Graduate Blog

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