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The Finance and Accountancy Society

There's not really a general chat thread here and who doesn't love to talk about the glamorous world of auditing (and other finance jobs) when procrastinating from...well, auditing?

On the agenda: industry/practice news, general life at your firms/in your jobs, the past, the present, your future e.t.c. applications, moniez, culture, gossip, stories, the funner aspects of your job, spam and general chit-chat; whatever anyone wants to talk about.

I guess it would be a good hub for any potential applicants who have questions also.

Introductions? I'm just about to go into my second year as a Big 4 Auditor in a regional office attempting to specialise in sports, property, travel/tourism and leisure. Anyone else?

Recent news: promotions, bonuses and pay rises are here.

Summer is a thousand times better than busy season.

I am now treasurering for our local chartered accountants student society after social seccing and am bricking it over the workload.

I have eight months off until college and therefore am guaranteed a job for at least this long, hooray!

New graduates start soon and I think we've barely filled half our quota yet.

Less interesting: our new audit system is about to go live meaning the system I have spent the last year learning has been a waste. :frown:

We lost our first trainee last week after nine exams. :frown:

I'm working at Bolton Wanderers next week and managed to get onto Everton and the Ryder Cup this week! (interesting for me probably not you) :gthumb:

I might do a day in the life post if anyone is interested, I always enjoy reading those. If you have any questions for me about any aspect of the job or applying then fire away.

Chat away minions.

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Can I ask your living situation? :tongue:

Are you living alone or with friends? I am looking at an internship which would be ok as I could live with uni friends, but when they graduate and Im alone, I was thinking how I could afford a nice flat without it being too expensive?
You've barely filled half your quota even though contracts are meant to commence in the next couple of months?! Which office are you at? I guess you're saying there's still loads of vacancies, do you know why that is? :redface:
Reply 3
Good thread.

I start for a medium-sized firm in London this October studying CA.

Looking forward to - having money

Not looking forward to - studying CA

holla
So what are the most glamorous places you guys have travelled to?
I work for a big 4, not on a grad or any other scheme as I never finished my degree and sort of blagged my way through in March. Work in FS Tax but hoping to make a switch to Corporate finance in the next year or so.

I worked for relatively small companies previously so getting used to having my dinner and drinks expensed was a little strange. The first social I turned up to I actually had the audacity to buy my first drink myself.

I hate hotdesking.
I work at regional Big 4 office too. I have to agree Brotherhood, summer is way better than busy season! Well it was until I had to start revising for my next three exams but at least I'm finishing work at 5:30.

I'm looking forward to when exams are over as promotion and payrise follows! :smile:


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Reply 7
Start work in Sept (Look in the sig), and by work I mean 8-12 weeks of learning and re-working concepts that I've come across at Uni.

Still deciding on whether to use my exemptions, I have until the 15th of September. Looking forward to corporate induction, slightly sad that it won't be as robust as the induction I went through during my internship.

Glad to finally earn my own bit of cash while still being independent. None of that 'independent but poor' student life that I've lived for the past 3 years.

Looking forward to qualifying, but at the same time slightly apprehensive because I'll probably have to work harder and more efficiently than I did at Uni, and by harder, I mean about a 60% increase in effort as I hardly did anything at Uni.

Not sure if we get bonuses for exam passes etc.

As far as future prospects go, looking to second/whore myself out across service lines to gain as much experience as possible, Corporate Fin being my preferred end zone, auditing? Not so much :lol:.

Good luck lads/lasses.
Reply 8
I'm a fellow auditor, starting in September at Deloitte. Looking forward to getting in to it but dreading the exams!

Out of interest, any of you guys based in London, how much do you spend on rent? Thinking of closing on a nice place in Pimlico today, but 365pw seems extortionate (one bed split between two people). Includes council tax and bills though, so call it 320pw in actual rent. Anything I've seen for less though seems to either look like a council block or is situated miles from a station. Does that sound normal for a nice z1 one bed? :hmmm:
Reply 9
Original post by M1011
I'm a fellow auditor, starting in September at Deloitte. Looking forward to getting in to it but dreading the exams!

Out of interest, any of you guys based in London, how much do you spend on rent? Thinking of closing on a nice place in Pimlico today, but 365pw seems extortionate (one bed split between two people). Includes council tax and bills though, so call it 320pw in actual rent. Anything I've seen for less though seems to either look like a council block or is situated miles from a station. Does that sound normal for a nice z1 one bed? :hmmm:


Sounds about right for zone 1. Mine is zone 2, £155 inc council tax without bills.

Much more bang for your buck in zone 2, great areas to choose from still within reasonable commute time.
Yeah thats a good deal. I'm paying £450pm Z1 but it's ex-council and only really close to london overground stations which are useless unless i'm going to canada water/canary wharf. Have to get a bus to get on the tube.

Seems everyone is an auditor...?
Original post by Tokyoround
Yeah thats a good deal. I'm paying £450pm Z1 but it's ex-council and only really close to london overground stations which are useless unless i'm going to canada water/canary wharf. Have to get a bus to get on the tube.

