As a newly qualified Chartered Accountant, Paul Barron ACA was offered a position in Costa Rica. He packed his bags for Central America and now reflects on his experience - with some insights and advice for others in the same position.
I trained as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG, qualifying in 2014. Shortly after finishing my training position, I took up a position with Fyffes (the banana people!) as an internal audit manager. This position involved travelling to the various Fyffes locations worldwide, performing controls testing as well as inquiring and then reporting back to the Board of Directors with my findings.
After nine months in this role, I was offered a longer-term position as Financial Controller in Costa Rica. It seemed like a great opportunity to have a new experience and progress my career, so I went for it. I was nervous of course, but I spent three years in this role before returning to Head office in Dublin in March 2020.
Overall it was a great experience and I am very glad I did it, and here are my thoughts on the benefits and challenges of working abroad as a Chartered Accountant.
Benefits and opportunities
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Excellent work opportunity – I managed a team of 12 people and was a central part of our operations in Central America. My willingness to relocate afforded me the chance to have a very stimulating and dynamic job which I don’t think I would have been considered for, at that stage of my career (1-year PQE), in companies of a similar size had I remained in Ireland. I got valuable management experience and really had to hit the ground running, which has stood to me since.
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Experience and exposure to interesting, varied work. I think I might have been exposed to some of these in a standard setting but going abroad to Costa Rica meant I was doing standard work in a non-standard (for me) environment like a large-scale farming operation or getting to see the tangible links between the finance team and the operation itself. During my three years in Costa Rica, I:
- got hands-on FC experience reviewing a large farming operation
- had the opportunity to manage a cross-cultural team
- was exposed to and given the opportunity to manage large capital projects
- interacted with most of the departments within the business and learned more about how they work
- Experience of a new culture and a new language
- Spanish was the language in the office and the operation, so I took classes and worked extremely hard on getting to a conversational level in my first six months working in Costa Rica. I like languages and have French in my primary and master’s degrees, so this was very enjoyable but also tiring and a big challenge
- I lived and worked in an area of the world about which I knew very little before relocating – it was enjoyable getting to know about a new culture, food, people and traditions and I’ll always have a nice connection with Costa Rica and friends made along the way.
Challenges
- The first nine months were exhausting with getting to grips with a new job that entailed a lot of responsibility; learning a new language; settling into a new home and trying to make new friends. I’d recommend a long holiday after about six months if you are considering relocating.
- It takes some time to adjust to working within a cross-cultural team. I enjoyed the different outlook as time went on, but at times different approaches to tackling problems surprised and sometimes frustrated me. It was definitely a learning curve
- I was lucky that I had some Irish colleagues in the Costa Rican office. This certainly helped but integrating into a very different culture was tough and isolating at times and should be considered before relocating.
In summary
Overall, I am really glad to have done it. I feel privileged to have been offered the opportunity to experience working in Costa Rica. Going to a different language, culture and climate all give rise to moments of culture shock and homesickness, but also moments of real enjoyment. You do need to be realistic about the pros and cons but also resilient and somewhat brave.
Having the comfort of my ACA qualification and Institute membership, my Irish colleagues in Costa Rica and my company support both there and at home all made the move much more accessible. I could have come up with as many reasons to not go as to go, so I have no regrets but am happy to be home!
The experience in Costa Rica did definitely help me to establish and progress within my career and I know will continue to stand to me. I may still keep my eyes and ears open for other international opportunities.
Institute supports
I found the Career service very helpful throughout. I spoke with Karin Lanigan on average three or four times a year and still do on my career development. It has been extremely useful to help me plan my career and also have a sounding board when decisions have to be made. It is a great and unbiased service which has been a real help to me. In particular, it helped me plan my move home - which can be as challenging a transition as the initial move.
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