Audit: The Work
Submitted by WikiJob on 4 June 2009 - 9:12pm
Thanks once again to YP (long term WikiJobber and audit trainee at Big 4 firm) for supplying another great post about working life as a trainee auditor!
Work
[Edit]I've talked about exams and the social life. Now I'll discuss what you'll actually get paid for - work.
Why work
[Edit]Forget the philosophical debate about the reason for work. How else are you going to pay for your moderate lifestyle? More importantly, you need to clock up 450 days (3350 hours) of work experience to qualify as a Chartered Accountant. Fortunately, overtime and photocopying count towards the 450 days.
While the main risk for getting fired is failing your exams, you can still be sacked for gross incompetence. However, as long as you:
- Have reasonable intelligence
- Don't spend hours on Facebook
- Use transport problems as an excuse for being late
You will be safe!
The work itself
[Edit]The most interesting work that you'll do is auditing. You'll see interesting (and highly confidential) figures and learn about the heart of a business. However, I can't talk about any of that because you won't fully understand it and it’ll send you to sleep. Wait for the training or refer to the WikiJob accountancy page.
You've probably guessed that the other kinds of work are pretty dire. Remember that you are at the bottom of the ladder and things will get better. This includes:
- Photocopying – accountancies are actually paper factories. Learn how to duplex print for quick promotions.
- Casting – known as adding to normal humans. You’ll spend hours doing it, so invest in a decent calculator. Ironically, the one recommended by the ICAEW is crap.
- Urgent delivery of documents using taxis – because first years are cheaper than couriers.
- Packing stationery boxes – auditors live off stationery. Your task will be to pack a well stocked stationery box to send out to the client. Don’t forget the bulldog clips.
The Client
[Edit]Auditing is really about speaking to the client (about the numbers). I consider it to be the most demanding part of the job. You have to think and understand things quickly. You’ve just finished university and barely understand accounting and you’re up against someone with years of business experience. You have to strike a balance between being nice and being assertive. Tip: be assertive, people should be scared of auditors. Actually, a lot depends on how co-operative the client is. A lot of financial controllers are ex-auditors, which means they will be more sympathetic to your needs. Or they will have been traumatised by auditors during childhood and make your life hard. Concentrate on body language, tone of voice and those few key phrases.
IT
[Edit]All your work is done on a computer. You’ll be issued with a laptop as soon as you join. Email becomes your primary means of communication. You’ll spend hours of your day in front of Excel spreadsheets and you must learn to master it (useful tips).
The Hours
[Edit]The hours are varied. You’ll work at the client during busy season (January to April). And you might be working up to 50 hours a week, or 60/70 hours in extreme cases. It sounds like hard work but it’s only for a few months of the years and is still fewer hours than for medicine or law. Outside of busy season, you’ll be at the office pulling a standard 35-hour week with less demanding work.
The long hours can be a grind, and your relative enjoyment/pain will depend on the audit team you work with. I’ve had a good experience so far on all my audits, and I’m sure you’ll have a similarly good experience.
The best part about working as an auditor is the variety of work and regular changes of routine. You’ll change clients every couple of weeks and your schedule is broken up by holiday, college and training courses. You’ll perform similar audit tests but each client will be different, which keeps things fresh. However, it can be high pressured. Audit reporting deadlines are tight. It takes a while to fully understand audit. You’ll be pushed to the edge of your abilities and any character flaws you have will be exposed (e.g. procrastination, assertiveness, over-perfectionism, lack of attention to detail etc). It can also be quite boring, some days will be spent photocopying and casting. It all adds up (excuse the pun) to a steep learning curve. But it also means that you develop incredibly quickly as a person.
Auditing isn’t just about the numbers, but it is most of the time.
Written by YP - an audit trainee at a big four firm
If you would like to post on the WikiJob blog, just email Ed@WikiJob.co.uk - your contributions are always appreciated!
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23 January 2010 - 3:14pm
marmaduke87
I'm in the middle of the AC
I'm in the middle of the AC recruitment process, have passed online tests and an interview, am now booked in at an assessment centre in Warwick on Wednesday 27th. The deadline for applications was the 11th I believe, so unless you've already applied, you've missed your chance, unless they reopen again before september! My understanding is that CIPFA is more geared for people in public finance rather than private firms, but I'm not certain of the key differences between them and say, ACA.
8 January 2010 - 8:49pm
Jag
Good post.
The audit role at
Good post.
The audit role at a big four requires a tremendous amount of patience. The role is not challenging, stimulating or for the most part interesting. You really have to grind through the first 3 years and then re evaluate. The ACA is the only reason for the pain imo.
7 June 2009 - 8:55pm
chrism2671
Hi everyone, do you guys know anything about the Audit Commission recruitment process and the CIFPA?