Ever wondered what a day in the life of a junior auditor looks like and what they really think about their jobs?
Here’s your chance to find out, straight from the source!
We’ve been surveying junior auditors from the Big 4 firms since 2018. Today, we'll share the inside scoop on their daily tasks, their internship experiences, and more. Let's dive in!
The number one thing junior auditors mentioned was testing.
Everyday I am working towards testing financial statement line items to ensure what a client reports is true and fair. – Junior auditor @ PwC
Here's some context on what that means:
At the year end, they have to ... finalize all the numbers that they show to all their investors and submit to the SEC. So our job as auditors is to validate that everything they're disclosing ... is accurate. So we have to test everything that the company has ... the cash balance, revenue balance, property leases ... and there's a whole bunch of different rules that the company needs to follow and that we need to verify that they're following. – Junior auditor at a Big 4
Specifically, as a junior auditor, you'll be responsible for testing accounts (financial records or areas of a business) that are less complex and have a lower chance of significant errors or fraud.
At the junior level, you'll generally be involved in ... the lower-risk areas ... So your team will decide what's lower-risk in the planning phase ... usually like cash, accounts receivable, PPE. – Former audit associate @ Deloitte
My role is to assist the audit team out at the client. I complete basic audit activities such as control testing and the testing of simpler accounts such as treasury. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
As a new-starter, I've mainly worked on testing cash accounts, expenses, payables, receivables and controls. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
Obviously, you can't possibly examine every single transaction or control. So you'll examine just a part of them in a method known as sampling (or "sample testing").
On a day-to-day basis I undertake basic audit activities like testing and sampling. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
Many juniors also mentioned doing substantive testing, which means checking that the numbers in the financial statements (like sales, expenses, assets, and liabilities) are true and backed up by actual transactions.
Completing audit engagement work such as controls and substantive testing. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
Audit activities, including controls and substantive testing – Audit junior @ Deloitte
Fieldwork is where you go on-site (i.e. to a client's office or factory) to:
Interviewing stakeholders, identifying risk, understanding client's business processes and controls, conducting sample testing of controls to test operating effectiveness. – Junior auditor @ Deloitte
Responsible for completing fieldwork on different engagements including interviewing key personnel, documenting workpapers, completing controls testing and writing engagement report. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
Day-to-day I spend a lot of time on excel. – Junior auditor @ Deloitte
Excel oriented, figuring out documents provided by client. A grind. – Junior auditor @ PwC
One junior auditor recommends familiarizing yourself with with these excel functions in particular: pivot tables, vlookup, xlookup, index/match, filtering, sum, and, if.
As a junior auditor, you'll be responsible for helping out your managers and in-charges. ("In-charges" are people who are in charge of a client engagement.)
Assist in an Audit and perform basic tasks to complement the in charge/manager. Our day to day responsibilities can fluctuate differently depending on who is your manager/in charge and what their expectations are. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
Mostly assisting in-charges on audit engagements – Junior auditor @ KPMG
Usually listen to seniors who tell me what to do. – Junior auditor @ Deloitte
You'll also help out at meetings with clients, such as by taking meeting minutes.
I ... assist senior analysts and in-charges during client meetings. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
Attending meetings ... Taking minutes – Junior auditor @ KPMG
Meeting with clients and taking minutes – Audit intern @ KPMG
online training – Junior auditor @ KPMG
Learning a lot, working with clients and on-the-job training. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
Finally, you can expect to be in a constant state of change at the Big 4.
Variety of audits means every day is different – Junior auditor @ KPMG
My day to day responsibilities are changing all the time. Every 2-4 weeks I am at a new client with a new team working on a different type of business. In addition to this, when you return to your clients the following year, you will be working on different things you did the year before. Therefore you are always growing changing and gaining further knowledge. – Junior auditor @ PwC
Varied daily - one of the down sides of working here. Might have to work for years before specializing/becoming competent at many facets of the business. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
I enjoyed my internship. They give you real work and responsibilities on real clients and real jobs. Given that I had very little previous experience in the area, my team gave me a lot of responsibility which I appreciated. – Junior auditor @ PwC
I was in a first year audit of a global bank to help with the team. It was a great opportunity to build up my network and discover my potential preference. – Junior auditor @ PwC
It was like a 6 week interview - mentally draining. But it was a great way to build those connections early on, before starting permanently. – Junior auditor @ PwC
Engaged in very basic audit tasks. Was very important for securing job as I was offered my job after my placement. – Junior auditor @ Deloitte
In general, Big 4 training got great reviews.
