This star is talking crap la.
Now is October ya know? It is off peak period. No surprise there is drop in job vacancies.

I so far got two job offers. Still ok what.

Stupid star got no statistical evidence, simply go and say it is due to the increase in retirement age. So unprofessional this star journalists. If you see UK newspaper all their titles are backed by statistics.

Higher exec to managerial.

But if USA defaults no thanks to the brainless Republicans at Congress, things could get much worse.

Don't mind me to ask what are your qualifications? prefer industry?

Go to bookshop and grab some books that teach you to write better CVs and conduct better interviews.

I have heard brilliant 4As STPM and UM accountancy grads can't get into Big 4 audit firms even though they got excellent CPGA and grades because they were not expressive and creative enough during interview.

Not necessarily, I've seen PWC hire people from Unitar, ACCA undergraduates and other local unis, but they also like Australian grads, maybe they feel that these people are able to express themselves better.

The gen Y these days. Just graduate, asking RM3k.

Goodness.

They are not worth 3k lah. No matter what. I have seen quality of the grad work (always need guidance), they are not even at par with RM2.3k leave alone 3k.

You cannot compare to bigger flippers in the US. If you want to compare then our exchange rate should be RM1 to USD1.

But i seen many PWC grad getting 2.4-2.8k but quality of work like 1.3k.

You must be one of those PWC joker grads who ask for 2.5k a month?

Depends. If the newer gen got attitude like yours, not humble, think they are too dam good, I won't hire people like you.

Come interview, listen to the way you talk, interviewers also don't want to hire, Gen Y like you, can talk back one.

I just got to wonder how does their PWC audit assistants ever justify asking for RM2.5k when they bug their client non-stop. Its like this their client is busy doing the closing, and 4 audit assistants line up literally in a row, first one come and bug you, tell you to prepare this and that schedule, second one come ask you to get this and that schedule...until the 4th one. If a person is paid RM2.5k starting pay, one would expect one has enough logic thinking to give the client some space and time to prepare the stuff for them.

When I started work for Deloitte Kassim Chan my starting pay was only 1.6k. Now these people are asking between 2.5-3k, it is a joke.

No. doing extremely well. The fella attack me first me, so i defend la. I saying only those pwc grad asking for 3k, but when they work, they expect client to prepare all the schedule for them, then ask us client about the technical stuff, repeat again same questions the audit assistant ask last year: don't auditors keep a record of this in their working papers? My time, we work with lower pay and we figure out how to do the work ourselves instead of asking other people for help. So you think it is fair or not when one gets 3k but don't deserve it. Why? Fresh grad butthurt is it?

No they are not competent to receice 3k.

The financial statements are in good order. We provide the same every year, ok. Nowadays the gen Y auditors literally want the client to do everything for them. They ask you to prepare the schedule, then they ask us to find the supporting document for them, ensure I find more than 50% of the documentation. That is ridiculous ! They should go to the cupboard and do this themselves ! This is pure spoonfeeding.

My time at Deloitte, we prepare the schedules ourselves and we go look for the supporting. Thats why the client is so happy to have us around.

Another thing is that the audit assistants ask the same question every year. At least they can ask is, let say "Hi, from our working papers, we realise that every year according the accounting standards, you DR your Asset and DR your Accruals this way due to the specific of the industry, just want to confirm, do you still treat it this way in 2013?".

I be impress if the auditor ask like that. But what I get is this:,

"Why you Dr your Asset like this and then you credit your Accruals like that?"

It just show they not doing their homework and not refering back to previous year working papers. I have to waste my time to explain to them.

Also another thing is that the audit assistants are very QUIET. They don't like to mix with the client. We took them to a japanese restaurant, they order the most expensive stuff, then expecting them to mingle professionally (afterall they are paid RM3k becaus of their good professional attitude and skills), we find only the Audit Senior is the one who is proficient in conversing with us. When we try to break the ice with the audit assistants, they just gave a "one word" answer. I thought that best paid graduates tend to talk loudest because they want to stand out. Unfortunately, they are quiet people and this shows they not even worth RM3k a month even based on their ability to communicate with their clients.

