We work with a B4 for our yearly audit, and it’s not uncommon to receive emails from them on a Sunday at 10pm, or 3am on a weekday. Obviously i know that B4 is known for expecting their staff to work ridiculous hours, but how is this acceptable?! I truly feel bad for the engagement team, it seems like they work around the clock.
I guess I’m just in shock that this is the expectation.
Most of the sites mentioned business acumen as being essential for internal auditors. So, I was just curious about the relevance of business acumen to external auditors.
Hey there,
starting my 5th year in a big four and it's time to quit this hellhole. Despite my experience, I keep seeing all these internal audit positions and it's making me realize how I know absolutely nothing about internal audit. Literally nothing. I suppose I can imagine the kind of things they do, but I'm not sure how they document stuff. I mean, I've survived plenty, how hard can it be... :D Or is it much different after all? Recently took my country's equivalent of the CPA exams, might even pass I guess but I wanna move on anyway. Thanks fellas!
I have been contacted by a recruiter, she wanted to offer me a position for public accounting.
I have a good job right now, I work 9-5 and work almost never follows me home (Banking), I’ve seen your stories for public accounting and some of these are scary so just curious if this would be worth it. I’m not scared of working my tail off.
I worked in Big D for 2 years as an external auditor in my home country, and the workload wasn’t so bad but had lots of travel, it was an area dedicated to risk.
Any info is appreciated
Hey folks,
Part of my current job is to do external audits on my company’s members. I actually enjoy what I do (although it can be stressful at times especially when the members don’t cooperate), but I have been looking at postings for internal auditing recently. It seems like it pays better and there are more opportunities overall. I’ve tried applying for some positions but I’ve been told my experience is not sufficient.
So my question is 2 fold; 1) did anyone here go from external to internal auditing? Is that even a thing? 2) What is the best way to go about transitioning since getting an internal auditor position is proving to be difficult at my current situation.
Any advice or information is much appreciated.
Hi guys,
I am a fresh graduate who just started my professional career as an external auditor at a startup audit firm. There is little to no help here. I am supposed to figure things out and work independently with no guidance, support or mentoring. I am looking for someone with experience in the same field to provide me with some assistance , advice and support, most likely a mentor to guide me now and then. I feel lost and have doubts during my audit and stuggle to find a way out. I am quite adaptable and quick at learning, so I promise, wont bother or give anyone a hard time who is willing to help me. I will truly be grateful and appreciate it if someone steps forward.
Thanks a ton in advance. Good day y'all
Hi! Can anyone share their experience on the work life balance of an internal auditor?
I worked in public accounting for a few years then did internal audit for 7. been the data guy in the office for a few years, learning sql, power bi, dabbled a little with VBA and familiar with the pandas basics and visualization in python. the new job im taking emphasized having ownership of the finance system to assist the forecasting, planning, budgeting, financial reporting process, including month end assistance. throughout my interviews they seemed very interested in my experience with data. there was not much talk about accounting/finance topics. i should say i am an accounting grad but i havent looked at a journal entry or reconciliations since i was in public accounting but i am obviously familiar with the accounting cycle, external audits and so on that i would be assisting with the new position. is it safe to say that knowing the latest and greatest accounting standards, financial ratios, etc are not as critical? or is there anything in particular i need to freshen up on?
i was also considering reaching out to the new manager before my start date to ask about areas that others who have been in my shoes may have struggled with, just so i can read up or study before my start date. but i also wouldnt want to set the expectation that i would know how to do those things when i start.
I haven’t worked both obviously but perhaps you guys can give me some insight. Does starting off in external audit give you a better background? Does it allow you to better understand how to prepare and carry out an internal audit? Or is it not that valuable?
Honestly this is been bugging me a lot. Like I know people say to go into external audit first to keep your options open, but if you are dead set on IA would it be bad going into it for the rest of your career without understanding what the work of external auditors is like and how they work side by side with you? Would love to hear y’all’s insight. Thanks.
I just got a job offer at PwC for an auditing role. What are some things I could expect for a normal day?
Anyone left external audit at big 4 to internal audit at an investment bank? If so please can you give your experience, what it’s like and if it’s as fast paced/stressful? I’m close to getting my CPA and looking to run out of big 4
People always respond with, "That's scary!" or think I work for the IRS.
What's something you tell people to help them understand!?
I work as an auditor at a big four firm and feel in the minority when I say that the exposure an audit gives us makes me passionate about understanding clients and solving problems with them.
I think it's due to the long hours and relatively unsatisfying pay compared to other departments in the office such as advisory, but I like to think as a standalone career, without comparison to others, that audit is an exciting career.
Let me know what your experiences are below.
So I used to work as an internal auditor a couple years ago for a LARGE publicly traded in London Stock Exchange company. Before I left I heard of SEVERAL instances of what I would consider significantly material fraud done by employees from Asia and Latin America. I heard an instance that one internal auditors report found significant fraud in their china business but his report was held in limbo until they could fix it and had him modify it from Critical failure of Intenernal control to I can’t remember the exact label but I was reworded to sound less critical than what he explained to me. I’m surprised he allowed it. Additionally, I was on an audit in South America and we had successfully completed the audit with some minor findings. My senior left on the last day and I had an extra pair of days to explore the city. One of the HR guys we audited that spoke English offered to give me a wonderful tour of the city. We spent the day together and had drinks at the end and he and I get very buzzed and we hooked up (I recognize my failure in independence with 20/20 hindsight.) He starts venting to me the next day that shook me down to my core. It turns out we were lied to of who was in charge of the office (3 people in charge) and he gave me a laundry list of CRITICALLY ALARMING situations such as RAMPANT sexual harassment, one of the office oligarchs hiring his incompetent mistress and places her in someone else’s department she has no qualifications for, the alleged leader telling staff that the “anonymous” hotline is not anonymous because they get a recording of what was said and WILL identify the whistleblower, that the small branch offices had a larger than what was actually disclosed fraud because the extent of the lack of paperwork and organization of the loca branches, that PY internal audit he was forced to give forged documents to our team mates, and that the staff this year was forced to go stay late to re-audit their work so they could fix it.
During this audit my manager (it was just him and I on this audit) who was a a couple months newer to my team divulged to me that that prior to this audit he was selected to go to this other audit for this HUSH HUSH internal audit with my senior to go to a surprise audit because someone at the loca office reported that they (whole office) were forced to work overtime to start printing fake invoices and POs because they found out their audit was moved closer than expected and they were working in sweat s
... keep reading on reddit ➡https://imgur.com/gallery/Y7CJzcs
Are people actually this desperate? Even folks with experience? It’s working during busy season and if you do well, you may become a permanent hire. Sounds fucking nuts.
