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Unofficially passed REG - the score is up on the NASBA site but it isn't official until I get the email from the Texas state board. I don't think the score changes anyway, and if it does I should have enough of a margin to keep a passing mark.
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May 2, 2014 20:28
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My college program is a Big 4 farm and they made sure that all of the starting salary/bonuses/etc are essentially the same depending on location. I got a $1k bump up to match the market a few months ago so I'll be starting in the low/mid 50s without the signing bonus and CPA bonus. There was no hint of negotiation when I had my internship exit interview though.
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May 19, 2014 07:23
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Good Citizen posted:I think they're very good at recognizing that everyone learns better in different ways and at making sure the best of all methods are available. Like, personally, I just want to watch the lectures and then do practice problems until my eyes ache, and Becker is great at setting that up for me in a way that best prepares me for the test. Getting immediate feedback on wrong answers makes a huge difference for me. That's what I did, and have done well doing, but Jesus Christ FAR has 10 Becker sections which will be a bitch to do in 9 days.
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May 20, 2014 04:29
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Ah, I thought you were taking them in May, not July. That's definitely do-able, but you'll be needing quite a few drinks to cleanse your mind afterwards.
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May 20, 2014 07:29
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Everyone really knows that the internal/advisory/risk assurance/every firm calls it something different side of the audit is where it's at. On my internship I was at the office as long as my senior and manager were and averaged maybe 50-55 hours throughout busy season. Passed AUD, that makes me 4/4 on the exam part, now I just have to survive the working world.
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May 22, 2014 18:09
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Good Citizen posted:Congratulations! Hopefully you have some time between now and your start date so you can enjoy the summer! For sure. From social media it seems like every person in my graduating class is either currently in or going to Europe this summer, so I'll see a familiar face or two, even in a big city like London.
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May 23, 2014 08:50
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The "it was partly their fault, partly mine" is worrisome because that phrase could mean anything between "they didn't provide proper training and I made a mistake that had a big negative impact" to "I made a bunch of racist/sexist comments and a coworker was too sensitive about it." Worst case scenarios, but people don't seem to give any benefit of the doubt when hiring.
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Jun 3, 2014 20:20
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Euphoriaphone posted:I have my first day tomorrow as an audit intern (large local firm. Remnants of a Big 4 after they pulled out of the market). I've never had any kind of accounting or bookkeeping job before. I have no idea what to expect. First week is training (computer systems and methodology), and by the end of the week I'll have my first client assignment. I've heard I'll probably be auditing something like cash or fixed assets. How does that usually work? You'll do everything wrong and the senior will spend time fixing your mistakes. Figuring out why you're doing the tests you're doing is helpful, but if you're completely stuck and nobody is around to help don't feel too bad about looking at PY workpapers to get your bearings. Or move into the ITGC testing side, where a password control is a password control is a password control.
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Jun 17, 2014 05:43
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I realized I updated my LinkedIn header to reflect my job at a Big 4 firm when I started work a few months ago, but I didn't actually update my job section. I updated the job section of my profile and got a ping from a recruiter 2 hours later. An experienced associate on my current engagement averages 4-5 pings a day via various communication channels.
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Oct 2, 2014 01:30
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Mush Mushi posted:Waah. I recently started my Big 4 job. Is it normal to feel like you are just loving up for the first weeks until things become more routine? I was given a project with minimal guidance and while I understood the ultimate goal and the issues to be addressed, I had no idea what I was actually supposed to deliver, how detailed things should be, how much time I should actually spend researching vs. setting up a document to populate with information as it became available, etc... The sad part is, it wasn't really that hard. I feel like crap because I could have been far more effective with a 15 minute background on what was actually happening and where I should start. That lack of communication just killed me and I spent a day panicking about what to do (no one was around to help for a while). I don't know if this applies, but generally the standard is "look at what they did last year and try to make it better, unless it's a first year client, then lol good luck." Don't just roll stuff forward, and make sure things didn't change and make the prior year information irrelevant, but it's better to have a base template to use as a jumping off point. I've been doing some key report testing lately, and the difference in the amount of time it took me to update the documentation around a key report we've tested for years vs. the time it took me to document a newly in-scope key report was hours*. *partly because I realized halfway through I was documenting it the wrong way 
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Nov 3, 2014 02:21
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N.N. Ashe posted:Is anyone here already have these? It seems like a super great combo, however I've not heard many people actually having it. I have a MIS Master's degree and a CPA, went into a Big 4 job doing ITGCs and SSAE16 testing. Right now nothing I'm doing is super exciting or needs specific CPA or MIS knowledge, but it should get more interesting as my job responsibilities increase. It's an attractive combo to recruiters, but I haven't sat down and thought out any career options yet. A good amount of people leave to go do internal audit in industry, but that sounds deathly boring.
