Graduate Blog

Ana - Assurance

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Ok so last time I said hi, I said I couldn't tell you anything about the work, let me tell you that's changed!! I've been working on the audit of a Hedge Fund for four weeks now. There are seven of us working on the team, reporting to a manager, senior manager and partner. This in itself is a change from BWS where the largest team I've worked with was four people reporting to one manager and partner. But out here it's considered a small team - some of the other secondee's are working on a team of 40, and that's before you count the managers and partners!!

I felt like the new kid on the block all over again for the first few days but my team have been really helpful and friendly and I think I'm finally getting to grips with the work. The main differences are in the way a fund company operates compared to for example a manufacturing company; i.e. buying and selling financial securities as opposed to physical products. However, the basic principle of the task of auditing remains the same, which I guess is why people say having an accountancy/auditing qualification is like having an international passport.

I hope you are all enjoyed the snow back home. The American's I am working with think it's hilarious that the country practically shut down over 5" of snow when 10" here is considered no big deal!!

Niamh - Assurance

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Hi there my name is Niamh and I am currently working as a Senior Associate in my second year here in PwC. I started working the firm at the end of September 2007, after completing a BA in Accounting and Finance and the MBS at DCU. Like everyone else who starts with PwC through the Assurance practice, I attended the three week induction training. There we were introduced to all of the PwC systems and the various tasks needed to be completed on a job as an Associate. This was a really enjoyable start to my career as it is where I met most of my closest friends from work, and many of the colleagues that I work alongside on a daily basis. As a result it made starting my first day in the Spencer Dock office that employs about 2,000 people much less daunting!

Unlike most people in Assurance I am one of the lucky few that has gotten to experience two different departments in PwC. I initially joined PwC and working in the Insurance department, and last October 2008 I transferred into Business Wealth and Services (BWS). In the Insurance Department I worked on many different types of audits from small businesses set up solely to insure one firm, to multinational companies insuring the public. As an Associate I found that the work was similar to that of my peers in other departments, however I knew that from the experience of writing my thesis on charities, I was very interested to get a chance working in BWS going forward. Like Insurance, I found BWS to be a small department where the people are very close which makes working together very easy and enjoyable. BWS is a market group that works with a variety of clients in many different industries. The majority of these are small to medium Irish companies, there are both Governmental and Non-Governmental organisations and of course there are lots of charities!

Some of the jobs I have worked on since I joined BWS in October are a large technology company and a consulting company in Dublin, a beverages company in Wexford, an explosives manufacturer in Kildare and four charities where I worked from the office. My next client is in Liverpool so as you see there can be travelling involved in this department. It is now busy season in the Assurance department as many clients have a 31st December year end and need their accounts to be audited before publishing them so there is a lot to be done, however I will keep you updated with the goings on!

Tracey - Tax

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Well we’re all well and truly settled back in after the Christmas break. For a lot of people in the office they had a full two weeks off, which was badly needed after the Christmas period!

The run up to Christmas in the office was fun, the atmosphere was great. We even had a Christmas tree in our area which really added to the Christmas feel. On the Friday before Christmas our department went for our Christmas lunch in Boulevard Café and then to the Church for drinks. It was a great day. We did kris kindle among the department and the theme was ‘something you can use or wear on the night of the Christmas party’. Needless to say some of the presents were hilarious.

Now that we’re back in the office we’re busy doing tax signoffs for our audit colleagues. Most of the audits are for 30 September year ends but we’ll have some December year ends coming along the line now too.

I mentioned previously that I am involved in writing a document about holding companies in Ireland. The document is due to be sent to the client on 2 February so I’m busy working with my colleagues to finalise it. Unfortunately this is the hardest part of writing a document of this type, at this stage there is a lot proof reading required and updating for comments from partners following their review.

On a brighter note, as everyone is suffering from the January blues, our department is organising a night away in February for us all to look forward to. The destination is Belfast. As with all our work night outs, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of joking, dancing and no doubt we’ll squeeze in a drink or two.

