Graduate Blog

Philip - Assurance

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Hi again,

It’s been a few weeks now since my last posting so with Christmas fast approaching I thought it would be a good time to give you an update on what’s been going on around the office and on my jobs.

The weekend away with the new Associates went very well. It was a great way to get know everyone better and definitely is a benefit when starting jobs with them. At this stage they now all seem to have settled in and are working away well on jobs.

It’s been a busy few weeks around my department. I have been located in a large multinational client. I worked on this client last year so it made it that much bit easier interacting with them. The job is coming to a close before Christmas but I will back out in the New Year to continue work on it.

Well that’s really all for now, Christmas holidays soon so looking forward to the break! Will update you again in the New Year.

Philip

Joy - Assurance

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It’s been an odd few weeks in PwC Cork. With the flooding in Cork a few weeks ago, the water was off in a lot of Cork city, including the PwC office. This meant all of us who were not out on a client site had to work from home for a few days. Working from home is certainly different!!!!

Besides that, I’ve been out doing the interim audits for some of our clients. As it’s close to year end for a lot of clients, I’ve also had to do stock takes. This entails going on site while they are counting their stock and performing a number of counts independently to ensure the counting has been done correctly. This will feed in to our work at the final stage of the audit.

As I’m doing the Cap 2 exams this year, I’m on block release this week, which means I’m off work to attend lectures. The lectures are on every day from half 9 to half 4. It’s a nice change from the office!

When I last wrote we were planning our audit dinner, which was on last Friday. We all had a great night. Now we have the office Christmas party to look forward to on Friday.

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Evie -Advisory

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Hi Everyone,

I hope all your Christmas shopping is done! I mentioned a while back that I was working on internal project. We held our presentation yesterday and there was a great turn out, so I am very happy and relieved!

I am back out on the client site now. Currently I am researching and developing a quality management system. I am finding it really interesting the more I learn and research this area and also identifying ways to incorporate it into the clients operations.

I met some of you at the graduate lunch back in November I hope the interviews that followed the lunch went well and that I might be seeing some of you next October.

That is all from me for 2009, have a great Christmas.

- Evie

Louise - Assurance

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It’s getting close to Christmas now and I am unusually busy for this time of year. Often this time of year is quiet as a large amount of our audit jobs won’t begin until January and most of the planning for these jobs has been completed. This year however I am preparing for a three month secondment in New York.

All the jobs I had been assigned to have been reassigned or rebooked so that I can complete my area before I go. And as I won’t be able to follow up on any areas when I leave there is definitely more pressure to have my work completed in the assigned time.

I was selected to go to America on secondment a few months ago and since then I have been completing forms and gathering information for my embassy appointment to apply for a visa along with doing my day to day work so it has been a little hectic. When I found out I was selected to go I was given a training course in what work I would be doing and what I needed to do before I could go.

Luckily for me there are at least eight other people from Ireland going to New York. I’m not sure if they will be working on the same job as me but at least they will be staying in the same area. I’m definitely looking forward to going. I have never been to New York before and this will definitely be an experience. Where else would you get the chance to work in New York and for all the hassle to be taken care of for you? I know it will be a lot of hard work and long hours but I’m sure a stroll around Times Square will make it all worthwhile!!

Merry Christmas!

Sam - Advisory

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The last few weeks have been hectic. Audit support work has dominated everyone’s diary, regardless of which team they are in. I think it’s fair to say that this is Process Assurance’s busy season.

I have been heavily involved with a SOX implementation project for a bank here in Ireland. It has been very interesting, as I had to understand and document material processes in the bank. Seeing how banks actually determine their impairment provisions or whether they’ll take a customer on has been fascinating. The current crisis in multiple Irish banks have aimed a spotlight at many of these processes. It is interesting to read the current events in newspapers and make my own assessment having seen these crucial processes for myself.

I also completed my first ‘solo’ job out in a client. This day-long job was fairly straight-forward but a good chance to develop my interpersonal skills as I, alone, was dealing with the client from start to finish.

I also had a week away on annual leave. A much needed break.

The rest of my time has been left for Internal Control Scripts. I have been testing the internal controls in another bank. Also known as ‘dry-run testing’, this has involved testing controls that were stated in the bank’s control narratives. This work will give the audit team comfort over certain controls and enable them to scope the financial year audit more efficiently.

The office is in a fairly festive mood as Christmas fast approaches. The new associates are settling in well by all accounts. The Christmas party is on this Friday so we are all really looking forward to that!

Joy - Assurance

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Sorry it’s been so long since I last wrote; it’s been a hectic few weeks!

