Reading an article on insider trading now made me think of the unfettered access that we as auditors have to financial information before the press release is out. And it's not just us, it's the clients we audit too. Outside of certain companies, most public companies don't exactly have the best control over their financial reporting; so individuals can get access prior to the public release if they wanted. While the audit firms do a great job of stressing independence, can't help but think of the bad apples who are getting away w/ leveraging such information for personal use. Yes, the Firms can audit your stock accounts but you can always give it a friend of yours who invests in stocks. Feel like that environment is way too lax, and I can see it changing once an auditor gets caught in a high-profile case.
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 ...
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Thank you for adding new posts, you have many readers that are really glad you're back.
Thanks for this blog, it is really amazing.
I work for one of the Big 4 companies in a small country from Eastern Europe and consolidations that we check usually include 2-3 small companies, so we just make the Consolidated FSs in an excel file, with consolidation adjustments and then compare our figures with those provided by client. Considering the great amount of work even for a group of three companies, I bet you have a different approach in US. I would be grateful if you could share your experience. Thank you!
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Hope you are doing fine. I guess you are very busy throughout the whole year, but all your readers would b every happy to have you back again in your blog.
All teh best for your future and thank you very much once again for keeping us updated on insights for the BIG4 auditor´s life
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