Careers

What do you like about working in the Audit practice?

Sr. Manager #1

I think the two most dynamic aspects of this would be the client's interaction and you have the technical accounting industry type issues. It's a constant learning process. You can be in one meeting discussion good will, a simple transaction, and then two minutes later you're on a totally different client contact dealing with some complex derivative transaction. Not on a daily basis but on a frequent basis you are switching gears and you are constantly being challenged.

For me being part of the financial services aspect of audit. It is a constant dynamic environment, and if there are any new products or ideas or transactions, the development stage and training ground is here. That's just a great opportunity to be a part of the cutting edge products that are being developed on a daily basis. So that's one of the great challenges that we are faced with and the great aspects of what we do on a daily basis.

Sr. Manager #2

Accounting is a lot more than numbers at this point because it's a lot of dealing with business issues and with clients.

Sr. Manager #3

Being an auditor…What I like about being an auditor is dealing with different clients…that is number one. You're always with people. I also liked that you never do the same thing over and over again. When you look back at how your year has passed by, you can always say that I have done so many different things and it is certainly not boring.

It's challenging. It's interesting and it's hard work. You are responsible. It's a client service organization, so you are servicing a client. But people stay that long because they really like what they are doing and they aspire to succeed as much as possible.

What kind of skills does someone need to succeed in Audit?

Sr. Manager #1

When I think of challenges, you could split it between professional and personal. You could talk about professional, post-2001 the whole industry, regulation, authoritative literature just exploded. Every day, every week there is new pronouncement, there is new guidance, there is new industry-type commonalities that you have to keep up with just to keep abreast of these issues and once you are interpreting and reading these issues, to again always bring it back to your client experiences. While the challenge is great, it's rewarding at the same time to be a true leader and just keeping your knowledge base up to par with the industry as a whole.

With all the changing literature and you have regulation and you have the accounting authoritative literature and industry knowledge, it's bringing that back to the client and the experiences and the conversations that you have with the client and how it applies to that level is one of the more challenging aspects of it.

Whether you are here two, five or 10 years, in that span of time the skill set that you are going to acquire is tremendous. Skills you can't get anywhere else.

Sr. Manager #2

Your technical skills definitely grow. As you come out of college, you are at a very low level in terms of technical skills. But as you get to work on different clients, see different experiences, training and you try to better yourself on technical skills, it grows exponentially in terms of what you know by the time you are a manager, compared to when you first started as an associate.

Presentation skills as well, because you have individual presentation skills in terms of presenting to management. But then as you grow with the firm you also present to the audit committees, and it's a very high powerful people in some respects who have a lot of knowledge on their back as well. So you are presenting to these people as well, who really appreciate what you're saying because of the knowledge that they have. So I think the presentation skills and just your presence, you get a lot of chances to show that as well and expand on that.

Sr. Manager #3

I remember being an assistant and listening to some of the managers that I was working with thinking, they're brilliant. I will never be like this. They know so much. And then a year goes by and maybe two years go by and you are able to not only understand and comprehend the issues that are being discussed. You are actually able to participate and see how your knowledge base has developed so dramatically. And if you interact with people who took a different path, and took that private accounting role, when you interact with these people you know very fast how these people look at you for advice because your knowledge just grows at a totally different pace.

I think that while technical skills are extremely important, we work in a firm where you usually look around and you say,everyone is pretty bright. So technical skills are possessed by most because the technical training is always there. What plays a major role is all these other skills, non-technical skills. When you look at what the world outside of KPMG, the business world, is looking for, every time you read ads for jobs, they want someone with public experience, and there is a reason for it. You have been working with a lot of different people so you know how to be managed. At the same time, you know how to manage others. The presentation opportunities are constant, from the time you start through your career with classes and courses and opportunities.

It puts a great aspect on the skill sets that you have, the content that you build, the soft skills that you need to acquire. Every year you look back and you say, my god, I have learned so much here.

What kind of experiences can you expect to have as an Audit Manager?

Sr. Manager #1

Audit is all encompassing. I don't think there is any other accounting industry that allows you the experience to deal with officers, directors, legal, compliance, front office, business leaders. You are getting the whole pot of an organization's employees, whereas outside in a private industry you would have your own set of tasks to perform on a daily basis and the exposure is just not there.

One of the most important aspects of a service company, a service firm, like KPMG is the people, to build the skills and provide the mentoring relationships and the performance management's advice to the associates coming out of school is just life-impacting for them. If we can provide any sort of insight with the years of experience that we have, bring it down to their level, they think of it as a huge value, a huge asset, to their career-building opportunities.

Sr. Manager #3

If you look at, for example, the group that I personally worked in, which is kind of a smaller group, and you ask partners as to their background, their background in audit is very different and very interesting. A lot of these people will say I've done a three year rotation in Germany, I've done a five-year rotation in London, I've been in the department of professional practice. It's rare you would have a person without a diversified experience in terms of both clients, the things you do, and the places where you did those things.

How has working in Audit helped you build your career?

Sr. Manager #1

One of the great things that KPMG does offer is a clearly defined career track. The firm does in fact provide you with tools and provides you with suggested goals and guidance to steer you. So along the way you can measure against your goals and the tools are there. The people are there. There is a support network. There are different channels to enhance your skills and build your career to aspire to that ultimate goal. if it's outside the firm where you want to in fact lead your career, the skill sets that you learn here are just immeasurable. I think the two biggest things that everyone looks for, are leadership skills and technical, accounting technical type, authoritative literature skills. Here it just gels together, whether you're a manager on a smaller team or a larger team, you're a manager of people.

The firm could have all these tools in place, every type, performance management and mentoring and goals, but it's really incumbent upon the person to make it happen. It's really an individual effort to be his or her own career architect, to be his or her own leader and the director in which way you want to take it.

Whether in quarterly chunks or every six months to look back and measure against your goals, or is it every 12 months to take a full look back over the year, it's a constant growth-type learning experience. If you are trending in the right direction, if you are hitting your measurable goals, it's a positive sign that this is for you.

Sr. Manager #2

In terms of one of the benefits of being in the audit practice, in audit it's very structured in terms of associate, senior, manager, up to senior manager I think it's a very structured career up to that point which is a benefit because people know what they need to work towards.

Sr. Manager #3

Even though you can have an opportunity to have a very structured career path, as your life develops and changes and progresses, there are a lot of opportunities to do other things.

As my career path was developing, I was presented with a lot of different opportunities as to what I might consider doing next, which varies from the type of clients that you serve to the department of professional practice, to our Global Service Center where you acquire different methodology skills, to do international rotations. So the career path is I feel as diverse as any firm can possibly provide.