Life of an auditor

I'm curious, what is your take on cutoff date for leaving your firm? With busy season coming up, I'm sure this is a hot topic.  Good question. It's obviously subjective. Feel like everyone will have a different answer for you. My personal view on it is that if you are a key resource on an engagement, you have to let them know a couple months before busy season so they can find an alternative resource. If you are not a key resource, end of November would seem to be appropriate. There are always some individuals who leave in December too, but it's not the best time. Always look at who you'll be burning bridges with, and whether it's worth it. If you're looking to switch careers, then leave anytime prior to busy season if the opportunity is good, since leaving this job won't come back to haunt you. If you intend to stay in accounting, then think about it a little more, since you may need those contacts down the road. Curious as to what people think - let...

I have been in the audit of a Europe-based FPI for 5 years now and was just offered a position in their Internal Audit Department. I am interested in reporting, however, and I am worried that accepting this offer will put me in a radically different career path. Please share your view.  I wouldn't call it radically different, but if you've already spent 5 years internal audit and want to go into reporting, you may have to keep searching for jobs. Alternatively, share your goals with the company, and ask if you can get into their reporting group over the next couple years. Make sure you share your thoughts with the reporting group so they can keep you in mind when they're looking. I've seen lots of people go from audit to reporting, so I wouldn't fret. Just keep looking for that reporting job even if you end up taking this internal audit job. Contact some recruiters - companies are always on the lookout for people to join their reporting group.

I am undergrad senior for accounting. I am 27. I have been told many times that the best thing to do after college is to land a job in a big-4 company. I am not sure if I am willing to put in 60+ hours a week for this “dream job”. If I don’t want to take the “ideal” path, what other options I have?  That's a tough age to start, but I've seen people do it, but you definitely have to be willing to put in the hours. If you don't want to go down the big 4 path, you can always take a job at a regional firm and work there for 2-3 years before going into a senior accountant job at any Company. That's really your best bet if you want to be in accounting. Now, if hours are a priority, and you're okay moving up slowly in the workforce, you could try going straight into industry. It's unfortunate that it's this way, but in the accounting world, the big 4 are essentially an ivy league type recruiting zone for various companies.

I am CPA - equivalent in rather small regional audit practice in a country in Middle Europe. Locally, big four companies are considered top experts in audit, excelling in larger companies audits. But they also do smaller and mid size companies. They do it charging much more in fees than mid tier companies not to mention smaller regional auditing firms like the one I work for. Once or twice our paths crossed. Me a CPA doing a statutory audit and audit teams of 2-3 people at their 20s doing an audit of a consolidation package of the same client. I sometimes audited the same client the next year after it was audited by a Big four. Well, the clients' comments apart (young clueless people stressed to do the job they don't understand), I was not really impressed. One client had to go through major fundamental error adjustments. I can't believe the partner or manager at Big 4 was unaware of the omission or maybe he did n't care to understand. It could be this type of reckless ...