The Right Choice

My name is Azleena, I started my career journey with PwC in 2013 and spent just over 3 years there before I decided to join Shell in 2017. To date, I’m working in Shell – specifically in the Shell Malaysia Exploration and Production (SMEP Upstream) as a Business Analyst.

I play an extensive role in supporting the business, focusing on projects in Sabah. Acting as the finance advisor to the engineers who work relentlessly offshore can be challenging as it requires effort to ensure the projects are executed with sufficient budget and economically. With the current COVID-19 situation and the low oil price affecting the world, efforts have been doubled (if not tripled) to ensure extensive precautions are taken and wise decisions are made.

No doubt it has been a very challenging journey but yet exciting and meaningful to me. With the professional skills that I gathered along the way from my experience in PwC, my learning throughout the MICPA Programme has also helped me to endure the working world. The preparation throughout the Programme on developing professional skills and knowledge have been the essence of my career journey. Either direct or indirect, the learning gained from the MICPA Programme has been applied throughout my career for both PwC and Shell.

What is so special about the MICPA Programme? Well of course it is one of the most prestigious professional qualifications recognised globally. Through the collaboration between The Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA) and Chartered Accountants of Australia & New Zealand (CA ANZ), it offers a dual membership with both MICPA and CA ANZ, carrying the titles of CPA and CA. And the best part is, as a young professional accountant who just joining the working world and coping with the new working environment which can be challenging, the Programme offers options to choose between classroom-study or self-study, and I chose the latter.

I completed the MICPA Programme in November 2017. Indeed the journey has been meaningful as I myself could not believe that I managed to obtain the dual membership while juggling my time with my career. As I chose to self-study, it really tested my IQ, EQ, patience and discipline level to ensure that I studied sufficiently for all the exams. In the Programme, it is not all about learning from the textbook. I still remember for the final Capstone Module (which is the only module with compulsory attendance at the workshops), we were required to do many team presentations on case studies. I like the Capstone module as it reflects the true scenarios of the work life and how we work together as a team by finding time to meet and discuss in ensuring all of us passed the module despite our hectic work life.

My key takeaway is that challenges will always come to any of us even though we are not looking for it. Endurance and perseverance are some of the main ingredients to tackle them. The important part is what we learn from the challenges encountered, in order for us to become a better person (more skilful, wise, extraordinary) for the next challenge that awaits us. Take it as an adventure, for each one will add colour to your life (it will be a colourful life!). To relate it to the professional qualification, why not choose two instead of one? And that’s why I chose the MICPA Programme.

 

NUR AZLEENA ABDUL RAZAK
MICPA & CA ANZ MEMBER
BUSINESS ANALYST AT SHELL MALAYSIA

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