training

I am starting my career in audit in September at a European office. I know that the companies have very good training programmes, yet I still feel like preparing myself in any way possible. Do you have any tips for me and other new hires?

To be honest, there's no need to prepare. Even the training programs are insufficient. The majority of your training will be on-the-job, i.e. when you're in the field and your senior associates are teaching you how to audit. In fact, I'd venture to say that the people who participate a lot in training are not the best in your training class a majority of the time. Just focus on your senior's training the first few weeks at the client, and you should be golden. Of course, your senior should have the necessary competencies to  teach well.

My first senior was horrendous. My first day on the job, he comes up to me and asks me to audit receivables, and then leaves. A fellow staff associate who started client work a week before I did helped me out. To this day I won't forget how shoddy that senior was. So in summary, I hope your first senior is a strong one. Ask lots of questions, but make sure to think a little before you ask them, and you should be in good shape. 

Compensation season has begun!

That time of year, when the gossiping and speculation begins, when some directly ask how much others' raises were (which I think is ridiculous, what a kind of a question is that? Learn some manners), and some try and get a sense from the demeanor of others to see if the raises are good. Every year there's rumors - raises are going to  be great, raises going to be at market, raises are going to be bad. You usually cover the whole spectrum. When the raises are final, some go on rants about how pathetic the raises are. Some think the raises are really good. To those folks - listen, we are constantly underpaid - that is the model and I don't see that changing - so the raises are not good. Yes, the %s might be good, but the total salary for the amount you work - come on! Keep in mind you don't get equity. Especially the people who started in 2008-2009, when we didn't have raises -to you, any raise is a good raise.

People - don't compare your salary to the outside world's salary. Compare your salary to the outside world's salary + bonus + equity. It's not even close sometimes. The Firms try to spew kool-aid stating that our % raises and base salaries are pretty good. What they don't talk about is the equity you get when working in private. It's all about the equity. Keep that in mind.

Start date

Most of my peers / class and I signed the full-time offer that's supposed to be starting in September of this year. However, HR has now provided us an option to defer our start dates. I'm considering deferring to the next start date - January. Do you think this puts me at a disadvantage? Would missing planning and interim work in the fall affect my intermediate (2nd year staff associate) year performance? Would Seniors be so busy during busy season that they wouldn't have time to teach me / properly give instructions? Is it more difficult work in busy season? Thanks!!


It depends. So if you start in January and are a good performer, you will probably get promoted the same year along with the September class, so if you graduate early, and want to get a head start on your professional life, go for it. Busy season will be a heck of a training ground for you.

If you want to ease into busy season hell, start in September. You are right about seniors not having time to teach you during busy season. So ideally, for the team and for yourself if you like instructions and warm-up, start in september, but there are a few rockstars out there who started in January. Definitely more difficult, but it saves you three months of work.

blogging

On a side note, did you stop blogging? As far as I can see there are quite a while since your last post  


I just didn't feel like booting up my computer when I came home to be honest. On a side note, I've always thought about writing a book down the road about my experience at a big 4 firm. Doesn't seem like anyone's done this, and seems like something that people would read/buy. Thoughts? Should I just stick to blog posts.

public accounting

Hi. Is Big 4 considered as public sector? I thought they are under private sector? 

It's considered to be public accounting - and the audit is done on both public and private companies. Agree though - seems strange if you dig deep to figure out why.

Notices

Also have you ever had a really good auditor leave w/o warning? Like you found out the day they were leaving. 

For the most part, you find out a week before - via the grapevine, almost everyone gives a 2 week notice in the US. Depending on the Firm, you may get "escorted out" on the same day if you go to a competitor, even if it's a different practice. It's pretty crazy when that happens. Also, when you're laid off, you have to fill out your paperwork and leave that same day.

Most good auditors are kind enough to give their two week notice though, it helps transition a lot of work to others.

move from europe to the US

I work for a Big 4 in Europe and I want to continue my carreer in USA (in audit if possible). My firm encourages the international carreers but I think it's not that easy. Do you know anyone that has moved from Europe to USA? How it worked? Hard to fit in? Is it hard to adapt yourshelf to the local GAAP? 

There are a lot of people on exchange from Europe. It is a difficult transition since audit is much more intense and detailed than it is in most of Europe. It's funny seeing individuals from other countries audit - might as well audit by inquiry sometimes.  As far as adaptation to local GAAP goes, it'll take you time, but you'll get there. Just have to spend some time using the research tools to familiarize yourself depending on the issue.