I like that there is regular training at different intervals during your time here. It adds to all the on the job training you get. – Junior auditor @ PwC
Training opportunities for Associates every six months. Formal training on assurance and audit process and practices – Junior auditor @ PwC
The training programs are second to none and within the first 2 months there have already been 2 separate courses on department specific training with the option to do many, many more online should there be a break in work. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
Some associates expressed that they still learned more on-the-job than through training, though the quality of that varies depending on your managers.
Training is good here but nothing beats learning on the job from a senior – Junior auditor @ Deloitte
Formal training was not productive. On the job training has been of greater value to me. – Junior auditor @ PwC
They hold a lot of training programmes to ensure we are up-to-date with everything. On the job training is the most effective as everyone is very willing to teach as well – Junior auditor @ PwC
Company has a main focus on informal training however, this comes down to who your in charge is. If they can properly explain things and assign you enough that you are learning and not too much where you are just ticking off boxes – Junior auditor @ KPMG
Some junior auditors say that hours are OK during normal periods, crazy during busy periods.
When its not busy, hours are good. But as soon as things get remotely busy hours very quickly blow out and can easily be working 60+ hours a week for months. Work arrangements vary based on the job and team. Some teams/jobs are more flexible than others. It become challenging when you are working 60+ hours on a job for months and with inflexible working arrangements. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
During the interim period and outside of busy season (July to October) work hours our reasonably relaxed. 8 30 until 5 - 5 30 is the normaly but during busy season it's expected that some nights you'll have to stay until your work is finished. The focus is less on hours worked and more about the quality and amount of work done. If you were able to complete your work by 5 30 every day and nobody else in your team was struggling to make a deadline it would be reasonable for you to go home. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
Others say that even during off seasons, 'normal' work hours are fairly rare.
There are weeks when you leave at 5pm, but they are few and far between - typically working till 8pm, with weekend work often required. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
Busy season is fairly normal to see us all working till about 10 or 11pm but on usual days, we may even be working till 7 or 8. – Junior auditor @ PwC
By making sure you still make time for myself.
I think one thing that's really important getting into busy season is, you need to still be able to set your boundaries. When you want to go work out, tell your team and go work out. If there's anything that's important to you, you should still continue to do it. For example, for me, I told my team that I need to go to church tomorrow. – Junior auditor at a Big 4
Having a good team helps, some say.
As expected hours are long during busy season, but having a good team makes up for it. The only down side was missing personal commitments during very busy periods (which can be >60hours a week) – Junior auditor @ KPMG
And of course, it helps to go in with the expectation that you'll be working a lot.
I accepted the job knowing full well what the potential overtime could be like and so far I have had very little, which is quite lucky. You go to a big 4 for the opportunity and will obviously have to work a bit harder at times. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
There is some flexibility though hours are still long and how flexible your team is depends on the manager, the client engagement, and whether it's busy season.
PwC is very flexible with its working hours. I can work at anytime and from anywhere I prefer. But the working hours are very long (10-12 hours), especially closer to deadlines and signing dates. – Audit junior @ PwC
Hours are flexible, but a lot of hours are required. – Junior auditor @ Deloitte
Although flexible working hours is a value of the company, it is hugely dependent on the team and manager you are working with. I have been lucky to be able to work from home on some engagements, while others have been terrible. – Junior auditor @ PwC
Most of the time I do not work in the office and instead work at client sites. When we do not have to be at a client site, work is very flexible and I often work at home. – Junior auditor @ EY
My work hours really depend on the client I'm on and how the job is going. Generally, at the end of year-end jobs, I tend to pull more hours and weekends sometimes. On lighter jobs, I can easily leave at 5/5:30. For me, it's about leaving on time when you can/ when you're not too busy so that you're not too tired to work late when you have to. – Junior auditor @ PwC
Highly flexible during non-busy season – Junior auditor @ PwC
At the end of the day, it seems to really comes down to the individual manager! We think this senior associate put it well:
You can have an audit partner who wants every single detail in the PowerPoint correct to another audit partner who is happy with a high level explanation and clarification of notable risks. You'll have to speak to people from the respective big 4 departments / lines of service to find out what the culture is like and decide if you will fit in or not. – former senior associate @ PwC
However, in general, there were a lot of glowing reviews of management and performance feedback.