 

Ana - Assurance

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So you may be wondering where I disappeared to for the last few weeks, well the answer is PwC Boston. Firstly I guess I should fill you in on how the STA (Short Term Secondment) program works. Back in March 2008 my team leader sent out an email to everyone who had already passed FAE exams or would be sitting them in September 2008 to let him know if a short term secondment is something they would be interested in. Since it is half the reason I joined PwC in the first place I hit the reply button straight away! Next I was selected by the STA team to go forward and apply - all I'll say is lots of forms! It was then May and all there was left to do was play the waiting game.

 In September I got an email from the STA team confirming that I had been selected by the Boston office for a three month secondment starting January 6th.

We flew in on Sunday, had a guided tour of the city on Monday and started training on Tuesday so I'm afraid I can't tell you anything about the work just yet! All I know is that the work will be funds based which will be new for me as I work in BWS back in Dublin and we'll be working long hours which is the standard for busy season in the US, which we knew when we signed up so no surprises there. On the bright side, our accommodation was arranged for us and we're all staying in the same building 5 minutes walk from the office…10 mins in heels…through the snow!

 Despite the long hours there's a good group of us here on secondment; 19 from Ireland and 7 from South Africa to be precise. There's also 18 other Irish staff on secondment throughout the US in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Orange County, Kansas, Austin, Dallas, San Jose, St. Louis and Toledo…so I'm sure there'll be a few reunion weekends organised too. For anyone who's studying for Semester 1 exams - good luck!

Sean - Tax

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This week it was back to training. We completed a group case study and report last week. It was an interesting project particularly as it was left to the groups to determine how best to approach the case study, when to schedule meetings around existing work commitments and how best to use members of the group who were technically stronger or more experienced with certain elements of the case study. Overall I think it was a more realistic method of training focusing on the importance of appropriate research and a worthwhile experience.

Work wise this week I was involved in a number of tax briefings for employees of a large company who were transferring permanently from different offices around Europe to a sister company in Ireland. The briefings are designed to explain to the individuals the Irish tax implications of relocating to Ireland, how they will be subject to Irish tax and how to ensure their Irish tax affairs are in order. It is also necessary to discuss any issues arising with the PwC office in the individual’s home country to determine if there is any element of double taxation i.e. in both the home country and Ireland and methods by which this can be relieved. This week also officially marked the beginning of the festive season with our Christmas Lunch on Friday from which some of us are still recovering.

Peter - Advisory

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I’ve had a busy few weeks since my last update, when I returned from Limerick I was working on a security forensics engagement with an International client. We were working in conjunction with PwC, San Francisco. The engagement involved a client site location in Ireland and a number of locations across the United States. We were involved in the gathering of computer logs and evidence across a number of the systems. We conducted interviews with the relevant IT staff to determine the cause of the security incident and identify the impact to the business. I spent the remainder of the week analysing the system logs to trace the sequence of events and verify the cause of the incident. Once we concluded on our analysis and findings we drafted the Security Incident report for the client.

The following week, I was developing an Information Security Policy for an Irish Utilities Industry client and preparing for my trip to Canada. The preparation work for Canada involved familiarising myself with the Telecommunications client documentation and conducting research to further my understanding of encryption key management and the process lifecycles.

We travelled to Canada on a Sunday morning and had a stop over in Washington before flying to Toronto. When we arrived in Torontoit had been snowing a few days previous so it was quite cold and there was still a bit of snow around.

We spent the week attending meetings to get an understanding of the client requirements and further our understanding of the encryption key management system that is being implemented. We met with IT operations staff, application and database developers and with the encryption key management system providers.

 

In the evenings we went downtown and had dinner, we normally then went for a stroll around the city and of course did a bit of shopping. I returned to Dublinon the following Friday morning and had a stopover in Chicago on the way. Unfortunately, there are no direct flights between Dublin and Toronto at this time of year.

I’m back in Dublin now and currently working in the IFSC as a Temporary Systems Administrator for a Financial client. I’m looking forward to Christmas now as I have a couple of weeks off………

Shane - Advisory

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So you are all finished your interviews by now and you have had the pleasure of the recruitment lunch and got to meet some of my colleagues here. I am sure that was a good experience for you all and gave you a good feel for the building and the working environment.

The hospitality suite is very impressive and after the gym is probably my favourite part of the building.