I am not talking about interupting conversation. When the client give a lunch or dinner treat, they just trying to be nice, start the conversation like, so how is working for PWC so far? This particular bunch who came along, just gave a one word answer. I mean, where is the courtesy? I ask you, if your client takes you out for lunch, try to start a conversation with you, you just give one word answers, let your senior auditor do the rest of the PR job instead. Thats not learning from the trade. After all, in future you guys are going to be future managers, you guys gotta learn some PR, communicate with the clients. Thats not too much to ask for since you lot asking for RM3k.

I believe even RM2.7k is too high.

You don't get my point, do ya?

Actually I find that E&Y auditors does their audit work much better than PWC, they are trained not to ask questions that were already asked in previous years. Maybe its just the bunch that PWC sent in 2012 & 2013.

2010 & 2011 - senior auditor and bunch was ok
2012 - senior auditor sux, her assistance was asking silly questions (like telling the client to make photocopies of sales invoices when clearly we directed them to take it out from the file which was situated in a cupboard and do it themselves)
2013 - senior auditor was good but his audit asistants was anti-social (when try to strike a social conversation, they all kept to one word answer, but when treat them for dinner they wollup all the food, ordered the most expensive dishes - suppose too much food in their mnouth gua)

Its a matter of courtesy, if they can't mingle then they should reject the client's offer to take them for a dinner treat at the end of the audit job. But they attended anyway. Anyways, I been an auditor for quite some time, i felt it is ridiculous if one can't even have a friendly chat with the client. This reflects professionalism and ease the tension. Shows that the audit assistant is able to justify his worth (ie RM3k a month) by showing that he is not only capable of doing his job but also a good communicator. But so far i seen none of that.

I can understand if they stay quiet and let their senior talk when discussing about job matters but when client givees them a dinner treat, talks to them on a professional level, like asking them how they find their work? how is the travel to the client place? they prefer to give one word answers, and let their senior talk, just shows they don;t have what it takes.

Which is true these days in the corporate world. In my MNC days, the company hires management trainees as young as 21, and during their trainee qualification, they are not only required to be proficient with their work but they got to show they have good communication skills, able to rub shoulders with the colleagues. Truth to be said, I have personally seen some of the trainees failed in the case of communication and this particular MNC gave them low scores, force them to leave.

So to be fair, with pay of RM3k, they should show their worth.

By the way, Sarbanes Oxley Act is only applicable to American companies.

Another problem with audit assistants these days, is their level of proficiency at work. Asking client questions is one thing. But if they keep on coming back every 30 minutes and bombard client with questions, the client can't do their work. I don't see EY auditors doing this. At my time with another MNC, the EY auditors accumulated their questions in one go, and give you sufficient time to clear the issues. Unlike PWC, before I could even clear the issue, every 30 min an auditor will come to me and ask for this and that. Look, even you said you never done a job of an auditor, so I don't expect you to understand. There is no way you can prepare every schedule for the auditor, they are bound to have furtehr queries. I have clear their queries for 5 years and they keep asking for different things (besides the same old repeating questions tehy ask..which I have prepared beforehand). Also, I have my own work to do, I can't just freeze my work to wait for them.

You got to understand the client's job, when they close their accounts on 31 Dec..its like a given one or two months later, the auditor comes, I don't have so much time to prepare real time info for them. I got my other work to do, I got to report to regional office, do my analysis, close journals, do documentation, etc.

The trouble with auditors is that they don't understand the client sentiments. They think its all abotu them but they don't see that the client is busy with their own job too, the auditors tend to blame the client for not being efficient.

Poor? I am rich. You speak for yourself, poor Gen Y auditor wanna be.

You just see everything from one side of the picture do you?

I have worked for Big 4 audit firm, shared service, MNC and SMEs. I know two sides of the coin.

