Life of an auditor

What does it take to make the jump from senior manager to partner? Good question. Let's break it down, in order--  1) People Skills - You have to have really good people skills, you cannot be awkward. You have to come across as genial and amicable, and exhibit the personality of someone that others want to do business with. 2) Perception that you can network and pull in clients - At the end of the day, the Firms were created to make money, and the partners need to keep adding more money in the pool. If the partners think you can go in, network at charity events, golf events, etc, and pull in new clients, you're in, it goes a loooong way. Develop a personality that will make people want to ask you to join them for a drink 3) Perception that you understand audit and that you are good at what you do - You do not have to be an audit superstar, but as long as you have a good reputation, and the client likes you, that's what matters. 4) Reflect your demographic - If you wan...

I wish to pursue a career in audit or transaction advisory services. Wanted to know if you can give an insight into both departments with regards to the career prospects, work life balance and monetary factors.   Transaction advisory services can be a pretty broad term, depending on the Firm. Assuming you mean m&a commercial due diligence work and valuation related work. M&A commercial diligence-  To get into m&a diligence, you'd need to put in 3-4 years in audit, because they usually like people with audit experiences and CPA certifications. People who usually do a stint in commercial due diligence go onto some rather interesting jobs - joining the acquisitions group of different companies, private equity analysts, other specialized valuation companies (duff & phelps, etc). W/ regards to work life balance, it is really unpredictable. You can be in your office doing nothing for weeks but still have to stay in the office in case a deal is in the works and y...

Is there any particular industry you recommend for an associate to being with?  I wouldn't recommend any one industry, it all depends on your interest. The core sectors are - Technology/Software, Manufacturing, Hedge Funds and Mutual Funds, Insurance, Banks, Retail, Government, Real Estate, Entertainment, Biotechnology, Energy, Alternative Energy and Non-Profits. I'm sure there's more. I started breaking down why you'd want to join each industry, but then realized it all came down to one more thing - your interest in that particular industry. If you see yourself in that industry long-term (after your stint in auditing), choose that industry. Simple as that. One thing you'd want to take into consideration is specialization. For example, if you go into the financial service industry, it will be hard to transition to manufacturing, retail and technology. Consider the similarities between the industries if you don't know what you want to do and want to keep your o...

How often do big 4 auditors compare how their situations are with others working in Fortune 500s, Investment Banking, Consulting, etc jobs?   Sadly, a good amount. Let's break it down -  Fortune 500 - I'm going to group in all public companies here. This is what most employees compare their jobs to. When you audit these companies, you get to say their payroll reports, and so you know exactly how much each individual makes. You get mad when you see people who are not as competent but make a ton more than you. Then while you're slaving away through 8-9 pm, you see these guys jet faster than Usain Bolt at 5:30 pm, so they can enjoy life, and work to live rather than live to work.  Ibanking: You know it's a miserable job but you get riled up when you see how much they make, be it 5x, 10x or 20x the amount you make. It hits you when you audit banking fees on certain transactions, and you look at the amount of money they make for each transaction. You barely ever see th...

What's your advice for a soon to be college grad interested in the big 4 but dealing with the new 150 credit hour law? It seems like everyones advice is to go right for your masters after graduation. Is the Masters program worth it or would extra credits from a community college still look good? At the end of the day, all that matters is your CPA. Your masters program's only help is getting you credits towards the 150 requirement. If the costs are much higher for a masters vs credits from a community college, then just do the credits from the comm college. I've seen many either do the masters or the credits from the comm college, but nobody really cares as long as you have your CPA. The two kinds of people who get their masters in accounting are - a) people who need the 150 and b) people who were non-accounting majors but now want to switch to an accounting career.  

Still in the questions from September,backed up... Was hoping you could help me out. Due to the staffing issues that I've heard are plaguing all of the Big 4 many teams are severely understaffed. What advice would you give to a first year who's starting on a team where there are no Seniors and has to work directly with the manager.  The Big 4 are just getting destroyed by staffing issues, it is really bad. I understand that the fat had to be trimmed in  2008, and I have no issues with that move. But they really need to do a better strategizing hiring. Given the amount of inactivity in the markets from 2008-early 2010, many knew the M&A,IPO activity was bound to shoot up. So they should have anticipated this and hired more. Now the Firms are trying their best to poach from other Firms, and offering all sorts of incentives and bonuses to jump ship, which was previously a no-no. Looks like all bets are off at this point. People who are sitting pretty at this point are the...

Been a couple months,sorry for the delay.On to the questions... I currently work for the a department of the US Government doing some auditing and analyzing of government-sponsored and government-assisted programs. I will be completing my master's degree in accounting next spring and have begun all of the big 4 interviews this fall. My question is, how common or "normal" is it for people to move from the public secotr to the private sector, or vice versa? I have been told that it would be a good idea to stick with the federal job for a few years and then attempt to move to a big firm, but not to stay for too long because I wouldn't want to get "stuck" working for the government due to its percieved laziness. And on the other hand, I have been told that it would make no sense to work in the private sector and then return to the government stuff later...Anyways, I am currently more in favor of taking an associate audit position at the big 4 if I was to be o...