The Day-by-Day Activities of the Job - Research Paper Example

Introduction Today’s world offers a variety of career opportunities. Long gone are the days where the career opportunities that were on the offer were limited. With a growth of human civilization newer career opportunities has emerged in several fields that were not known for in the early tomes. Among the various career choices available in the world right now the job that excites me most is the job of an auditor at Deloitte. For choosing the job of an auditor I have to study accountancy. To write about why would I go for choosing a career in accountancy one has to list the pros of being an accountant? The pros of being an accountant Job security- There is fewer jobs that offer higher salaries and secured job than the job of an accountant. Any kind of business requires an accountant so the scope of landing a job as an accountant is immense. On top of that of one earns a CPA license or a master’s degree then the possibility of landing in a good job increases much further. The job of an accountant in addition to being secure is one where demand for accountants is likely to grow at a steady rate of 13% from 2012 to 2022. The pay package of an accountant is quite high and the minimum education required for being an accountant is a bachelor’s degree in accountancy. Now coming to the choice of Deloitte, Deloitte is one of the big 4 accounting firm. These accounting firms specialize in audit, and other jobs of finance. Over several years Deloitte has merged with several other firms on order to become one of the largest accounting firms on whole world. In 2013 the total annual revenue was $32.4 billion. The firm continued to grow through revision and approx annual growth in 2012 was 8%. The day-by-day activities of the job The job at Deloitte is one of the most prestigious jobs at one of the most professional services of the world. Deloitte is one of the best places to work in the world (Deloitte). A career in audit at Deloitte is a key link in the financial reporting chain that puts one in the position of trusted advisor to different businesses across different regions. The skills required for the job are analytical skills required for the analysis of the business requirements. In addition one must be thoroughly aware of the audit practices at Deloitte. The job requires analytical skills; good grasp of subject knowledge in addition to understands the needs and requirements of the customers well so that specific solutions can be tailor made for the requirements of the clients. All these activities that need to be done are in keeping and adhering to the highest standard on independence, professional objectivity and technical excellence. An audit assistant requires having an understanding of the basic principles of audit along with the particular requirements of the clients to help him in his requirements. The responsibility of an audit assistant includes: Be conversant and expert in the audit methodology and tools used by Deloitte Establishing good relationship with clients Performing analytical review of the documents that are required to be audited along with maintaining highest of standards To be able to help clients in meeting their business audit requirements, performing analytical review of audit documents, trying to solve different issues as they arise and doing all these things while adhering to deadlines. What the career offers society The job as an audit assistant or an accountant is very important for the society. To understand the importance of an auditor in the context of current society, let us take a situation where there is no auditor. If there is no auditor there is no one to verify the financial statements that are prepared by a company. If there is no one check the financial statements of the company the companies or the business will be under liberty to prepare the financial statements in accordance to what suits them best and will try to show lesser profit and more losses in order that have to pay less in the form of taxes. The Auditors help to prevent this trend and actually helps in reigning control of the company in terms of the fair practices and following accurate measures accounting disclosures. The auditors are actually guardians of cultural value and guardians of the trust that the normal and common public, governments and interested institutions lays upon them. The system of capital formation for a company and a country depends upon the investors’ willingness to invest in that company. How does the investor decide whether or not they should invest in a company? In order to take this decision of whether the individual investors should or should not invest in a company they depend and put a lot of trust on the report by the auditor (Public company accounting and oversight board). Thus auditor performs a very valuable and indispensible function for the society as a whole. Why people may be interested in this career Accountancy is one of the areas which are a must for any of the society or rather any of the businesses. As long as there will be new businesses the demand for the accountant and auditors will continue to be there. The median pay for 2012 was $63,550/ year or $30.55/ hour. Number of jobs that were created in this field in 2012 was 1,275,400 (Bureau of labor statistics). The Bureau of labor statistics estimates that the growth in the job creation if accountancy field is estimated to be at 13% annually. In fact the growth in the job prospect of an accountant or auditor is tied with the overall growth of the economy. As the economy in general continues to grow newer businesses will be set up and the new businesses will require the help of accountants and audits in order to prepare or examine financial statements of the companies. Most accountants are employed in full time positions. It was also revealed in the report by Bureau of labor statistics that 1 out of 4 accountants have to worker longer than 40 hours a week. Longer working hours is not a norm but is required in certain specific times of the year such as preparation of budget or during annual audit of the firm. The people may be interested in this job due to several benefit that such kind of job offers such as job security, clear future, high salary, benefits, opportunity for advancement, career options available, prestige, etc (The big 4 accounting forms). Required education and degrees To pursue a career as an auditor in Deloitte a bachelor’s degree in accountancy is the minimum requirement. The academic credentials of the candidate should be quite strong. Minimum GPA that the candidate must have is 3.3 for even being eligible to apply. A relevant work experience in the field is often given priority and considered as an added advantage. Additional work experience may be in the form of internship. In addition to the educational qualification listed above what is expected and required out of a candidate is leadership, problem solving, strong verbal and written communication skills, an ability to complete tasks within deadlines, ability to work in a stressful environment and under pressure of deadlines, ability to be a multitasker, ability to work in team, ability to work as an individual. Additional qualification