WHAT DO AUDITORS DO: Junior Auditor at Big Four in London - Deloitte, EY, PwC, KPMG | Becca and Soph 

hey, i recently bagged a job at kpmg, i wanted to know a list of softwares that u used day to day. thanks

@@sukruthk4209 congrats! You’ll get a full induction when you start, including the software used, but I recommend focusing on advancing your excel skills before you start if you’re looking for something to do 😊

@@BeccaandSoph thanks you for the advice. Your videos are relatable as a student myself

how u do work there

Thanks!😁😁

Hi! So glad you found it useful ☺️ Most people join in September, although they sometimes have December and March intakes too… because of covid, most of my year were meant to start in Sept but got delayed to Jan. I’d recommend the Sept intake though if you get the choice, as it gives you time to settle in before busy season. There’s little difference between the two, most companies offer roles in ‘audit and assurance’. But in short, audit is a type of assurance, although there are other assurance roles that companies may offer. I’m in Audit which is the most common! Let me know if you have any other Qs

@@BeccaandSoph thanks for that, keep up the good work the channel is great!

Hi! Firstly congratulations 😁 Completely depends on your employer and whether your university allows you to have exemptions from the ACA exams (which most do for some certificate/professional level accounting exams). For example, I did BSc accounting and finance and got exempt from accounting, tax, MI etc. You can usually find out on your university’s website or on the ICAEW website. As you’re joining big 4, you’ll likely do your exams in sittings of 3 for professional, but 1 or 2 at a time for certificate exams. Although this varies dependant on if you’re on an intensive scheme. Always best to check with your employer but I wouldn’t worry about doing 3 per sitting as I’ve been doing that and it’s not as bad as you’d think!

Hi Jowen, it depends what’s required... but for me it’s usually a walkthrough or request for information. Although higher members of the team will be consulting about audit fees, timelines etc. If it’s a walkthrough (understanding a process), then a call or sitting with the client is best. For information requests, I think a comprehensive email is best. At the end of the email, definitely add a line saying that you’re happy to talk through the requests on a call if they have any questions. The requests can also be provided on secure internal sites too (these vary per company). Language wise, I’ve always used English… although if you speak multiple definitely inform your company as that’s a great asset!! Regarding formality, it varies dependant on how well you know the client / their role etc. Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other Qs☺️

@@BeccaandSoph Really really helpful Becca Thank you very much 🙏🏻

Ah amazing, congratulations! I think like always, every day is different and it depends on the specific job/industry as to what you’ll be doing. Although I assume fairly similar to audit - lots of communication (calls, emails etc) and excel work! Best of luck in your new role 😁

Congratulations!! I’ve got the perfect video for you ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-x-ZrXshyDfA.html “what to know before you join - big 4 new joiners” there’s also a playlist on accounting and finance too😊

Hi! Depends on the university and the modules that you take… some firms allow you to have exemptions for certain ACA exams (Accounting, Assurance, Law etc), but some firms make you sit the first few exams anyway. You can usually see which modules lead to which exemptions on your university website 😊.

@@BeccaandSoph Thanks for the info

Hi, sorry for the slow response! Fantastic that you have those masters degrees 😁. I’d say it depends on what you want to do. If you want to be an auditor / accountant, some roles REQUIRE you to be qualified… so you’d have no choice. However there are lots of other options for roles where you can use your degree (these are mentioned in our video: WHAT JOBS: Accounting and Finance Degree ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4TL0hfXYKO8.html). I’m not sure about in France, but in the UK there are equivalents of the ACA for different sectors, i.e. more appropriate for tax, management accounting, finance etc. It may be worth looking into those. Personally I think it’s always good to get additional qualifications, especially if the firm are paying for them! Maybe speak to your manager or peers about their experience and thoughts. Hope that helps!

