Life of an auditor

Is it just me or does it seem like every incoming college graduate seems to have their CPA? Kinda dilutes the whole thing. I understand there's a shortage, and so the AICPA is doing everything they can to increase the number of CPAs (reduce restrictions, increase pass percentages). It makes the senior associates w/o the certification look pretty bad. Wouldnt be surprised if the interns start coming in having passed their exams and all they needed was the hours to get the certification.

"So, what do you for a living?" I hesitated, struggled to come up with an answer, then said that I worked for a certain Big 4 firm. "Nice, so what exactly do you do?" Damn, looks like that didn't answer the question. "I ummm...I audit." It has been historically proven that there is a 98% chance the person has no idea what auditing really entails. I have to try again. "Accounting..Public Accounting." "Ahh..",the person goes," taxes and such." What a douche. "Umm...yea..sure, taxes." Then there are times when I actually feel the need to explain it to them. "No, well, see...you know how companies have financial statements. Now, we have to look over and make sure everything's okay." At this point, I'm spoonfeeding them, hoping that they get the gist. If they don't, I'll just give up and say..yea, taxes. Seriously, come on people, you have to know what auditing is. If you want US Weekly type ...

You sit there, staring at your screen for hours, staring at pieces of papers for hours, marking things on your excel sheet and on those papers that you sometimes want to curl up and toss into the nearest trash. Halfway through, you slump in your chair, not realizing that this might just destroy your spinal construction. But...it has to be done, these spreadsheets have to be documented, screw our back. And during our "busy season"...january-march officially, january - late april/early may for most, you absolutely destroy your back. Busy season hours usually average around 55 hours a week, sans lunch. That's right, we're not supposed to count our lunch hour, so our 8:30-6 days end up becoming 8-6 days, which per my mathematical skills, amount to 10 hours a day. But..oh no..you can't count lunch, so it's just 8 hours. So 2 hours of our lives are a waste every day just so our venerable partner can meet his budget so he can buy that additional condo near the beach....