the program and believe that I am more than prepared to handle high-pressure projects. I have been completely captured by the plethora of possibilities offered by this new globalised business world, and I want to contribute meaningfully to this tide.