Accounting Job Market for English Speakers

[Morton11]

Hello all,

Can anybody give some insight into the job market for English-speaking accountants? We'll be moving to Hong Kong soon and my spouse is a U.S. CPA with some relatively senior experience in industry and some big four firm experience. We realize that the vast majority of advertised positions require Cantonese and/or Mandarin (even the big four seem to largely prefer language capabilities), but any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Beanieskis]

I think the Big 4 here have huge recruitment issues - i'm sure he'll be fine.

Almost all jobs "advertise" that language skills are required.

[travel_junky]

I have recently left one of the big 4 firms, where I was an audit manager. I actually wanted to work in industry when I arrived here but it proved too difficult due to my lack of Cantonese/mandarin language skills and lack of experience in industry.
I have been aware of a fair number of senior jobs in industry looking for English speakers with US GAAP/SOX experience so I think your spouse would have a lot more luck than me finding something.
I would personally avoid the Big 4 unless your spouse is looking to work in some form of advisory department. The audit departments are very expat unfriendly (I was the only one in my department!) and it is not a fun experience! Having said this, PwC is far more expat friendly.
There have been a number of redundancies made recently, certainly at 2 of the big 4, so it's not a great time to be looking though I don't think.
I would suggest going to Robert Half and finding work in industry if you can as I have found them to be very good.

Good luck!

[112357]

When you find one, let me know if there are any junior roles. Trying to find an accounting job as a fresh accounting grad, only speaking English is near impossible.