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Showing posts from December, 2007

CFA prep

I know this blog is primarily about public accounting and the CPA but I came across a very interesting blog by somebody studying for the CFA, and the challenges facing him during this arduous process. From what I've heard, the CFA is harder than the CPA, and more expensive. It is also a global certification, and has more pull in the financial sector. Here's the link to the blog

teaming with chaos

Ah, the pleasures and pains of constantly working with a team. They sit across from you all day, and it's a hit or miss. If it's a hit, then you're in good shape for the rest of the audit. If it's a miss, then you're just eff-ed. I've had my share of hits, and it's been good, but I recently had a miss, and that person made up for the lack of team hits I've been having over the past year. Heck, I was forced to go quite a few times to the gym just to blow off the steam I accumulate every day. I'm curious, how do these people right out of college manage to gather attitudes and arrogance, and think they know exactly what they're doing. This is audit, not physics. You can't learn this in college and then purport to be the all-knowing one. If you want to be an audit superstar, take the time to listen on your first two-three clients, and then you have the chance to argue every single point since you have experience to back that up. But that's ok

big 4 raises

This is in response to the question about raises..... " I was told by an EY recruiter that they usually give raises between 8 to 15%. Does that sound correct?" The recruiter at that firm is correct, but it's not just EY, it's the big 4...and maybe even the smaller firms....although 15% sounds a little high. That only might happen due to market corrections, which occurs once every few years. Sure, the raises are higher than at normal corporations, because the path upwards in the big 4 is so structured. Trust me though, as much as the raises are nice, big 4 employees work much more on average than most corporations. So, really, by the hour, it's not that different if you do want to look at it that way. Back to raises, depending on your reviews, raises could range between 7-14%. Market conditions(a survey apparently gets passes around the firms to get a gauge as to how much they are paying) play a role in the percentages. No firm wants to be left behind in the salary