A decade into his career, Bermudian Craig Bridgewater has risen through the ranks to become senior manager at one of the Island's largest accounting firms, KPMG.

The young Bermudian, who recently returned to Bermuda after a 16-month secondment in the firm's Chicago office, said in his experience there has been no shortage of career opportunities on the Island.

A graduate of Berkley Institute and with a degree in Economics from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, Mr. Bridgewater said he had not encountered any "closed doors" in pursuing his career. He added that he thought that would hold true for all Bermudians who had an aptitude and willingness to work hard.

In fact, Mr. Bridgewater said KPMG Bermuda is firmly behind promoting Bermudians and tries to attract talent as early as high school through the firm's summer programme.

This summer, through the company's recruitment programme, there are a number of summer students - including two high school students - working with KPMG in both the accounting and IT departments.

Mr. Bridgewater, who himself started out with rival firm then Price Waterhouse, in 1992, obtained his chartered accountant (CA) designation in 1995 and last year qualified as a certified internal audit (CIA).

Although happy to be back home, Mr. Bridgewater said he was glad to have had the exposure to a larger office: "The Chicago office had a different business culture. Everything was on a larger scale; jobs took longer, there were more people to deal with. In Chicago I had up to 14 clients, here I would (typically) have between 30 and 40 clients. There you are dealing with larger organisations and larger engagements.

"It certainly was worthwhile to have the exposure," he said.

Beyond the job experience, Mr. Bridgewater said he also saw that Bermuda has a stellar reputation, especially as an insurance domicile.

Working predominately with insurers Mr. Bridgewater said he saw first hand that American insurers had Bermuda reinsurers in their programmes. And he added that once clients knew he was from Bermuda he got positive feedback on the Island as a place to do business.

Although Mr. Bridgewater said he intends to stay put now, he added that there are global opportunities at KPMG for those who want to work outside Bermuda.

The firm, which has ten partners and 140 staff in its local office, employs more than 100,000 people worldwide in 152 countries.

With his return to the Bermuda office, Mr. Bridgewater is working in KPMG's Investment Funds and Business Practice.