Update of my own situation : after my first audit season as a junior, I decided to leave audit. Every single minutes spent on those engagement files got me dead inside. I had very good assessments (and tbh, I got the highest ranking position toward juniors in my business sector) but what a pain it was to force myself to find the motivation to do my job. I hated every single thing about audit. From the unskilled seniors to the Senior Managers that think they touched god and the lack of purpose of our tasks as juniors. They offered me to jump from Junior/Associate 1 to Senior 1 but damn I don't even want to manage people to reconcile numbers that were made 1 year or even more... Bye Audit hello again corporate finance... Deep respect for all my fellow accountants/auditors that will keep going this pathway You have a will to earn your life the hard way and it's amazing (except if you're that kind of manager that can't get off your audit firm and decides to act toxic and like audit is the best job in the whole world to convince yourself that your social life is dead for a good reason)

@@xseikoux hello, now this really got me thinking. Actually i have an accounting background on BSc but switched to Corporate Finance for my masters in France since, sincerely Accounting became a bit boring for me. Recently i signed a permanent contract to some Big 4 Firm for the Audit division in Luxembourg to begin soonest. My aim is to move from Audit to Deal Advisory or Consulting. But considering what you just said about the seniors there, how did you manage such a situation?

@@kangderick Hello, First I did not manage anything. I did my job and I knew i was going to quit so I was just being "whatever" style. You should do something like 3 years of audit before going to Transaction Services. About Consulting, you could really just start right away in that (if you mean management consulting and not strategy). Right away when I left the first big 4, another big offered me a position in management consulting and they even raise the salary (as junior/associate 1). But I refused so that I could go back to pure corporate finance. About toxic seniors/managers. I can't lie, you can't really do anything. I didn't care and I was a "good" auditor so I could speak up at some point. But I wasn't really going far. Upper management don't have time to deal with manager being toxic to their staff. They will say it's important for them that you actually feel good within the engagement team. But truth is, and we can't blame them, they don't have time. And honestly as a junior u won't really even know the partner. It's either u get lucky and have seniors that are planning to leave and they are pretty cool. Either u get the auditor that has no social life and thinks that he's following god's plan by doing audit. He will tell you how audit is a nice opportunity and you'll realize how pretty of a life it is starting Senior grade. Usually, they are low individuals that couldn't leave audit because they lacked other skills. Finally, even tho it's rare, you can get a manager that is good but is willing to teach you the right way even tho you are is 50th newcomer. He doesn't want to leave audit, he doesn't want you to hate it, he actually knows how to deal with his engagement. I did not encountered one in my time. BUt i know some of my friends did so shout out to them. Staff (and senior)Auditors are poors workers trying to justify the poor fees they charge the client by doing useless things while the real important stuff are done by managers. Every year, you see that the team did shit previous year. As a staff, you try to change but the senior that doesn't know how to audit it tell u to stick to previous year. Then the manager says its shit, change it. Then the senior would say "but last year you did it like that". Then the manager will say "Critical thinking, we should review our own methods". Joke on them. From my different misisons, I have found that Seniors/Managers that graduated from pure Accounting degree are kinda... sorry to say, weirder than those who graduated from Finance. Idk why, maybe accounting stuff kinda blowed up their mind. (I mean as you know in Finance we do learn accounting but not to the same extend)

Will be interesting to see how much ‘busier’ it gets as we get more experience and responsibility! And yes I’ll add it to the ‘to film’ list 😊

Hi! Not all, especially in places like London ☺️ as with most jobs, its definitely a bonus if you are multi-lingual!

Some firms do internal transfers/placements, definitely worth looking into 😊

I think it all depends - which department, which office etc. But I definitely would enquire with the company directly about it! 😁

Thank you becca waiting for it !

Hi! The latest guidance I’ve heard is they “strongly recommend that you are double vaccinated” and for team gatherings, there is a request for a negative lateral flow test 48hrs before. I don’t think whether you’re vaccinated or not will effect your application though 😊 hope that helps!

A lot of people seem to have that goal but I’m currently not sure! It seems that most people leave audit shortly after qualifying 😊 a great perk of big 4 is that you can transfers internally too for either a secondment or even full time

Well best of luck to you, I’ll pray that you future is bright. Thank you for answering my question.

It’s so helpful!!!

Not that I’m aware of, I think it’s mainly the big banks that have gyms.. but in London there’s lots of gyms super close to the offices anyway ☺️

Sorry, I’m actually wrong… I’ve just found out there is a gym in the main office in London, it’s £25 per month ☺️

@@BeccaandSoph thank you so much❤️🙏