Deciding what to do right after Year 12 is a massive call. For Charlie, it came down to a choice between heading to university for a few years or backing himself to jump straight into the workforce.
At 18, he chose the workforce. Now 19, Charlie is working as an Assistant Auditor at BDO in Adelaide, one of the largest accounting firms in the world. He got his start through the BDO High School Leavers Program, a pathway designed for recent school leavers to jump straight into a full-time role and start working toward becoming a Chartered Accountant from day one.
We caught up with Charlie to talk about what it looks like to learn on the tools, what has surprised him about auditing, and why professional services feels a lot like team sports.
Earning while learning
Making the choice to skip the traditional post-school timeline required some serious thought, but for Charlie, the practical benefits of the High School Leaver Program were hard to ignore.
“It was a big decision that I thought about quite a lot,” Charlie says. “I had to weigh up whether to go to university, get a degree, and then start a career, or back myself and jump straight into the workforce. Ultimately, what influenced my decision was the opportunity to learn by doing real work from day one, rather than spending years studying theory in a classroom.”
The program allows school leavers to combine full-time work with structured training courses delivered alongside CA ANZ. For Charlie, it means he is on track to become a fully qualified Chartered Accountant by the age of 22 or 23, carrying four years of corporate experience under his belt.
“Instead of paying for a university degree, I’m getting paid to work and study at the same time, essentially earning while learning,” Charlie notes. “That combination is rare, and it was a big part of why the decision made so much sense to me.”
Financial records and corporate detective work
If you picture accounting as just sitting at a desk, staring at a spreadsheet all day, Charlie’s day-to-day tells a very different story. His role involves going out to all kinds of businesses to review their financial records and ensure their reporting is accurate.
The sheer variety of the work is what caught him by surprise. One day he might be looking over the books for a major non-profit, and the next he is analysing the records for a mining company.
“Audit is basically detective work,” Charlie explains. “You’re looking at a business and asking, ‘Does this make sense? Does it add up?’ When something doesn’t quite fit, you have to figure out why. For someone who likes getting to the bottom of things, that’s really satisfying. It’s not what most people picture when they think of accounting.”
The job also brings some completely unexpected encounters. Through his day-to-day client work, Charlie recently found himself in a meeting with a billionaire, an experience he never anticipated having at 19.
Dealing with real responsibility early on
Stepping into a massive global firm straight out of school can feel daunting, and Charlie expected to spend his first year running errands or sitting silently in the background.
“In my first year, I was expecting to be making coffees and sitting in the background, kind of like you see in movies with young interns,” Charlie says. “But from pretty much day one, I was out at client sites doing real work that mattered. That was a bit daunting at first, but it also pushed me to learn fast.”
What kept him grounded was the team environment at BDO, which felt familiar to his life outside of work, where he spends his time focused on fitness, watching sport, and cooking.
“Growing up, I played a lot of team sports like basketball and footy, and honestly, it feels really similar,” Charlie says. “Everyone is working together toward the same goal. What’s pretty cool is that I’m doing it alongside managers, directors, and partners, people who are really high up. You’re all in it together, regardless of where you sit, and that’s something I didn’t anticipate going into the program.”
For Charlie, that collective mindset made all the difference when trading the classroom for a full-time corporate role. Less than a year into his career, Charlie is already working with clients, contributing to real projects and gaining exposure to opportunities he never expected to have at 19. The learning curve has been significant but so has the growth that comes with it.
Ready to start your career? If you want to combine real-world experience with professional study, explore the pathways and timelines available through the BDO High School Leavers Program.
