Thank you for creating these videos. Your content is well organized, concise and informative. I have greatly benefited from watching your videos. I recently stumbled upon your channel, now you have another subscriber.
My first ever task I got assigned as a new auditor is documenting a walkthrough. If a client you are doing the walkthrough for is considered a repeat client, do you normally keep the similar format of prior year for consistency purposes? Because I feel like if you document every new thing from the walkthrough call, it would be way too cumbersome. Also as a side note, it could benefit if you can make a video regarding the performance review process and what is expected before Becoming an A2
Normally the documentation for the walkthrough remains the same year over year, unless the process has changed. Normally, the only thing that would change year over year would be the examples you look at each year to understand the process better. So the invoice number you look at will change and so will the amount, just as an example
Recently at my firm, new associates have been having a hard time being staffed on projects. Most significantly, the January hires this year don’t have a busy season schedule and only have one private engagement before the performance year ends in April. Have there been instances of that before?
Oh that is very interesting to hear. Not sure what firm you are in but I know some of the big 4 are switching from a September year-end to a May one this year, so I think the firm still might be adjusting for the Jan new hires. I cannot say for certain, but does not sound very typical
@@chrisouch6517 It is atypical. If the performance year is so short for January hires, it’s really hard to judge their impact with only about a few months of work. However, firms that have a April year end are still making January hires go through the performance review process
I think the higher ups will factor this into their evaluation of the first years. Honestly, I think most understand that first years are very much in the learning phase of their career. It’s really after the second year where your performance truest matters. After the first year, I am just trying to see if the person has a good attitude and wants to work and learn
@@chrisouch6517 thanks for letting me know and I strongly agree it should be more about the first years’ willingness to learn and take initiative. In a realistic world, it is impractical to judge first years impact given that everyone starts different and there are so many external factors that come up. At least in some firms, they are not ranking first year associates but are still reviewing the feedback they get despite limited opportunities they had to contribute.
Sometimes when associates ask questions, they get blamed for not troubleshooting enough. What is the difference between asking good questions and bad questions according to you?
Great question! I think we can really tell when someone has given a task a worth wile shot based on the questions you ask. I know my questions are usually received much better when I develop my questions as I go through the task. When you do this, your questions are much more specific and I can clearly see which areas of the task you are understanding and not understanding. Try writing down a list of questions to ask your senior as you do your given task. You may answer your own questions, and the ones you do ask, it will show you gave it a real shot and care about the work you are doing
From my understanding, it looks like you try to answer your own questions you come up with while doing the task. And for the ones you are not able to answer, would you give the seniors what you tried and what alternatives could work if you ultimately could not figure it out in a given time? Experienced professionals recommend that since it would show you digged deep and makes it easier to take notes on the feedback received so that its less likely that you’d repeat the same question or mistake. But how would you coordinate the budgeted times with the senior so that you are not overbilling or underbilling the client? How much more efficient would a first year have to be as they progress?
As a new associate, I wouldn’t worry about the budget. That is the manager’s MO. We want you to learn and understand things. That means we’ll be giving you task that we could do faster so you can learn and become better. The hours we charge the client is not a concern when giving you work to learn from. Everything you are given is so you can learn and grow from
@@chrisouch6517 wouldn’t the new associates have to be efficient with the tasks once they get to their 60th day? I’m not sure how it’s like in audit but in tax, the seniors and managers expect you to get everything yourself and tend to downgrade your review if you ask a lot of questions or can’t figure things out yourself.
@@chrisouch6517 since I’m transferring from tax to audit at another firm, I hope to take on as much as I can staying organized and taking in information/feedback like a sponge so that I can quickly become comfortable teaching the soon to be new hires after getting my feet wet
Thank you for creating these videos. Your content is well organized, concise and informative. I have greatly benefited from watching your videos. I recently stumbled upon your channel, now you have another subscriber.
Thank you for your kind words Ahmed! Do you have any topics in mind you would like to hear more of or about? Thank you for subscribing! :)
Great video, would look forward to your next one. 🙏🏽
Thanks Kevin! I appreciate it :)
Very useful new video, thanksss
No problem, glad you found it useful!
My first ever task I got assigned as a new auditor is documenting a walkthrough. If a client you are doing the walkthrough for is considered a repeat client, do you normally keep the similar format of prior year for consistency purposes? Because I feel like if you document every new thing from the walkthrough call, it would be way too cumbersome.
Also as a side note, it could benefit if you can make a video regarding the performance review process and what is expected before
Becoming an A2
Normally the documentation for the walkthrough remains the same year over year, unless the process has changed.
Normally, the only thing that would change year over year would be the examples you look at each year to understand the process better. So the invoice number you look at will change and so will the amount, just as an example
Recently at my firm, new associates have been having a hard time being staffed on projects. Most significantly, the January hires this year don’t have a busy season schedule and only have one private engagement before the performance year ends in April. Have there been instances of that before?
Oh that is very interesting to hear. Not sure what firm you are in but I know some of the big 4 are switching from a September year-end to a May one this year, so I think the firm still might be adjusting for the Jan new hires.
I cannot say for certain, but does not sound very typical
@@chrisouch6517 It is atypical. If the performance year is so short for January hires, it’s really hard to judge their impact with only about a few months of work. However, firms that have a April year end are still making January hires go through the performance review process
I think the higher ups will factor this into their evaluation of the first years. Honestly, I think most understand that first years are very much in the learning phase of their career. It’s really after the second year where your performance truest matters.
After the first year, I am just trying to see if the person has a good attitude and wants to work and learn
@@chrisouch6517 thanks for letting me know and I strongly agree it should be more about the first years’ willingness to learn and take initiative. In a realistic world, it is impractical to judge first years impact given that everyone starts different and there are so many external factors that come up. At least in some firms, they are not ranking first year associates but are still reviewing the feedback they get despite limited opportunities they had to contribute.
Yep totally agree with you
Sometimes when associates ask questions, they get blamed for not troubleshooting enough. What is the difference between asking good questions and bad questions according to you?
Great question! I think we can really tell when someone has given a task a worth wile shot based on the questions you ask. I know my questions are usually received much better when I develop my questions as I go through the task. When you do this, your questions are much more specific and I can clearly see which areas of the task you are understanding and not understanding. Try writing down a list of questions to ask your senior as you do your given task. You may answer your own questions, and the ones you do ask, it will show you gave it a real shot and care about the work you are doing
From my understanding, it looks like you try to answer your own questions you come up with while doing the task. And for the ones you are not able to answer, would you give the seniors what you tried and what alternatives could work if you ultimately could not figure it out in a given time? Experienced professionals recommend that since it would show you digged deep and makes it easier to take notes on the feedback received so that its less likely that you’d repeat the same question or mistake. But how would you coordinate the budgeted times with the senior so that you are not overbilling or underbilling the client? How much more efficient would a first year have to be as they progress?
As a new associate, I wouldn’t worry about the budget. That is the manager’s MO. We want you to learn and understand things. That means we’ll be giving you task that we could do faster so you can learn and become better. The hours we charge the client is not a concern when giving you work to learn from. Everything you are given is so you can learn and grow from
@@chrisouch6517 wouldn’t the new associates have to be efficient with the tasks once they get to their 60th day? I’m not sure how it’s like in audit but in tax, the seniors and managers expect you to get everything yourself and tend to downgrade your review if you ask a lot of questions or can’t figure things out yourself.
@@chrisouch6517 since I’m transferring from tax to audit at another firm, I hope to take on as much as I can staying organized and taking in information/feedback like a sponge so that I can quickly become comfortable teaching the soon to be new hires after getting my feet wet