Wait, 2 years? A friend of mine joined and finished the program earlier this year. It shouldnt take more than 4 months, I think. According to him, he joined an audit team comprising mostly of fresh graduates like himself (with only 2 senior auditors) and was quickly given clients to audit. No joke, he was clueless for about 2 - 3 weeks, even got marah by manager also (but not so much lah, because manager knows that he is new). Eventually he got the hang of it lah. Based on their performance in those 4 months, PwC might contact them and give them full time employment.

My buddy only really did Audit work for the first 3 months only. Then COVID and PKP happen, he just spend the last remaining month "working" from home and doing nothing. He didnt get absorbed, but he liked the experience.

Those associates that you knew, were they promoted to Senior Associates by the end of those 2 years? Because the saying I keep hearing is that you should soldier on in Audit until you get promoted to Senior Auditor and then get through 1 - 2 peak periods before jumping ship. You'll get better experience.

Completely different programs then. The one in HK you were sent to different departments to experience how they work. So 4 months in audit then another 4 months in deals / consulting in total for 2 years.

Worked with some of them in HK and you're not guaranteed a senior promotion unless you found a dedicated department within the 2 years

My personal advice is you should soldier on for at least 5 years in big4 hitting manager level before jumping ship. You will get the most out of your experience within big4 then. You don't learn shit in the first 2 years in big4. The skills you want to learn are project management / coaching / people skills, as they can be easily applied in your next role. This is if you are serious in progressing up the ladder quickly.

Also if your not happy about audit you can always consider jumping to deals / consulting after 2 years in audit. Its easier to transfer internally

that jx programme is a 5month programme tho... my hr fren told me they hav freezed hiring at the moment. nt sure if they still hiring ppl for nex yr jx programme

Anyone here apply for this position at EY before

Associate - Data & Analytics, Technology Consulting

How is the process and job like ? Anyone got offer of this role ?

This post has been edited by steel52: Sep 21 2020, 07:41 PM

any vacancy for service enginer in penang? seeking for jobs now

What's are the main goals? Fastest career progression?

Go directly to big mnc if your end objective is to go mnc , you might be faster than your peers from audit ( who everyday dreaming to jump ship when they doing audit).

Ya "might be". Audit gives you the faster and more certain path...based on my 8 years experience...

Depends how terrible they scold you and whether their scolding is justifiable. Saw someone new got scolded in the office in front of everyone (yes everyone whole office can see). Luckily that person didn't break down in tears.

Most of the time you'd be scolded for something you don't know
Saw many other stuff too but I'd rather not disclose. Audit is brutal.

If kena scold, put your head down and kiss ass. Say 'yes yes yes'. Never say 'no'.
The moment to say no, they will make your life a living hell.
Need to have thick skin to survive verbal abuse, mistreatment, long hours etc.

If too given too much work, don't voice out because they unhappy. Just keep quiet, cry in bathroom, drink more coffee and die die must finish. People who complain workload get transferred or threatened no promotion.

Best is to complete your papers and pick up advanced Excel techniques because they require it immediately. You can't say you know Excel unless you know how to use Pivot Tables and functions like LEN, UNIQUE, VLOOKUP (partial match). You're even expected to know how to use Microsoft Access.

Anything less than this, con7lanfirm get scolding.

Wow.. I'm curious which big4 you're in. I am in one currently doing audit and it's really not that brutal hehe. Sure I've gotten scolding, cried about work before, cried about bosses, etc. But scolding were usually done discreetly and usually not in front of the team members. I've complained about my workload to my SM and he graciously reassign my tasks. It's better than keeping quiet and then not delivering and the blame will end up on you. One thing I noticed about the culture of audit is that they're always playing the blame game. So don't put yourself in that position of getting blamed. Look out for yourself.

Anyway, after 3+ years... I'm finally jumping ship now. Getting out of audit. But from my experience, best to stay until manager which usually takes 5 years. If you can't stay in audit anymore, at least leave as a 2nd year senior or AM. Because experience as a senior is very different from associate.

Excel bit 100% agree.. But never used Access before... So can't comment.

Not going to mention due to risk of litigation.

What I saw: Crying is seen as weak. Probably will be blamed for lowering team morale. Complaining means you will be transferred/threatened with no promotion. Reassigning tasks shows you are pushing work to others.

What I saw: You still get blamed even if it's not your fault (i.e. client side or problem with the system). Ghost tickings and changing samples. "Find out yourself" culture. Some even complain about racism.

What I mentioned is associate level only (not even 6 months in). I'm surprised you didn't have to deal with Access even after 3 years work.

Already audit manager in 5 years in a big4, still dont know access.

Pretty sure racism exist everywhere, how you handle it is the difference.

Audit is just you making sure that a report comes out end of the day. Someone will be faulted if the report is not out, and your clients are your customers so..

Hi all, I got an interview with pwc for senior associate role, advisory. Any tips from those who went for pwc interview?

They contacted me on Linkedin and scheduled the interview quickly. I read here that you have to go through some accessment but I wasn't given any yet. What should I expect at this point? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

This post has been edited by fakerdemit: Oct 17 2020, 04:54 AM

Are you currently in Big 4 doing Advisory?

They could be desperate for a specialized skillset you have for a running or upcoming project. Just make sure you know your stuff.

No. I'm currently in MNC.

So you think they are likely to ask more technical stuff then? Hm ok thanks!

Hi guys, I am a recent graduate with an accounting degree and I have also passed my ACCA (with ATX and AFM as my choice of optional paper).

I have some questions and I highly appreciate any replies.


1. Is it better for me to join their graduate programme first instead of applying for association position if I am unsure of which path I need to take (in terms of tax, audit, advisory...)
If anyone has any experience in regards to the Big4 graduate programme, could you share your experience?

2. Is the work-life balance better in advisory/consultancy as compared to tax and external audit?

I will just focus on question 2. Work life balance is actually up to you. 9 to 6 is the minimum. Anything extra is up to you on whether you want to get promoted, deal social pressure and superior expectations. No one can actually force you work late. For example, your superior will just tell you they want the work next morning. You can log off work if you can deliver. If you can't, work late until you delivered. If you don't care, your superior might scold you in public or complained about you with others which may harm your long term prospects.

Financial services. You will only learn the skill here and I can enter other industry later. But vice versus, it’s tougher to join FS next time if you dun have such experience

PJ bro. DU?