You speak of client responsibility and lack of competence as if this task is so easy. As auditors is like football fans watching their favourite football team getting thrash by the rival, and after the match, you guys start thrash talking the manager and the squad, want to sack the manager, sell the ineffective players when you are not even on the field.

Have you ever have to run a finance team of 10 to 20 people? Its not easy. One day you'll see especially when you move to commercial. Hah, I hope you will experience it, you try to speak smart alec style but you'll get the karma. Locally listed companies are especially messy. When staff resign, it takes months to retrain a new staff, lost opportunity and the knowlesge is lost. That is why listed companies like to hire auditors because they think these people have full set experience. Have you ever joined a listed company and find yourself having to play catch up, do one year of bank reconciliation that was left behind by the previous staff. You have no help, nobody know how to do the work, just the bank statements, soft copy and the GL. In some circumstances, staff that work more than 20 years, leave the firm grudgingly, then refuse to pass down the knowledge to fellow colleagues. Then nobody there knows how to use the accounting software, it can be IFCa and even as big as SAP. Then your boss hire you, without telling you of the consequences, you wonder what crap you got yourself into.

It is not easy to keep a team of finance staff happy. Maybe past years, a company do well, pay bonus and increment, then one year the boss makes a wrong investment decision, the company start to make losses, the old staff leave, start hiring new green staff that not familiar with the industry and not know the background. Different industries got different accounting treatment. These knowledge are lost forever. It could be hedging techniques, commission calculation or even records of where the land titles or legal disputes were kept. Its all lost. Then you come in to clear the mess. Imagine what situation you are in, when the auditors come in, you're new, bombard you with questions, and you feel hopeless to help.

You may want to say that only i been through this situation, trust me almost every auditor who moves to commercial have experienced this. Even when I move in MNC with shared services, they got this headache as well. Sometimes when they want to migrate the work from factory to shared services, you'll face a lot of resistance. Lack of cooperation from factory finance staff because they want to protect their jobs.

You speak of client responsibility to prepare schedules as if it is so easy but you wait lah, perhaps karma will come to you when you intend to join commercial finance.

It is never easy to run a finance department. Even a shared service one. Staff turnover is high. In some companies, the notice period for resignation is only 1 month. By the time you get the new staff, the old staff would have left and no pass down of the job is done. Even for those with 2 months notice period is not enough, it takes you two weeks to arrange for job advertising, another 3 weeks for interview. Then 2 weeks for the new staff to arrive. > 2 months.

There are even some cases when grudging staff leave refusing to pass down their knowledge, it is all lost. Certain industry got different ways of accounting treatment and even accounting software and ERP are kept secret by long service staff.

So when auditors come, it is not surprising when your finance staff is unable to prepare all the schedules in time, because they don't know how.

Yes it is very easy for you to say that is is not suppose to be the auditor role to dig documents. But you are not in the client's shoes.

Its not just me, any job that you will go into next time, you will have to clear shiit. Yes, your predecessor won't be there to teach you how its done and there is a lot of shiit to clear. If there is no shiit, the company won't be bother to hire you. They hire you to solve shiit, that is what commercial job is about.

And don't be thinking that your co-workers will be helping you, guide you and teach you. This is not audit where the senior will provide you with the training. Once you are in commercial, you're on your own, you have to figure everything yourself. I don't like this situation as much as you will, but this is something most of us have to face.

Therefore, its not my tough luck, it is the tough luck that every auditor has to face when they make the transition from audit to commercial.

The thing is, audit firms like EY and BDO, they will dig for the information. I am especially impress with BDO, they are so independent, my boss likes them. Unlike PWC, they seem very spoonfed.

In my past 3 jobs, I have listen to finance bosses make this joke time and tme again, not to give the auditor too much info. Why? Because when you explain to them, they come back and ask more questions. Most of the time they don't understand at all, keep on asking questions. I was once an auditor, so it is understandable that auditors ask questions, because they are not in the shoes of the client doing the work. But to ask for 3k start pay, based on the knowledge thay have, i agree on this matter.

aiyo you can search it in the job section la.