William began his financial services career over a decade ago in a public sector role working on a PPI project. He then joined another professional services company, an international bank and an insurance company before joining KPMG as a Contractor.
“When I decided to start contracting, I’d been on a financial crime project for 12 months and I really enjoyed it. An opportunity came up in KPMG Glasgow that would allow me to gain more experience in crime investigation – it was on a different level in terms of depth and I’ve really expanded my knowledge.
If you work for KPMG, you’ll learn something new and come back better. I think the firm’s reputation is strong – it is thought of highly, so the experience you gain will make your CV look stronger too.
“One thing that’s really impressed me about KPMG is being so close to subject matter experts. For example, some people on the project are financial forensic crime gurus – their knowledge never fails to amaze me and I get to learn from them. KPMG is also a tech firm with the systems and tools you need to deliver quality work.”
Some people work for six months then take time off. Personally, I enjoy seeing a project through to the very end, however long that takes, rather than moving from project-to-project more quickly. I also like being part of a team where everyone is pulling towards one objective.
The financial crime project I’m working on enables firms to remediate their Know Your Customer (KYC) information. Essentially, we look at information supplied by a customer and then delve into it. Are they who they say they are? Do their financial deposits stack up? Are there any ethical or social considerations? Essentially, we provide due diligence checks to establish how responsible a particular company is likely to be.
My work has a big impact on society – situations that appear on the news often intersect with what I do here. We get presentations from experts who show us clips from the news and talk about the different things we need to watch out for.”