We’ve started doing the interim audits for some of our larger clients. During the interim we try to do some audit testing to take some of the pressure off us in busy season (after Christmas). During busy season we work to very tight deadlines, and roll from one job straight on to another, so any work we can get done beforehand is a bonus!

I’ve also been planning the audit dinner and weekend away. Each year it’s the responsibility of the newest intake to organise these! We’re going on the weekend away to Killarney this weekend; most people are going for both nights, so it should be fun! Last year we went to Limerick which was brilliant, so I’m hoping this year lives up to it. The audit dinner is an unofficial Christmas party for the audit department. We’ve booked it for the 11^th of December; hopefully it’ll be a great night out.

The new intake will be in soon, I can’t believe I’m here a year already, the year has absolutely flown!

I’ll write again soon…Good luck with the interviews!

Evie - Advisory

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Hi Everyone,

In my last blog I mentioned that I am now out on a client site. Things are going well here and the work is really interesting as I have never worked with this type of client before. In this engagement we are reporting directly to the CFO. One of my responsibilities is preparing weekly status reports for him, so I am spell checking all the time! I have also taken ownership of the quality management aspect of the project, which means I am meeting with people across the organisation to gain a better understanding of the quality management systems and standards already in place in the organisation and also researching other quality standards which the organisation may try to attain.

I am back in the office one day this week to attend the Advisory Consulting quarterly meeting. This meeting is usually about the team’s performance and updates on existing engagements. It is a good opportunity to catch up with everyone. We are also having a social night afterwards where we are going bowling and Q-Zar, so that should be interesting!!

That is all from me for now. I hope the application process went well and I might be talking to some of you at next week’s lunch.

Louise - Assurance

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I’m finally back in the office now full time. At the moment this is a quiet time of the year for us and we are usually just getting ourselves ready for the upcoming busy season from January till April.

At the moment I am working on the planning area of a few jobs for next year. This is where we update our records for any changes that may have occurred since our last audit or even issues that may have arisen during the audit. It’s very important that this is done before going out on site as it usually points us in the right direction for the work we’ll have to do.

It’s also a time when we start to request information from the client as sometimes it can be time consuming trying to get the information during the audit and can also put us under pressure with keeping to deadlines. We also start to send out some third party confirms as these help a lot with keeping our work load down if we can get them back.

That’s all from me for the moment but I’ll chat to you again soon. I hope all of your interviews are going well!

Sam - Advisory

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All is well with me here in Advisory. I have been up and down the breadth of the country, working in Cork and Dublin while I’m soon off to Drogheda for another job.

Things are very busy for us at the moment. I was down in a client completing an IT General Controls Review. This entailed testing the many systems they have and ensuring that the Audit Team can take comfort from the controls embedded in these systems.

It was just myself and a senior on the job for three weeks. That meant that I had to ‘hit the ground running’ and learn quickly.

Overall the job went well and we managed to get the file finished on time.

I’ve also been working with a transport company. We were in as part of the ITGC testing and documentation. I was on the same job last year, so I was able to take a more active role in the testing and interviewing of the client.

I’m also finishing up that Banking job that I spoke about before. We managed to reach the agreed target (in terms of documents finished) with the client and exceed their expectations. That involved a few hours over-time but I felt I learnt a huge amount from that engagement.

I’ve started back to lectures which has been a serious shock to the system. The ICAI have split lectures between weekends and weekday evenings. They take place in RCSI at the moment but will move to the CA House in December. I have found the weekday evenings are fairly handy as you are in a work mode already. It also means you have a few more, much-needed, ‘lie-in’s’ at the weekend.

The new associates are starting next week. We have a night out planned with them for Thursday, which should be a bit of craic.

I’ve been booked to job where it will just be myself and a new associate. This will involve a certain amount of coaching and answering questions. It’s weird to think that only after a year you have that kind of responsibility. That’s one of the benefits of working in here, I guess.

All in all, things are going very well for me in PwC. Work and lectures are keeping me busy and I have some holidays to look forward to.

Until next time….

 

 

 

 

Philip - Assurance

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Hi,

Well last time I was talking to you I mentioned that the new Associates had begun their training. This week we will get the opportunity to meet them for the first time. All the Associates are assigned ‘Buddies’ to help them through their first few weeks in the firm. We are organising a night out for them this week which will be our first chance to meet our ‘Buddies’. This was great night last year and hopefully we can have a similar one this year.

Along with the ‘Buddy night’ we are also in the process of organising a weekend away. Again this was great fun last year and a good way to meet all the others in my department.

Apart from that it’s been a quiet couple of weeks since my last blog. I’m still working away off site and reckon I will be here for another couple of weeks.

Talk to you all soon