Worldwide professional services and accounting firm BDO continues to be an active voice at school campus events and through student recruitment across Canada. The company's campus message: audit first, tax next, then I'll choose, is the approach used when targeting accounting students to make the right career choices early on.

As a company that employs more than 3,000 people nationwide, with 105 offices in both Canada's largest and smallest cities, BDO is far from a small accounting firm. But while their larger competitors promote direct-to-tax positions within their businesses, BDO believes new grads benefit from working at firms with boutique-like accounting practices, like themselves, because of the opportunity to learn different aspects of the field, starting with an auditing role.

It gives you that base knowledge for if you want to go to tax or evaluations or forensic; you have that base understanding and you can be more successful in those other departments, says Laura Ellis, HR generalist at BDO Canada. If you go straight to tax, it's hard to move back and forth because you only know tax and you haven't seen the full picture.

As an HR generalist, Ellis is responsible for attending campus events, conducting mock interviews, and carrying out on board training for both students and full-time hires. She identifies development opportunities and growth opportunities as the biggest benefits because of the hands-on experience new grads receive. With our firm size, you get the full focus and full exposure of the client work and you can focus on an area where you can grow as well, she says. It really makes you more marketable and helps you grow a lot faster as well.

 Jennifer Waddle, senior tax accountant at BDO Canada started her career with the company in 2008 as a co-op student in auditing before moving up to her current position. I wanted to get my CA designation, she says. So in order to do that I needed a certain number of hours of experience within different aspects of accounting and a good portion that is required is in audit.

Through her early career experience in auditing at BDO Canada, Waddle was able to develop a skill set she's now able to use as a senior tax accountant with the firm. You need to develop a certain amount of professional skepticism, she says. So while you want to discuss things with the client and determine their judgements and how they're doing things, you need to use your own professional judgement as to how they are looking at [it].

Constant interaction with clients also helped Waddle develop her communication skills. It is now required when I'm in tax and dealing with tax engagements, especially when it comes to personal tax season and you're talking to people who don't necessarily understand all the technical jargon, she says.

While much of Waddle's early experience was focused in auditing, she says her time with a firm like BDO allowed her to examine all aspects of a client profile. I looked at all the accounting and auditing portions of the file, but I also had to go in and prepare all the tax returns for the file, she says. You aren't just looking into a certain industry either, so I wasn't spending all my time working on a manufacturing plant for instance'I was dealing with condos, manufacturing, farms, and a variety of industries.

Working at a firm with small offices scattered throughout Canada's urban and rural areas also brings the opportunity to focus on team-building. We have our busy season; there's accounting cycles, every accountant knows it once they get into this environment, says Ellis, adding that there is also down time. There's a lot of socializing with each other so it is a really good career environment as well. You develop relationships with staff, with people in outside departments, so it really is a good culture in that aspect as opposed to a culture that's so big.