Kerry placement led Waterford student to top accountancy marks

BBS (Hons) with French graduate Nikolaj decided to expand his knowledge into accounting in the workplace and complement his existing economics and finance degree

An award-winning graduate of WIT’s School of Business who gone on to further national and international success in the accountancy world, has said he only dipped his toes into accountancy following work placement.

From economics and French to accountancy

Nikolaj Perekotij who studied WIT’s flagship honours degree between 2014 and 2018, graduated from the institute with a Bachelor of Business Studies (Honours) with French achieved 1st place in Ireland and 6th place globally in the December 2020 ACCA Advanced Performance Management (APM) exam.

The former Dean’s List and Rowe Medal recipient is no stranger to high achievement earlier in 2020, Nikolaj achieved the highest result in Ireland and was placed 3rd in the world for ACCA's SBR exam (March 2020) sitting. 255 students sat this exam in Ireland and 5,993 globally.

Hard work of placement office

“I ended up in accounting unexpectedly,” he recalls. “Joe Daly (the School of Business placement team is really fantastic at their job) signed me up for an interview with Kerry for my work placement. After completing my eight-month internship, I got offered a role as a graduate, and decided to expand my knowledge into accounting, which would complement my existing Economics & Finance degree.”

Nikolaj is still working with Kerry, as an Investor Relations Analyst in its head office in Tralee, Co Kerry.

Advice for students

Nikolaj’s advice to prospective students considering their CAO options is to “make sure you pick something you like/have an interest in.”

“If someone told me that I'll be in accounting 5 years ago, there's no way I would believe them! Turns out, you don't always know what you like until you see a different side of it, so make sure to do your research and explore your options.”

And how does one become the best in Ireland? “Ultimately, there's no shortcuts or secrets - you need to put in the work, the time, the grind. You need to be disciplined and see the bigger picture, the struggle is temporary, but the achievement is permanent,” he says.

Related Courses

• Bachelor of Business (Honours) in  Business (Common Entry)
• Bachelor of Business (Honours) in  Business (Economics & Finance)
• Bachelor of Business (Honours) in  Business (Accounting)
• Bachelor of Business (Honours) in  Business (Marketing)
• Bachelor of Business (Honours) in  Business (Management)
• Bachelor of Business (Honours) in  Business (Human Resource Management)
• Bachelor of Business (Honours) in  Business Information Systems
• Bachelor of Business in  Business
• Higher Certificate in Business in  Business
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in  Accounting
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in  Marketing & Digital Media