Audit Semi Senior Review

Auditing. This is essentially checking the financial statements that a company is producing are true and fair, and follow the accounting standards. Spend a lot of time speaking to clients to understand what they have done and even more time working in excel workpapers to document my testing. Goes in a cycle of planning audits, doing audits, finishing audits. Repeat. Clients vary a lot in size and sector.

Learnt so many new skills. Communicating formally within the office with colleagues, with clients, with executives and board members etc. Data analysis techniques, as well as becoming highly proficient in excel and much more quick at using it. Also gained a strong understanding of the accounting standards and auditing standards.

I enjoy working with a group of other people my age, there is a good social side to the job. Audit work has been a good start to my career and I can see why people do it (learn a lot very fast), although it is not the most value-adding job I could have, which is one downside.

ACA is a well structured route. The professional qualifications team at my firm can be hard to deal with at times, however everything has gone fine and I've had no issues. There is a clear growth path and this has been moulded by those before me, so you can learn a lot from older peers.

Plenty of time off for exams, all paid study leave is good. They don't push you to work too hard during study times, however the odd outlier manager might try to, so you just need to be careful and stand up for yourself as 99.9% of people understand that personal exams matter more than work.

BPP have been very helpful, marking mock exams and setting homework for us. Cannot fault them at all, the teachers have been passionate and are clearly experts in teaching the exams. BPP check in on you regularly and will reply to you at weekends near exams if you have urgent questions.

I wouldn't be able to do the role without it really, it shows you so much about your job, as well as peripheral topics you come across occasionally such as law or tax. The ACA teaches you accounting mainly though and is highly respected within the industry. Cannot progress within audit without it.

Yes, as a large company with thousands of employees there are many networks and groups of people you can join with. They put on annual events such as balls, parties, away days, professional networking etc. Local offices have sports teams that play versus other offices and also against other firms.

Yes

Good start to your career, will gain a lot of exposure to companies and have the ability to build confidence talking to clients. The people are generally good and there is room for you to grow, this is less likely within industry where there is less room to grow. They will get you the ACA and the world is your oyster.

They don't expect you to understand accounting or auditing at the start of the job, you just need to be hardworking and willing to learn. Being personable is also key, your interview might be more about how suitable you are to be put in front of a client, representing the firm, checking you wouldn't embarrass them.