Graduate profile: Olivia MacDonald, PwC

For the much-talked-about millennials, work-life balance and a job with purpose is high on the agenda.

For Olivia MacDonald, who joined PwC in 2015, her career so far has afforded the chance to accelerate her skills and achieve personal goals outside of work.

“When you start in PwC you have three weeks’ training in Dublin with about 250 graduates there. The three weeks is a mix of training and getting to know other graduates,” she says.

MacDonald studied accounting at Waterford Institute of Technology. While in WIT she also took part in the prestigious Washington Ireland Programme.

She says mentoring by PwC helps graduates to ease the transition from college to the working world.

“I was paired with my mentor for six months and she taught me so much. She is the person who made my experience in PwC so fantastic. If I ever had a question or was unsure of something I could go to her. The first person you work with is almost the person you owe your career to,” she says.

MacDonald says that while graduates are thrown into the deep end, support is always there.

“Right from the get-go you are working with senior people. That can be intimidating if you have just come from college. However, in PwC they ease you in and make you part of the team,” she says.

MacDonald is currently a senior associate 1, having been promoted after passing her exams.

“This year I’m doing my final accountancy exams and once I pass those, I move on to senior associate 2. After that, you can continue to move up the ranks,” she says.

Ultimately, MacDonald says her career aspirations lie in the non-profit sector as she is passionate about education and youth engagement.

“Long term, I want to move into the charity sector. PwC has been aware of this from the start and have been very supportive on aligning the jobs that I get to work on now with work I will get to do in the future.”

“Everyone has a coach and you tell them where you want to be in 20 years and they try to plan the jobs you get booked to do in order to give you the experience you need for your future role,” she says.

MacDonald is actively involved in the community, both inside and outside of work. She was appointed as the vice-chair of the Chartered Accountants Student Society South East, charged with bringing chartered accountant students from all firms together to support them during their professional examinations.

For MacDonald, the work-life balance on offer at PwC made it the most appealing aspect.

“What I love about working at PwC is that they want employees to flourish beyond the 9-5.

“My biggest worry before I began working was how I was going to balance my hobbies and volunteering, with work. I didn’t want to end up just working and studying because you can get into a rut of preparing for exams and working and not having time for the things you want to do,” she says.

“Initially I was apprehensive about saying I needed time to volunteer, but after a couple of weeks I told them I volunteer with a youth club and they needed me there at 5.30 and I need to leave at work at 5pm and they said it was not a problem,” she says.

“My advice to anyone starting a new job is if there is something you want to do, just ask. People assume the answer is going to be no. In PwC, they are so accommodating, which is fantastic ,” she adds.

In July, MacDonald won the Chartered Accountants’ Institute’s recent Young Chartered Star competition.

She will represent Chartered Accountants Ireland at One Young World in Canada this month.

MacDonald will join young leaders from around the world, and colleagues from Chartered Accountants Worldwide who will represent their institute at the event in Canada.

One Young World aims to gather together the brightest young leaders from around the world, empowering them to make lasting connections to create positive change.