will be fluency in English and also those who are fluent in the local language along with English are given greater priority. The above qualifications are the minimum requirements for applying to the job of an auditor. The job at any of the big 4 is a very prestigious job and to get a job at any of the big 4 consultants is a very desirable option for any of the accounting graduates. So the process of getting a job at any of the 4 big accounting firms is one that is built in with tough competition and the process of landing a job is quite tough. Continuing education requirement The job of an auditor is quite a challenging one and requires that the candidate should always keep himself updated with the latest developments in the field. A good qualification and degree that a candidate either aiming to be an auditor or who are in the service as an auditor can pursue is the degree of certified internal auditor that is offered by the institute of internal auditors (The institute of internal auditors). The certification of certified institutional auditor is the only certification for internal auditor that is accepted globally and is the standard benchmark by which individuals can demonstrate their competency in the field of internal auditing field. The program was launched in 1973 and has been taken up by many individuals since them who have by completion of the course and achieving the desired certification have proved to be a valuable asset for the company in auditing department. The program enriches the students in educational qualification, knowledge that can be applied and business acumen that can later on be leveraged for being successful in the job environment. The exam is offered in 17 different languages including two different versions of Chinese; simplified and unsimplified. The exam is conducted and the certification is provided by the institute of internal auditors. The advantage of this certification in career path is that it helps in distinguishing oneself from the peers, developing knowledge of the best practices in the industry, demonstrating proficiency with internal staff and external clients and helps in laying foundation for continuous improvement. Required licenses, and by what governmental or professional organization The required license that an aspiring individual should posses before commencing on the auditing work is the CPA or certified public accountants. The certified public accountant is an exam that is conducted by AICPA or American institute of certified public accountants (Loughran 9). A candidate can take the test only after he has completed all the course requirements of his bachelor degree. The course work of the bachelor degree requires normally studying up to 40 subjects. In some of the states the students have to take an additional year of accounting and auditing related classes in addition to the standard 4 year course that any candidate aspiring for a bachelor’s degree needs to take. Many candidates go for a MBA degree instead of going for an additional degree after their bachelor’s degree because the additional course material that they have to study in the additional year takes them much closer to the course competition of the MBA. After the candidate all the required course work he is ready to sit for the CPA exam. The exam is conducted and tested by the American Institute of certified public accountants exam. The institute writes the question paper and tests the answers of the candidates and marks them. The test question involves a mix of multiple choice question and simulation questions that are case study based on which one has to research and provide a write up based for based on the question asked (Whittington 3). Legal requirements A job at the big 4 does require legal requirements and legal compliance. The big four does have a legal requirement and perform legal background checks. The #1 reason why new recruits are mostly rejected by the Deloitte is because they have some sort of criminal records. Something like a DUI can be enough to raise concerns by the Human resource department. The legal requirements by the Deloitte are that the candidate should not have any criminal report of such. Any candidate who does not comply with legal requirements is judged by the human resource team later on and many bad things may be assumed about the candidate which may not be actually true. So if the candidate has any trouble with legal matters he should disclose things ahead so that later on when the company actually does background checks he or she may not land in any troubles. By being proactive on any trouble some situation a candidate is able to clear his stand on the incident before someone else starts judging him and forms a bad impression about the topic. Conclusion In the current world there exist many career options from which a candidate may choose any one. In deciding a career choice there are various influencing factors. When one is a kid one is often influenced either by parents or by any popular star and sets him or her as his role model and wants to become just like him or her. However as the kid grows, slowly one starts understanding about the ground reality and has to choose a career on realistic basis rather on arbitrary assumptions. When deciding on a career option I decided to choose the job of an auditor and my dream company would be Deloitte to work with. The reason for choosing the job of an auditor is that it is secure, has ample growth opportunity, is financially rewarding. And there are enough chances to land in a good job in the auditing field as compared to any other field if one pursues education diligently and faithfully. When it came to the choosing of the company, Deloitte was the obvious choice as because Deloitte is part of the big 4 consultants. In fact Deloitte is the largest of the big 4 consultants. Additionally Deloitte is constantly rated amongst the best employer to work with and it had good growth even in the period of recession. The educational degree that I need to pursue in order to grab this job is a bachelor’s degree in accountancy and a certificate public accountant’s license. Works Cited Bureau of labor statistics. Accountants and auditors.2014. Web. 6 February 2015. < http://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/accountants-and-auditors.htm> Deloitte. Audit assistant job description.2015. Web. 6 February 2015. < http://careers.deloitte.com/jobs/eng-global/details/j/ME-53084-PT/audit-assistant > Public company accounting and oversight board. Keynote address: the reliability, role and relevance of the audit: a turning point. 2011. Web. 6 February 2015. < http://pcaobus.org/News/Speech/Pages/05052011_KeynoteAddress.aspx > The big 4 accounting forms. The Benefits of Being an Accountant.2015. Web. 6 February 2015. < http://www.big4accountingfirms.org/the-top-10-benefits-of-being-a-cpa/ > The institute of internal auditors. Certified internal auditors.2015. Web. 6 February 2015. < https://na.theiia.org/certification/CIA-Certification/Pages/CIA-Certification.aspx > Loughran, Maire. Auditing For Dummies. Indiana: John Wiley and Sons. 2010. Print. Whittington, O. Ray. Wiley CPA Exam Review 2013, Financial Accounting and Reporting. NJ: John Wiley & Sons. 2012. Print. Read More