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Big 4 Audit: 1 Year in - Ask me anything!

AuditorJamz

(edited 7 years ago)

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Reply 1

Blyts-_

What did you study at university?

Reply 2

Terry Tibbs

Do you enjoy what you do?

Reply 3

Ladbants

Hi! Thanks for doing this

What do you do on a normal day in audit?
What percentage of the time are you in clients offices?
Roughly how much time a day do you spend in meetings or conversing with the client?
Are you planning on staying in audit or leaving after completing the ACA?

Reply 4

username1544121

Which University did you go to?
How did you do in your A levels?
Which Big 4 firm do you work for?

Ty for taking the time to answer my questions.

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Reply 5

Blyts-_

Any advice for someone who begin their final year of uni next month and will be applying for accounting grad. schemes?

Reply 6

Proflash

how is the social cohesion like in your office (outside work - grads, other departments)

Reply 7

Ze Witcher

Original post by AuditorJamz

Hi all,Title says everything. Fire away!

Hi, thanks for taking time out of your day for this!

What percentage of people in your team studied Accounting and Finance at Uni?
Are the ACA exams tough?
Does your job allow you to branch out into other areas of finance in the future?
Is auditing hard?
How long does it take to head into a managerial role at the Big 4?
What sort of process did you go through to first get into Auditing? As in like interviews, tests etc...

Reply 8

Ze Witcher

Original post by AuditorJamz

Btw I dont really use TSR- probz a silly q but can someone tell me how I can make a new line in my posts. I press enter but when I submit my reply it just formats into a whole paragraph - thanks I'd be very grateful .

I don't see what you are doing wrong? :smile:

Perhaps use the space button twice to see if it appears

Reply 9

Terry Tibbs

Are you in London or a regional office?

Reply 10

Gladiatorsword

Original post by AuditorJamz

Hi all,Title says everything. Fire away!

Did you ever envision a career at big4 or was IB your first choice?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 11

ItsJustMe17

Applying for Tax at Deloitte and at the online tests stage. I know you said keep preparing, so ill just have to find some time in between work to practice but need to do it soon as i only have the 5 working days. If i do pass, what were the interviews and assessment centre really like?

Reply 12

(((they)))

Any tips on how someone who is just starting university this year can get a good chance of being picked? when/what internships/placements did you do?

Reply 13

Terry Tibbs

Did you move away from home after uni to a new city where your office is?

Reply 14

mo76

Hi

i am interested in applying for Deloitte but am off put by the UCAS points requirement as i am 20 points short!

Do you think i would still have a chance of getting through if i applied?

Thanks.

Reply 15

DreamChaser111

Hi,

Thanks for taking the time to do this, it's very much appreciated by us all.

1. When did you apply for the position, early September or later on during your third year? Would applying earlier improve your chances do you think?

2. In terms of salary, how much does that increase by each year and what is the salary after you complete the ACA?

3. Since your currently at a regional office how difficult is it for you to move to the London office of you wanted to move?

4. If you go into audit is it possible to move into tax if you want to or vice versa?

5. If you wanted to open your own accounting business is it better to do tax or audit trainee position, which one would be more suitable?

Thanks in advance, your help is very much appreciated :smile:

I'm ever so grateful.

Reply 16

Ze Witcher

Original post by AuditorJamz

Hi all,Title says everything. Fire away!

What make you go into Audit compared to other areas of Accounting?
What do you plan to do after you become a CA?
Has the Maths degree helped you for accounting in any way?

Reply 17

Gladiatorsword

Original post by AuditorJamz

Tbh I didn't really apply to IB grad schemes during my final year as I didn't think I'd get any. If I had an offer though for sure I would have chose IB and I suspect that is the case for many people in Audit. However, looking back, I make c.25k and apart from 2/3 months in a year I can leave the office by 6/7 and work 9/10 hour days at most. In banking you'd be finishing by 11/12 on an average day throughout the year and probably make around c.50k + bonus. Having now worked 100 hour weeks during busy season, I'm not sure I'd be able to do it throughout the year on a constant basis. However, the money would definitely be a motivator - it's an interesting one!

Aah cool - i understand; it'd be nice to have occasional free time

Whats the work culture like? Do you get to work in teams often? If so, is it competitive?

Reply 18

Codetto

Original post by AuditorJamz

Regional office.

If you were to do it all over again would you still choose big 4 over some kind of finance grad scheme at an f500/ similar?

Reply 19

Ladbants

Original post by AuditorJamz

Normal day - as a first your you are essentially 'testing' balances. If you look at a financial statement (statement of financial position, for example) of a company it will have titles like Cash, Receivables etc) - your job is to essentially ensure these numbers are correct. So the client will prepare their draft statements and then you and your team will test these.- Cash balances will typically be tested to bank statements (so you'd literally look at what they have as their cash balances and then compare with a bank statement ensuring they are the same and then you will document this in excel- things like revenue, operating expenditure, etc - you'd look a a sample of invoices and again check that these are correct (amounts/dates etc)95% of the time is in the clients office as a first year.as a first year you dont really have that many meetings but you do speak to the client a lot. This could be regarding the information they have sent (sample of invoices), about their business procedures etcIm only 1 year in but I think Im leaning towards doing something more interesting hopefully after qualifiying. (consulting or corporate finance).Btw I dont really use TSR- probz a silly q but can someone tell me how I can make a new line in my posts. I press enter but when I submit my reply it just formats into a whole paragraph - thanks I'd be very grateful .

Thanks for the helpful information! That actually sounds like quite interesting work
Do you get a laptop or do you work on a computer at the client site?