Skip to main content

scorsese

Ever seen those scorsese or spielberg movies, where everything in the background is accentuated to the nth degree, so you notice everything and anything around the main characters. It's kinda like that in audit rooms. We're barely a few feet from each other without any walls really separating us. So if one member may not be the most fit individual (or even a steroid head for that matter), their heavy breathing neeeever fades into the background. When you try and focus on some document, it's really quiet, all of a sudden..mmmmhphhhhhhhhhhhh...mmmmpppphhhhh. Totally throws you off, and now you're trying everything in the book to zone it out. If it's not heavy breathing, it's people who talk to themselves, make weird sounds, rumbling stomachs. I mean, everyone does it, but these audit rooms essentially end up acting like a microphone next to those sounds. Hey, i'm not being offensive or anything, I'm just saying...

Comments

Starbuck said…
Boy, the busy season stress really does show !
I can relate, I was in a Big 4 for 4 years, got out 2 years ago and I've never been happier (lost 40 pounds, learned how to cook, dance, even got engaged).
Get out before it's too late !
Anonymous said…
Hey man, great blog. Can you explain the "forced ranking" system (e.g. GE style) that the Big 4 use to weed out employees. I'm about to join a Big 4 and want to know how to survive this.

Popular posts from this blog

ADP/Payroll

Just realized that the very payroll/adp reports we all enjoyed looking at in order to see how much our client contacts made, now seem to piss me off. Especially when your main contact, who couldn't tell a debit from a credit, makes significantly more than you, and leaves at 5. It's almost guaranteed to get you in a foul mood and yak with your team about the ridiculous salaries that certain employees get when compared to yours.

should you choose to audit financial services?

I'm trying to decide whether to audit financial services companies or non-financial services companies. What would you say are the pros and cons of either industries? Do individuals who choose non-FS have less career mobility within the firm or if they decide not to stay with the B4 after a few years? Really depends on what you'd like to do after (unless you really love auditing). If you want to a controller,etc. at a p/e firm or a hedge fund down the road, you'd want to go into financial services. The pay won't be too bad, especially if you get a share of the insane bonuses they dole out. If you want to audit industries with tangible products and want to get a better understanding of the operations of such businesses, then other industries are the way to go.In terms of mobility outside the firm, auditing other industries is the way to go since you have plenty of options when you exit the audit world. For example, in 2008, after Lehman collapsed, it was incredibly hard

auditing vs consulting

I was wondering if you could break down the career opportunities in auditing and consulting (in a big 4). I know that consulting pays more in a big 4 and has more interesting work, but it seems that auditing has extremely good exit opportunities (Financial controller, CFO etc). Any thoughts on which is better in the long run? Well there's different consulting services offered by public accounting companies - the most popular being IT consulting and risk consulting. There are also other consulting services offered, but these two hire the most. Do they pay more? Yes, but not by much. Not enough for you to say: Shoot, the $$ is a huge reason for me to move over. Is the work more interesting than audit? Yes. You're actually looking over a company's processes and telling them what to do instead of what not to do (audit). Everyone I know who's made the switch likes it waay better than audit. In the long run though, choosing audit vs consulting really depends on what you want