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Nov 27, 2014 03:52
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N.N. Ashe posted:Thanks for the reply! Any reason you went MIS instead of CS? I've been thinking about making the dive into one of those two masters, though I keep wavering on which would be better. Also how are your hours doing that? Honestly, I went MIS because I was in the business school, while the CS department was in the college of engineering. I was going to declare MIS as my major after my sophomore year, but then the recruiters for my college's professional program in accounting came and pitched the following: -98% job placement rate out of college -Pass the CPA before graduating -Accounting Bachelor's and MIS [or Finance/Tax/Marketing/Entrepreneurship] Master's -Busy season internship while getting paid OT if you go Big 4 and so on and so forth. The program is a total Big 4 farm, but it's an incredibly attractive option for a college student who doesn't know exactly what they want to do - at worst, you can go get a Big 4 name on your resume while working for 1-2 years before jumping ship. However, the Master's curriculum is shorter than a traditional Master's program and the classes were tailored to accounting, so, in my opinion, I'm not as technically skilled in MIS knowledge as someone coming out of other school's grad programs. Currently I'm in busy season, which lasts from September-December/Januaryish, so I'm working around 50 hours a week. My seniors and acting seniors are working maybe 55-60, but that fluctuates depending on how bad an engagement is blowing up.
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Nov 27, 2014 22:37
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Inventory counts are weird as hell.
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Dec 31, 2014 14:12
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Nifty posted:In my job we do them for different clients about every other week. They get boring quick. I'm sure they do. Counts over the holidays are annoying because they crippled my New Years plans.
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Jan 10, 2015 18:41
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Turd Nelson posted:Welp, I felt really good about the first three testlets for the REG exam, but the task based simulations were a complete curveball and I seriously doubt I passed now. Guess I'll be doubting myself for the next month until the scores come out. Better than me, I was on a serious downward spiral through the testlets and simulations. I spent the last hour just trying to go through the codification to see if I could find any applicable tax rules to the very convoluted problems that I'd never seen before. My friends and I all immediately went and tried to drink our bodyweight in beer for the rest of the weekend since we felt so bad about it (and, you know, college). We all passed. Typically if you prepared well and still had no clue about the sims, chances are the rest of America had no clue either.
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Jan 28, 2015 02:44
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The majority of my start class and other buddies in the office are currently available/hardly working. They're bored and telling me they're jealous that my charge ability will stay high through spring, but I would trade a week of working on this 3/31 report for a week of their quasi-vacation in a heartbeat.
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Apr 2, 2015 07:28
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I remember a good amount of my AUD questions being carbon copies of the questions I went through while doing Becker, and I was done in an hour. YMMV.
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Apr 10, 2015 17:27
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I'm sure there's a market for secondhand flash cards from Becker or the other CPA courses.
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May 20, 2015 06:55
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SarutosZero posted:I more meant does anyone have any experience actually using them and did they feel helpful. But I didn't think to check for secondhand cards so thanks. I see. I used them as tertiary support when I was burnt out doing MCQs, but they were really only helpful for mnemonics or stuff like the COSO cube. I made the mistake of trying to go through all the flashcards for BEC for the first time the night before my test and thoroughly freaked myself out.
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May 22, 2015 05:03
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Turd Nelson posted:Thanks for the encouragement! I'm dreaming of a day when all of these tests are behind me. Next one is at the end of november. Just gotta learn how to do audit now! Good documentation and formatting will set you way ahead of most of your peers, at least for your first year.
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Aug 29, 2015 02:56
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MY GIRLFRIEND has been exploring her options for tax jobs in our area and it's funny how brainwashed the big 4 has made her. She wasn't sure if the position she had an office visit for today was real because it's a small firm that does the exact tax stuff she's looking to do, but with an emphasis on "this is just a job - we show up on time and leave at 5 to go live our actual lives" versus the big 4's"the work will end after the filing deadline for the heat death of the universe."
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Nov 12, 2015 06:52
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Turd Nelson posted:I took FAR back in August and failed with a 66. The lesson from that was to not study for an exam while planning a wedding. I retook FAR in October and I just found out I passed with an 83! I cannot describe how happy I am to never have to look at that book again. I'm taking my last test, Audit, on Monday. I can't believe I'm so close to the end! Congrats! I'm on the other side where I haven't done anything journal entry or accounting related in over a year (testing ITGCs and other ICFRs is increasingly looking like a waste of my degrees until maybe senior/manager level stuff comes into play), and actually just flipped through a few random pages of my becker FAR book to see if I still know things...
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Nov 25, 2015 06:07
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Watching Westworld while testing IT SOX controls is irritating. Delos better be private or they'll have major issues with their administrative access and change management controls 
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Nov 21, 2016 20:41
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Our hours are slowly increasing. There's been some initiatives to do more of my stuff (controls) earlier in the year to reduce workload during traditional busy season, but so far that has just meant they can use less staff to do more work during the year while also increasing hour requirements for busy season. Also never work a first year SOX client.
