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Staying cool under pressure
Mr Yu faces challenges that stretch and provide him with new opportunities.
PHOTO: CHONG JUN LIANG
KPMG Singapore scholar Yu Shilong 26, relishes the daily adrenaline rush of his job as a risk consultant.
He works under the pressure of tight project deadlines and strives to exceed clients' expectations, which include helping to add value to their businesses.
He is also expected to seek out new opportunities for them.
To meet their requirements, Mr Yu must have strong grounding in technical skills, industry knowledge and time management skills.
He says it is most vital for him to have good people and client relationship management skills.
Mr Yu adds: "If my client is from the healthcare industry, I have to think and talk like a doctor."
"If my client is from the banking industry, I have to think and talk like a banker."
"A lot of hard work is done behind the scenes for my team and me to understand industry norms and best practices."
"I have to be knowledgeable to earn the respect of my clients and teammates."
"At the same time, I have to be humble enough to tap their experience and expertise."
"The diversity of my projects is what keeps me passionate about what I am doing. I have to be a generalist and a specialist."
"I work across a broad range of industries and functions and have to develop specific knowledge and skill sets in each one."
His employer, KPMG Singapore, is part of a worldwide network with more than 137,000 professionals providing audit, tax and advisory services in 144 countries.
Mr Yu says: "I am fortunate that I can always count on the support of my experienced, knowledgeable and high performing colleagues-cum-mentors and friends across the firm."
A Nanyang Technological University (NTU) graduate, he has a Bachelor of Accountancy with a minor in communication studies.
He received a KPMG Singapore scholarship to pursue his ambition to be a global professional adding value to clients around the globe.
As an NTU undergraduate, Mr Yu spent time at Queen's University in Canada on a six-month foreign exchange programme.
He was also picked for the monthlong global summer programme in Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the half-year local exchange programme at Singapore Management University.
Mr Yu started working full-time for KPMG Singapore's risk advisory services in July 2006 after two previous audit and tax internships.
In July last year, he was promoted to senior associate, helping firms to identify and solve process, risk, control and performance issues.
Last December, he was part of a project team which won the KPMG Singapore service excellence silver award for exemplary project delivery and building trusted relationships with clients.
His most eye-opening project experience was spending four months developing processes for a property developer building an economic city on an empty plot of land in the Middle East.
If the city realises its vision to be the next major financial centre in the Middle East, Mr Yu says he can tell his kids and grandchildren he was "there from the beginning".
He is satisfied with his career so far but notes that there is still plenty for him to learn and achieve.
Secondments to KPMG firms in other countries are one way to widen his international network of contacts.
On the day-to-day adrenaline rush of meeting challenges, he says: "It pushes and stretches me in all the right ways and helps open doors to new opportunities for me."
"KPMG is not good at standing still and neither am I. I usually end my work day exhausted but satisfied that I have learnt something new to equip me to be a knowledgeable consultant to my clients and a valuable teammate to my friends at work."
"As I continue to progress in my career, I aspire to be in positions where I can contribute more and make a positive difference to the people around me and to society at large."