Life of an auditor

What's with these public service ads on the blog? Anyway, wanted to touch on the comfort zone that people get into at work. I've been railing against people drinking the kool-aid ever since I began working at my firm. Now, I'm dangerously close to getting into a comfort zone. This is one step before drinking the kool-aid myself. I still have a long ways to go before I do that. It kinda reminds of the stockholm syndrome (wikipedia definition: Stockholm syndrome is a psychological response sometimes seen in an abducted hostage, in which the hostage shows signs of loyalty to the hostage-taker, regardless of the danger (or at least risk) in which they have been placed ) I've getting used to my clients, learning the system, not fighting against it like i used to. Not complaining as much as I used to. I'm like an aged boxer, I took so many swings against a wall, that I'm tired, weak, so I've just decided to sit back and waive the white flag. Given the current st...

And down goes the market. Again, and again, and again. Stocks are getting pulverized in the US and abroad. 401ks are going down, the populace is cutting down on spending, and retailers are closing down. So how's everything in the big 4 world? Not so good. Not bad, but not good. A lot of clients are cutting back on fees, when at the same time, the SEC wants more auditing done around the effect of the credit crisis on companies. (Translated: More hours, less $$. ) The big 4 then turned around and laid off/counseled out/fired quite a few employees, even in the audit practice. A partner told me that the reason for this was not enough people left this year, and so the factory model was thrown out of whack (Not in those words, but that's the essence of it). This made a lot of sense to me, and further legitimizes my audit factory theory . I noticed during the summer/early fall that not too many people left this year, and it was really intriguing given that the last few years had a dec...

Wow. What a crazy market it's been the last couple weeks. Among the casualties..Lehman, Merrill and AIG. The Fed decides to bail out AIG, but not the stock holders. They then decide to ban short selling on financials. Now there are rumors that they're trying to help take distressed assets of company books. Unbelievable. Potentially a $1 trillion plan. Investing currently is not for the faint of heart. For those who haven't really been following what's going on, please do so. This is stuff for the ages. Anyway, enough rambling. So how is this affecting the big 4? I had a conversation with some partners concerning this issue, and they believe that the big 4 are "recession-tolerant", not "recession-proof". Yes, clients are fighting back on the fees this year more than ever before. Yes, some clients are being swallowed up by the market and thus no longer exist. Yes, they're using this "crisis" as an excuse to offer lower raises than in year...

"If one is interested in going the CFO/Controller route by beginning in Assurance, which sector do you think is best to start in with a Big 4 firm? (Financial Services, Consumer Products, Insurance, etc.)" Say you'd like to be the controller of a manufacturing firm, get on as many manufacturing clients as you can, including publics, stay until manager, and you should be able to get a controller position at the firm. As far as the CFO position goes, you'd either have to work to get there from the controller position, or in some instances, CFO positions are offered to senior managers and partners.

Here's an article on the "in-demand" majors from an employer perspective. No. 2 - Accounting. Here's the part that relates to Accounting - "2. Accounting ($47,429) For those who delight in number crunching, a bachelor's degree in accounting can lead to occupations in financial and investment planning, budget analysis, tax preparation, bookkeeping, payroll services, and auditing. Opportunities are often best for CPAs, MBAs, or professionals proficient with accounting software. Accountants ensure that a firm is run efficiently and records are kept accurately. Expect long hours -- especially around tax season. Job outlook: Thanks to retirees and a faster-than-average job growth due to new business and changing financial laws and regulations, accountants can enjoy favorable job opportunities." Source: McGolerick, Elizabeth Weiss. "The Top 5 In-demand Majors" Retrieved from http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-articles-the_top_5_in_demand_majors-466 ...

Auditor alert!! what pains me- employees using accounting/auditing lingo outside of work - examples - a) Oh, I don't know. Our bar tab was immaterial . Not cool, not cool. Say cheap, say inexpensive, but not this. 2) Oh, I go to new york once every quarter . How about - every three months, few months, once in a while. 3) There isn't much of a variance between the two movies How about - difference? 4) "Let's vouch his bill to cash paid" No no....how about..Make sure he paid??? 5) Wanna go bowling? Yea, that appears reasonable. Whatever happened to "okay" 6) can you sign off on that bill? And please, for heaven's sake...lay off on the accounting inside - jokes. It's painful to hear, it really is. I'm sure there are plenty of other auditing terminologies that I missed. Feel free to post them in the comments section.

It's mid summer time..which means happy hours every thursday to send off people leaving the firms. I'm not a fan of the term 'happy hour' when it comes to people leaving. Any other suggestions out there for events in their 'honor'? There are also two schools of thought on the happy hours - One half don't want one and just want to slip out without any fuss. The other half look forward to their happy hours as a rite of passage to get out of the firm. What bugs me is the difficulty in laying down the credit cards so the tabs can keep running atleast for 3-4 hours. Come on now, these people leaving the firm spent a good amount of time working their asses off for the partners. A little thank you should be in order. Granted, from a partner's perspective, why should they pay when people leave? Well, why don't you pay when people stay? Let's look at it another way - a happy hour to celebrate the people staying? That should be cause for celebration.