Seems everyone is an auditor...?


That's what he's paying per week. £450 pcm is a steal.
Original post by monk_keys
That's what he's paying per week. £450 pcm is a steal.

Yep but isn't M1011 splitting the bill with his Mrs? Or is he whipped :colone:

Yeah i'm quite lucky it's cheap, but at the same time I wish I lived somewhere nicer/more modern and next to a tube station as theoretically, I could afford it. Plus, some of my neighbours are a bit chavvy, they make the corridor/entrance hall smell like crap.
Reply 13
Original post by monk_keys
Sounds about right for zone 1. Mine is zone 2, £155 inc council tax without bills.

Much more bang for your buck in zone 2, great areas to choose from still within reasonable commute time.


Sounds encouraging, is that in a 1 bed or is that a house share? Mind if I ask the area?
Reply 14
Original post by Tokyoround
Yep but isn't M1011 splitting the bill with his Mrs? Or is he whipped :colone:

Yeah i'm quite lucky it's cheap, but at the same time I wish I lived somewhere nicer/more modern and next to a tube station as theoretically, I could afford it. Plus, some of my neighbours are a bit chavvy, they make the corridor/entrance hall smell like crap.


Yea splitting it but still worked out to about 800pcm each. Not cheap considering it's only a one bed. Ah well, another day of viewings begins, will let you all know what happens in the end :tongue:
Original post by M1011
Sounds encouraging, is that in a 1 bed or is that a house share? Mind if I ask the area?


House share. I actually pay less than that because I share with my gf but that's what it would be per room if we all paid the same.

It's in Battersea/Clapham Junction.
Original post by M1011
I'm a fellow auditor, starting in September at Deloitte. Looking forward to getting in to it but dreading the exams!

Out of interest, any of you guys based in London, how much do you spend on rent? Thinking of closing on a nice place in Pimlico today, but 365pw seems extortionate (one bed split between two people). Includes council tax and bills though, so call it 320pw in actual rent. Anything I've seen for less though seems to either look like a council block or is situated miles from a station. Does that sound normal for a nice z1 one bed? :hmmm:


Jesus that is a LOT! I take it you're not from London because you really don't need to live in zone 1! The prices will be extortionate and it's not that nice a living experience if I'm honest. You need to start looking further afield, very few people 'starting out' live in zone 1 because the price is such a massive deterrent.

Which train station(s) do you need to get to because I could give you an idea of better boroughs to look at if you want? If you're new to London a lot of people really like SW- Clapham, Vauxhall, Wimbledon, etc are quite nice areas but also cheaper than central. Most non-Londoners I know choose to start out in SW because it's so "pleasant" ?

I'm living in SE London (where I come from) and I think it's amazing and more people should give it a go! I'm in a house share and I pay £400 a month rent. That's mate's rates though as a friend's mum owns the property and we just pay the mortgage and then some. If you were to rent a place in this area you'd probably be looking at £650 pm. That's in zone 3, which is about 10 minutes from London Bridge by overground.

If you were considering SE London then you could look at some of the 'posher' boroughs like Greenwich (I was looking to move here and you can get lovely places for £600 pm), Blackheath (more expensive but a reallllly nice place and worth it imo...average about £700+ pm), Gypsy Hill (£500pm) or Westcombe Park (highly recommend and it's v cheap about £400-500pm).

The figures I'm quoting are averages from when I was looking at spare rooms available in those areas. Obviously you'll find properties much cheaper but they'll either be at the dodge end of the borough or an absolute hellhole! One thing I do strongly recommend (especially if you aren't from London...) is checking the post code on google maps. For example Blackheath (highly affluent, lovely area) is close to Lewisham (not as bad as people make out but still wouldn't pay £700pm to live ther). The number of "Blackheath properties" I've seen advertised only for them to have Lewi postcodes! The audacity!
Big 4 Tax, starting the second year of my training contract. Passed ACA CAP1 in June. Not looking forward to CAP2 come October.

Not strictly for work, but my office arranged a weekend to Barcelona and the firm paid for most of it. That was pretty cool of them, messy messy weekend though.
Original post by GR3YFOXXX
Big 4 Tax, starting the second year of my training contract. Passed ACA CAP1 in June. Not looking forward to CAP2 come October.

Not strictly for work, but my office arranged a weekend to Barcelona and the firm paid for most of it. That was pretty cool of them, messy messy weekend though.

That's pretty cool, i've heard of teams going to Ascot and Brighton but Barcelona! Very nice.
Original post by GR3YFOXXX
Big 4 Tax, starting the second year of my training contract. Passed ACA CAP1 in June. Not looking forward to CAP2 come October.

Not strictly for work, but my office arranged a weekend to Barcelona and the firm paid for most of it. That was pretty cool of them, messy messy weekend though.


Im looking at the big4 for tax. What is CAP1 and 2?

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