As I said in the last post it is all go and that has not changed. I have since been back in Dublin and assigned to a few other projects including a training course for the Investment Management team which I am currently attending.

I am back down to Kilkenny soon for another 2 weeks and then I get to enjoy a nice break in New York and Boston which will take me up to another training course here in the office and then it’s Christmas.

As always, I look forward to the trip to Kilkenny and this coming week will be no different. Great client and a fantastic team makes the job, although challenging, a lot of fun.

Denise - Assurance

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Life in the office has not changed too much since last I wrote. I am still on the same job but it is coming near to the end of the audit now so there is a little bit more pressure on. I’ve been liaising with PwC in the Cayman Islands so that always makes things more interesting especially with the time difference!

I have had two Junior Achievement classes so far and they have been great fun. The first class I had was great. The kids were all really interested in what I had to say and very well behaved. The second class did not go as smoothly! Once they realised I was not a teacher they felt they could run rings around me. A class of 30 kids is not as easy to control as it looks! I think I will have to put my cross voice on next week, or maybe I should just stick to the auditing? I will let you know how it goes…..

Ana - Assurance

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This week it was time to get out of the office and back to the classroom.  Following on from the three weeks training program in Croke Park received when I first joined PwC, each year since then we received two weeks of intensive in-house training provided by managers and assistant managers in PwC to familiarise ourselves with the financial statement areas we would be working on at our new grade.  It also gave us an opportunity to meet with our peers in other departments and share experiences and ideas.  In addition to technical material the courses always include a communication module, covering areas such as business writing, verbal communication; client v colleague and how to read body language.

This year upon promotion to Assistant Manager 1 we attended a one week training program covering the more complex areas of an audit we will now be responsible such as FRS 17; Accounting for retirement benefits, FRS 2; Consolidation accounting and FRS 16; Accounting for current and deferred tax – All those lovely areas the lecturers skipped in college!! At the start of the week I could see why but now I’ve reached the end of the week it doesn’t seem so bad anymore.

Also included in our training program was a session on ‘auditing in an economic downturn’ which I found very informative and practical as very few of us were around the last time this was relevant!!

Next week its back to the office to put all my new knowledge into practice…i’ll let you know how that works out!

I would like to take this opportunity to say how nice it was to meet so many of you at the graduate lunches which I hope you found informative and helpful.  By now you are probably getting towards the end of the milk round process and starting to weigh up your options.  As I said to those of you I talked to, remember it’s the people you met that you will be working with day to day, have a think back to the presentations and interview – who did you get on best with, who seemed the most like minded, most fun to be around? Then you have your answer!  Good luck whatever your decision.

Shane - Advisory

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I realise it has been a while since last I made a post. As I said in my last one I was preparing for another busy season and there we have it. So busy I haven’t had a minute to make another post to you guys.

Anyway, since last I wrote here I have had a one week training course in Spencer Dock. Every year as we move up a level we are trained on how to perform at our new levels. What I like about these courses, apart from the fact that we do learn a lot, is that we get to see friends and colleagues from our intake that you don’t get a chance to see all year. These are people that you met on your first day which is over 3 years ago for me so it is always fun to catch up. Plus it is a week without suits and client work which can be a welcome break especially at this time of the year.

Since the training course I have been off-site at a client in Kilkenny. Working hard and living the hotel life for a few weeks. I have been working on a client that I have worked on since joining PwC in 2005 so I really enjoy this engagement as I know it so well. The hours involved are long but the relationships are good so it actually makes it easy and surprisingly good fun.

Kilkenny is a nice place to work especially with so many nice places to eat in the evenings and staying in a really good hotel with a good pool and great gym. Don’t get me wrong. I couldn’t live like that all the time but it is a good change for a few weeks and although it is a city it is much more laid back that Dublin and has a good feel to it. It may not be a holiday but being a country boy from Donegal and the client being 17 miles outside the city I feel right at home so it is a good break for me.

I am now back in Dublinbut still out of the office and a number of different clients for the next two weeks the back to Kilkenny for 2 weeks and sure then we are approaching the Festive Season. So it is all go go go but really enjoyable at the minute!