Whats auditing witht he big4 really like?

vernslup

Hey I have recently accepted a graduate contract for 3,1/2 years with pwc in auditing and i thought it was what i wanted, did some research and i knew it would be hard but from what ive read recently I am just wondering do you get any free time for a life at all, if someone could help that would be great!

1) What are normal working hours?

2) How much travelling do you do?

3) do you usually work weekends as well if you dont have college to go to?

4) if you are out of dublin on audit at the weekends would you be free to go back to dublin to do you college days there?

just trying to get an idea for what type of life you have, i.e. living out of a suitcase for weeks on end or are weekends bar when you have college freeish so that you can see mates, family etc.

Thanks for your help!

Liamo08

I think everyone who has worked in a Big 4 firm will give you different answers on this but from my experince I would say the following:

) What are normal working hours? - It very much depends on what department you work in and more importantly what specific clients you are working on. I think on average you could expect to be doing about 200 hours overtime a year, you could be doing less or you could be doing more but that isn't too far off the average.

2) How much travelling do you do? - Again depends on your department if you're working in Financial services more than likely you'll be in Dublin almost all the time, but if you're working in CIP or TICE (Presume they haven't changed the acronyms) you could have a few away jobs. It comes down to luck really. Some people will have no away jobs and some will have several, I'd expect on average to have maybe 2 away jobs a year and it depends on the length of these how long you're away for something like 4 - 6 weeks would be about right.

3) do you usually work weekends as well if you dont have college to go to? - No not usually, you may have to work some weekends and more so in the busy season but usually you can avoid it and it would be unlucky if you were working too many full weekends. By the way going to lectures usually takes a back seat to getting work done and making deadlines so having college on a night/weekend won't necessarily get you out of work if it has to get done.

4) if you are out of dublin on audit at the weekends would you be free to go back to dublin to do you college days there? - If you're out of Dublin on audit you usually get to go home at the weekends - its rare that you wouldn't. There won't be too many clients that want you in their offices on a Saturday and Sunday so if you have to work you can do it from the office.

vernslup

thanks for the reply yea i was just wondering if people get any chance at a life at all from what im starting to hear, 200 hours overtime doesnt sound that rough compared to what i was starting to imagine which was every day for 12 or more hours 6 or 7 days a week all year round! I kinda guessed 1) clients wouldnt want you on their premises and 2) PWC and client probably wouldnt want to pay for a hotel for you for the weekend.

Liamo08

vernslup wrote: »

thanks for the reply yea i was just wondering if people get any chance at a life at all from what im starting to hear, 200 hours overtime doesnt sound that rough compared to what i was starting to imagine which was every day for 12 or more hours 6 or 7 days a week all year round! I kinda guessed 1) clients wouldnt want you on their premises and 2) PWC and client probably wouldnt want to pay for a hotel for you for the weekend.

Don't get me wrong the 70 - 80 hour weeks can and probably will happen, it just won't happen every week for most people. As I say you can be unlucky but for the vast majority that won't be the norm. When you see how much they charge you out per hour at you'll see that paying for hotels is not a big deal for them.

vernslup

ok but most people do get through so as you said you have to be unlucky for that kind of thing to be the norm, is there any of the divisions which are more intensive than others like financial sector or cips?

Liamo08

vernslup wrote: »

ok but most people do get through so as you said you have to be unlucky for that kind of thing to be the norm, is there any of the divisions which are more intensive than others like financial sector or cips?

Hard to say on that one. You'll certainly spend a lot less time travelling if you're working in the likes of Funds, Banking or Insurance as the majority of your clients would be in the city centre, but there's no guarantee that your working hours would be any less. Lets put it this way I certainly wouldn't be ruling out one department over the other on the basis of what overtime you might work, best to pick the department that you think might be most interesting as this a bit of interest in your job will make the overtime and work in general a lot easier.

crapmanjoe

vernslup wrote: »

Hey I have recently accepted a graduate contract for 3,1/2 years with pwc in auditing and i thought it was what i wanted, did some research and i knew it would be hard but from what ive read recently I am just wondering do you get any free time for a life at all, if someone could help that would be great!

1) What are normal working hours?

Do on average 5-10 hours over time a week - (hr or 2 a day) - i pretty much refuse to do anymore

2) How much travelling do you do?

Spend about 3 months of the year in Shannon / spread over 2 jobs / spread over different times of the year. Jobs away from the office are where you make all money on expenses / milage and u get to live like a lking and most importantly its very hard for people in the office to annoy you - love jobs away from Dublin

3) do you usually work weekends as well if you dont have college to go to?

Rarely ever worked weekends (4/5 sat's officially in 3 years)

4) if you are out of dublin on audit at the weekends would you be free to go back to dublin to do you college days there?

Yeah they wouldnt pay ur hotel outside dublin at the weekends so you have to go home / go back to dublin

just trying to get an idea for what type of life you have, i.e. living out of a suitcase for weeks on end or are weekends bar when you have college freeish so that you can see mates, family etc.

Thanks for your help!

a

Onearmedbandit

My thoughts

vernslup wrote: »

1) What are normal working hours? Depends on how busy you are, normal day is 8.30 - 5.30 tough day can be up to 12 hours or more

2) How much travelling do you do? Depends on your partners and where their clients are, I have only been to the UK and down the country, some people have been in America, France and even Costa Rica

3) do you usually work weekends as well if you dont have college to go to? Depends on the job that you are on how much work you need to get done in a small time frame. I have worked a few weekends but I try to avoid it, ide prefer to work later in midweek

4) if you are out of dublin on audit at the weekends would you be free to go back to dublin to do you college days there? Don't know what you mean here but if you are working in UK or Eire you usually go home for the weekends. If you are in US or anywhere where the travel is difficult you may be asked to stay. The firm and its managers should be accommodating when it comes to lectures

just trying to get an idea for what type of life you have, i.e. living out of a suitcase for weeks on end or are weekends bar when you have college freeish so that you can see mates, family etc.Its up to yourself its all about balance in it otherwise you'll get pissed off and want to leave

Thanks for your help!

Corkman1

Others are spot on with their feedback. My experience is as follows:

1) What are normal working hours?
9-5.30. Work overtime in busy season - October to March - Prob 1-2 hours a day overtime depending on the job you are on. Some jobs are worse that others, therefore require more time. Remember that overtime goes towards study leave, so I never really had a problem with it...

2) How much travelling do you do?
Went to england once. Went to shannon - if that counts!

3) do you usually work weekends as well if you dont have college to go to?
Nope- they might try and get you to alright, but i never worked a weekend. I would work late during the week so i would have weekend free.

4) if you are out of dublin on audit at the weekends would you be free to go back to dublin to do you college days there?
Yip - they really try and help you regarding college.

Best of luck in your career and remember that you will get good training and work with very good people, ever if the work is not the most exciting.