I have worked at Deloitte for almost four years, and completed my Swiss CPA last year. I work on external audit engagements for small and large Swiss companies, which are often part of international groups, meaning my team often collaborates with other Deloitte firms around the world. I am also part of the Audit recruiting team.

Monday

• Each week looks different from the last. I am currently working for a new client with several Swiss entities. Our main client contact is in St. Gallen, and we usually travel there several days a week.
• The week usually starts with an internal team catch-up, to see what needs to be done during the week ahead and whether anyone has any questions or needs support.
• For lunch we meet with our client in their cafeteria. This is a nice way to get to know them personally and to build a stronger relationship.
• In the afternoon we work on various audit procedures. If questions ever come up, we directly approach the client in their office next door, which is very convenient and the advantage of being close to client activities.

Tuesday

• My team and I work in close collaboration with our Deloitte colleagues in Australia on a group audit, and we have a weekly catch-up meeting to ensure that everyone is on the same page. For instance, we discuss whether there are any questions locally that the team in Australia can clarify for us, or if we need additional support from their side. Also, we are currently introducing a new auditing tool and as our Australian colleagues have already been using it for a while, they kindly gave us an introduction to it. This collaboration has been very helpful for us and I enjoy working with people from different backgrounds.
• For the rest of the day we work on our various audit procedures, such as detailed testing of recorded revenues. As part of this testing, we review underlying supporting invoices, delivery notes and payment evidence for recorded transactions. I am also introducing a new joiner to the project by explaining the relevant tasks to her.

Wednesday

• Since I am a part of the Audit recruiting team, I have a job interview with a candidate in the morning. Interviews are usually conducted with two people from our side, so after reading through the CV and application letter I meet with my interview partner to discuss potential questions. Our interviews are held in person whenever possible, so we welcome the candidate to our office in Zurich. The interviews usually last about an hour, after which we debrief internally and decide whether to offer a career entry position. As I am only involved in interviews for Trainees and Assistants there is usually no second interview, and we are empowered to decide directly.
• For lunch we pick up something from the various options that we have around the office, including food trucks, restaurants, and supermarkets. We are spoilt for choice! Then we eat outside on our terrace at the office and enjoy the sunshine.
• For the rest of the day I work with my team on our current engagement. More specifically, I am working on the journal entry testing for one of our audits. This is a task where we scan through all the recorded journals to identify any potential indicators of fraudulent activity.

Thursday

• On Thursdays I play tennis in the evening, so I try to work from home whenever possible. We have a catch-up meeting on Teams to discuss the status of our engagement. As some of our team members are off on Friday, it is good to align on Thursday mornings, to see whether anything critical needs to be finalized.
• I then work for a couple of hours on my allocated tasks for the engagement.
• In the afternoon, we have a closing Teams meeting for another client. Before we share our final signed report with the client, we meet with them to discuss and validate the results of the audit, any findings that we need to report, and to provide some general information about our procedures. This is also the part when clients may have follow-up questions on some of our results, so the key is that we are aligned within the team before such meetings.
• Then I am off to my tennis session. 😊

Friday

• Every first Friday of the month we have a firm-wide apéro at the Zurich office, so on these days the office is busy (even though it’s a Friday!).
• We try to close as many tasks as possible before the weekend. Some audits only last a week so in these cases it is essential to finalise the allocated tasks, such as documenting information obtained from the client orally or via e-mail, as that information might otherwise be lost.
• I then have an internal meeting to plan our next big Audit recruiting event. We have two such events per year when students are invited to our Zurich office. Next one is coming up in October; look out for it on our events page. 😊
• I then finalise some work in the afternoon before heading to our happy hour apéro.