Most of the managers I've had have been really accessible and are willing to provide feedback. I really like the snapshot system and the performance feedback system in general. Even though it can be annoying at times, it does give you an opportunity to reflect on the work you've done and get feedback on your work. – Junior auditor @ PwC
I work for the best managers the company has, but I know there are some managers out there that really aren't so good to work for. It becomes a bit of the luck game. Mine make the best mentors and make me feel welcomed and appreciated in whatever I do. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
Yes really accessible, although it definitely depends on whether or not they are resourced to the job you work on. PwC is really big on performance appraisals as we also have manager as our coaches as well as a Partner coach so this encourages everyone to chat to managers and partners. – Junior auditor @ PwC
Assigned a Performance Development Manager who helps to mentor and give feedback. Work with managers on each engagement. However, little interaction between Partners and lower level staff. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
The managers are very good mentors. The performance feedback structure is very robust and rewarding. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
The partners, managers and seniors are all readily accessible most of the time. There's multiple ways to get performance feedback and in-charges are happy to give you on the spot feedback and also delayed feedback. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
They are very good mentors and generous with their time. There is a big emphasis on feedback and developing employees – Junior auditor @ EY
Yes, you can always message them or ask them for a coffee to give you feedback – Junior auditor @ PwC
Managers are really great, absolutely 0 complaints so far. Partners make themselves accessible, Performance Development Managers are assigned to everyone to manage career progression and performance and to act as mentors. Recognition process is very clear and progression prospects are also clear. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
That said, it can still be hard to get ahold of managers.
Internal communication: It can be hard to get a response to emails sent to managers. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
Always at department meetings/gatherings. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
Could be a lot better. They are very busy. – Junior auditor @ Deloitte
Many junior auditors mentioned that it's not hard to be promoted at the beginning but it gets harder the higher up you are.
Promotion has a few phases: A1 to A2 (Analyst)then S1 to S2 (Senior analyst) then AM1 to AM2 (assistant manager) and so on. To be promoted from A1 to S1 seems like not so much a problem but the real bottleneck comes around near the AM jump and manager jump where without the proper connections within the business. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
The higher the rank, the higher the competition. For a junior, the chance to move up is quite high. – Junior auditor @ PwC
Many juniors also mentioned that your promotions at the start of your career are based on meeting specific benchmarks, rather than waiting for a position to open up.
I like that the promotional structure is not based on availability of those roles but rather your personal progression. The promotional structure is based on your ability to develop in your field and gain the required skills needed to reach the next rank. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
You will basically move up the ranks every year if you meet expectations and it is obvious what expectations are – Junior auditor @ EY
In the lower grades promotion is mainly based on timing, after that it gets a bit more challenging as you would expect – Junior auditor @ PwC
Some juniors noted the high turnover rate as a factor in the frequency of promotions.
It is not too difficult to be promoted given the relatively high turnover. There are always opportunities for the correct candidate. – Junior auditor @ Deloitte
Given high turnover, progression tends to be steady and also given the reputation of PwC good options for changing jobs too. – Junior auditor @ PwC
The organization's structure is built to accommodate staff turnover so there is always opportunity for progression. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
In terms of how you get a promotion:
As long as you get the work done there is a very clear progression path. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
There are numerous promotion opportunities which are based on merit and performance. To be considered for a promotion, you basically have to be performing at the level you want to reach i.e. a junior needs to demonstrate senior qualities to be considered for a promotion. You also have to have managers/ partners who support your promotion request and can 'vouch' for you. – Junior auditor @ PwC
Moving up the ranks is entirely dependent on performance, work ethics and building a relationship with clients and managers alike. There is a set promotion process with the ability to move up faster. – Junior auditor @ KPMG
We hope this gives you a better idea of what it's like to work at the Big 4. And if you're still on the hunt for a promising opportunity, check out all the internships we have in this field!