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Dec 6, 2016 10:57
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Anyone here in enjoyable, non audit jobs? I’m wrapping up filings in the next few weeks and would like to explore a new career opportunity very quickly. I just have no idea what career path I want to move in to. I have my CPA, but haven’t worked on the numbers side of things in years. Theoretically I think something like business analyst or operations analyst would fit my background, given I have my CPA and a Masters in Info Systems. I’m so very tired of testing SOX controls.
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Feb 19, 2018 00:05
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Sardonik posted:Does anybody have any experience with IT Audit specifically? I'm about to interview for a position in it at a non-big 4 firm. I feel like it's a really strong fit for me because I did a double major in accounting and IT, and I think a lot of the skills in my current data services career will carry over. I'm a little worried about being blindsided though because I don't have any experience working directly in accounting yet. I do. I feel like my MIS degree and CPA license have not contributed much to the work I’ve done in the IT audit field. Accounting knowledge helps with business process controls and system reports, but I have coworkers at my Big 4 job with an IT-only background who are doing just fine.
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Mar 20, 2018 13:45
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Covok posted:Not at all. Not at all. This is all what I've been thinking, not what I been doing. Missing Donut posted:Isn’t it the least bit possible that your internal attitude is coming out to your new coworkers in manners you are not intending it to?
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Jun 27, 2018 08:16
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Congrats! As time goes on, I’m glad that I took the exams before the rework and also for my college program having us take the exams in our last semester of grad school in between 6 hours of easy courses. I don’t think I could muster the energy or focus to do the exams on top of working.
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Jun 28, 2018 17:31
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Do it
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Jul 8, 2018 18:37
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^Truth. A friend of mine tried the audit->tax transfer. He did a tax rotation for the October 15 busy season, and did well, but the managers and partners delayed talking about his permanent transfer date through early December. This led to the “well we really need your help in audit for this busy season since we can’t find a good replacement in time, let’s revisit this after filing” talking point from his audit partner. Anticipating this strategy, my friend then bounced to a tax position at a different firm, which he had lined up while waiting to hear back on the transfer discussion.
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Jul 23, 2018 22:17
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As an accountant (who doesn’t touch taxes, admittedly), this is the first time I’ve heard EA as anything other than “executive assistant.”
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Oct 22, 2018 04:50
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Kitchner posted:I know this is an unpopular opinion but I really like Internal Audit. I think it gets a bad rep in the US especially because in my experience American companies treat internal audit like a compliance function instead of using them as internal risk and control consultants, which is far more interesting and value adding for all involved. That’s basically having two different jobs under the ‘Internal Audit’ umbrella. It is much more rewarding to design new, or overhaul existing, controls and processes that address risks in an organization, but at the end of the day someone still has to go test the controls and second line functions over the IT systems and financial statements if you’re part of a public company. There’s a huge landscape of interesting IA projects that add value, but the testing whirlpool exists and it’s easy to get sucked in.
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Oct 24, 2018 18:38
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A bottle of liquor or wine is nice. Otherwise yeah it depends on if she’s in a corporate job with a set desk or if she’ll be traveling around. You could probably get a solid wireless mouse for $40ish. Not the best, but likely better than whatever she’ll get on her first day.
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Nov 12, 2018 23:32
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I got out of the game last year. I have to say that watching the Big 4 busy season go by from the other side of the glass is amazing.
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Mar 12, 2019 04:38
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Big 4 rates for entry level associates can be close to $150 an hour and go up from there until the write down of the final bill to appease the client.
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Mar 16, 2019 03:46
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Jokes on you, I lost 10 pounds my last Big 4 busy season because I was so stressed I could barely eat
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Apr 2, 2019 22:20
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Reading cynically, it’d be good for you to be in the project team because I bet a number of those highly compensated drones won’t be compensated after their old processes get replaced with a new ERP.
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Apr 10, 2019 14:53
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Didn’t they make AUD harder a couple years back?
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Nov 22, 2019 14:25
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Don’t think of it as a $15/hour salary, think of it as a $50/hour salary that’s 70% goodwill
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Jan 3, 2020 02:00
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Jimong5 posted:Know the difference between an audit, review, compilation, financial statement prep, and agreed upon procedures, the independence requirements for each and what each one is trying to do. To build on top of that always read the question carefully so you know which report the question is on because I was reading a lot of questions as audit when I first started studying and the question was for a review. Also figure out a way to keep tracing, vouching, valuation/allocation, and the other management assertions straight. The last big one is the format of an audit report, the order the paragraphs go in, and what circumstances you need to modify it for both public and non public. Did you take it before or after the revision a couple years back? I had the opposite experience - I flew through AUD in ‘14 because the majority of MCQs matched Becker word for word.
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Jan 3, 2020 20:46
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