Life of an auditor

So how do you view the politics in the private as compared to the public?  Great question, made me want to post again. I realize it's been six months, time flies when you don't need blog therapy anymore. On to the question - there's a lot of politics in public and private. On a high level, there's more red tape in public and in private. Public - The Big 4 firms are big organizations - so it's much harder to cut through and get what you want. If you want to get on a particular engagement or industry, it's not as simple as going through the schedulers. The key is to get on the good side of partners, who can then make it happen. While that's simple enough, the issue is that it's not like there's just one partner..w hile the partners have a lot of power, there's a more concentrated group of partners that have even more power. Now it's a battle of trying to latch on to the right partner so he or she can win a battle against other partners. Th...

Working in private can be better although it can also be hard as a staff person. I'd wait for the manager title and 5 years of experience. That way you can have staff people under you. You don't want to be a staff in private because you'll be doing the work for a lot longer in your career. It's much harder to get a promotion in private.   Agreed, a lot of individuals who switch from Public to Private (especially after 3-4 years) struggle with the idea of not getting promoted every year when they switch to Private. It's absolutely true that you will not get promoted every year, especially if you're average. It's not like a factory where people go in and out all the time, there just aren't enough slots. Stay until manager in Public, then switch to Private if you don't want to be partner. It's a common trope that the Big 4 put out there, but it's somewhat true. The way to succeed in Private is to quickly be good at whatever you're doing, ...

I'm currently working in KPMG Philippines, will about to start my fourth busy season and it'll be my second year as a supervisor/senior. I would like to know if it'll be a good idea to go work for a private company by this time. My only concern is that work outside audit may not be as enjoyable for me. However, I am starting to get tired of too much workload.  At this point, stay until you get a year as manager under your belt and then leave. You could leave now and start as a senior accountant somewhere only if it's not a regular operational job where you'll do the same thing every time. Over the next few years, you'll pick up a lot of soft skills and technical skills that will be critical to your growth. If your only goal is a 9-5 workday and the money isn't all that important to you, then leave now, but if you can tolerate the workload for 3 more years, stay. It'll benefit you a lot long term.

" Could you elaborate, why your life is better now?" Here are some of the various differences between public and private- a) The work itself - The work is significantly better. In public, you spend half your time on documentation and controls. That's all essentially Cover Your Ass work so the PCAOB or your internal reviews don't deem it to be a deficient audit. You're essentially trying to figure out ways to say that you are comfortable with your client's work. While you get a high level overview of the various processes, you don't really dig into it or have the power to change things. In private, you're actually making decisions - whether it comes to accounting conclusions or process improvements, and what you prepare or review actually makes it into our financials. Yes - we're not the revenue generators, but there is something more intangible in coming up with the financials than reviewing it once it's done. b) On call - In audit, you...

Can't believe that this is the first time I logged in this year. I guess I just didn't need this kind of therapy anymore. Anyone got any questions about the other side, i.e. the post-audit life? I can tell you one thing - it is significantly better.

Can you give a more robust description of an internal auditor? What he/she primarily works with/for?  IA essentially is in charge of ensuring that all operations across the company have set processes and controls for each process. They ensure that there is a solid segregation of duties for all these processes. They then are in charge of walking through these processes and testing our internal controls around these processes and ensuring that they are effective. The auditors expect that IA's walkthroughs and control testing would be enough to rely on a sample of them. They also want IA to know all of our walkthroughs and controls inside-out, because that, in theory , is their job. In the instances that I've been exposed to, both in audit and in private, it's really not feasible for IA to know these processes inside out. Most IA groups aren't really that big, so from a process perspective,for them to know all the nuts and bolts of a company would be hard (unles...

My interactions with our current auditors always helps reinforce in me that my decision to leave was the right decision, but it actually takes it further - it makes me wonder - how the heck did I survive for so many years in audit. When I hear their questions, many of which are purely for PCAOB documentation purposes, I just want to walk away because I'd rather waste my time watching paint dry than answer such non-value added questions.  I even frequently ask them why they continue to stay in audit. And from what I hear in my old firm, life's still the same. People constantly complaining, the Firms saying that things will change, but it isn't really. And life goes on. Factory model. Look, auditors add value, don't get me wrong. But there's a lot of non-value add in what they do. I get it, it's not their fault, it's the system and the regulation board. But man - can't believe I used to do that.