Audit team Q&A

Tell us a little bit about yourself!

Felix: I grew up close to Bern in a small village and moved to Zurich a few years ago. During the summer I enjoy grilling and going swimming in the lake. I'm also interested in finance and have enrolled in the CFA.

Alicia: I am originally from Bonn, Germany. I moved to Switzerland in 2014 and over the years I have adopted the Swiss appreciation for the outdoors. On the weekends, I enjoy going hiking with friends and I like to play tennis. Lately, I’ve also developed a love for Pilates and spinning! After the past two years of travel restrictions, I’m also very much looking forward to travelling again in 2022.

Guido: I live in sunny Lugano but I grew up and studied in Torino, Italy. I am a ski teacher and retired athlete. I am passionate about cars and plants – I have more than 50 plants at home in Lugano!

When did you join Deloitte and what do you do?

Guido: I joined Deloitte Italy 10 years ago in audit, and then I left the firm for 3 years. In the meantime, I moved to Switzerland and in 2017 I came back to audit and joined Deloitte Switzerland, proceeding in my career.

Alicia: I joined Deloitte in 2017 as a trainee and ended up staying for my CPA qualification, which took four years. During that time, I worked in the Audit Corporate team. End of 2021 I transferred internally and joined the Audit Quality and Risk Management team, where my role is, among other things, to act as a point of contact for engagement teams for mandatory/voluntary consultations. In addition, I am involved in performing risk sensing activities for our Swiss firm within the Deloitte North South Europe network.

Felix: I joined Deloitte about two years ago and I’m currently attending summer school to get the CPA. Most of my clients are US-based companies mainly in the hospitality and fashion sectors. If I’m working as part of a bigger team, my job is to support the Assistant Manager in the tasks they assign, for example testing and reviewing all the different financial statement lines. For smaller projects the teams are also smaller, so you get to do more by yourself, such as risk assessments. It's nice that you can learn these skills in smaller engagements and then leverage that experience and knowledge in the bigger projects.

Why did you choose a career in audit?

Felix: I previously worked as a client advisor at a Swiss bank. After I got my bachelor’s degree I thought about what I should do next; should I get a master’s or should I stay in finance? I decided that I wanted to work in a finance-related field, but not at a bank. I also felt that the Swiss CPA brings more value than a master’s degree because you can work while studying and you get much more in-depth knowledge about finance. With a master’s degree you learn all the theory but you don’t get the opportunity to immediately put it into practice. With the CPA I’m now working with extremely experienced people who are subject matter experts and I learn from them every day.

Alicia: I chose a career in audit, as I believe it is a good way to learn all the hard skills you need in the business world. You can gain great credibility in your career with experience and a qualification in this line of work.

Guido: I think audit gives me the opportunity to know many different companies and be challenged in a variety of business environments. In parallel to this I really like meeting new people, talking in different languages and traveling.

What surprised you the most when you started working in audit?

Felix: What surprised me the most was how manual a lot of the work still is – and needs to be. I thought that these days auditing is all done by a computer programme but in reality the work is much more nuanced than that. You need to use your judgement. We cannot test every account, so we need to take a risk-based approach. And the approach varies from business model to business model. It sounds logical that everything would be done by a computer but when you consider it you realise that a human still needs to do the work. In the end it's still the auditor who has to decide how to approach the audit and how to tackle the risk and then they choose the programme which helps to get the data needed.

Alicia: I was most surprised to see the ongoing technology transformation within this sector, as I was not aware how important this is for our work. At Deloitte, we are very aware of the transformation opportunities and are implementing new audit tools every year. These enable us to automate smaller tasks, but also work with large data sets and make our audits more data-driven, and ultimately making our work more efficient and accurate. Several audit tasks I performed as a first-year assistant are now fully automated!

Guido: What positively surprised me is how in audit every team member is truly important. It does not matter if you are an assistant or a senior manager. The portion of work done by each team member builds up towards the audit opinion. We are all part of the success of the work and everything we do has an impact on the others. We support each other and we learn a lot from the different experiences we gain.

How can a person grow and develop professionally within audit?

Felix: You can start in audit and work while studying for the CPA – and this is fully supported by Deloitte. And within audit there is always work and opportunities available. It really depends on you, what interests you and what you want to do. In the first two years you're an assistant, and in the third or fourth year you can become a senior assistant. If you are working on smaller or mid-sized engagements like I do, you become the main point of contact for these clients when you’re onsite. Progression can be fast but it is up to you and your strengths.

Alicia: Working within audit, you likely are on the path to becoming a (Swiss) CPA. On this journey, you acquire so much knowledge in accounting, reporting, audit, tax, and legal matters, which are all truly relevant to your day-to-day work. I believe especially in the first 3-4 years you become technically very strong.

However, even afterwards the learning never stops. Laws and regulations as well as audit standards are ever evolving, recent developments including the revision of Swiss company law and upcoming implementation of sustainability standards. Even now, after joining the Audit Quality and Risk Management team, I am learning something new every day.

Guido: A career in audit is focused on the growth of each person. Deloitte supports everyone one with yearly trainings and webinars. Young auditors can start the audit academy with the support of the firm and work/study to gain their professional qualification. Personally, we are required to improve our technical, organizational, people management and many other skills, depending on the stage we are in our career. There is always space and time to gain new know-how on the job.

What is the most challenging aspect about working in audit – and what do you enjoy the most?

Felix: The biggest challenge I’d say is the peak season during which you need to learn to keep your cool even if there is a lot of pressure. You need to manage between delivering high standard work while only doing the things that are strictly necessary. And for me personally what has been challenging has been learning to say no, because there is always something to do. And if you always say yes to work, people will of course think that you have availability.

What I enjoy the most; you're responsible for your time and how you do things. And it's also cool when you see how much you could contribute to a project. I also feel that in audit there is quite an open and accessible hierarchy; even as an assistant you’re appreciated and your work matters.

Alicia: Especially in the first few years in this career your role changes very quickly. You need to adapt to changes in expectations while still learning the ropes of the new role, including more complex tasks, responsibility, and client exposure. Despite the reputation of the audit sector, it is a very fast-paced environment. You need to be flexible, adjusting priorities regularly to the client’s needs and working in an agile way. At times you are thrown into the deep end, however you learn to swim and can look back each year at major professional milestones. While this can be challenging, it can also be very rewarding.

I most enjoy the diversity of this job, which has even increased since joining the Audit Quality and Risk Management team. We get to see a variety of business models that can range from “old economy” industry players to new technology firms. Each company is faced with different opportunities and risks, which we need to understand to perform an effective and efficient audit. With that, we need to recognise market trends and changes in the relevant economic geographies that influence the client’s business, e.g., the rise of cryptocurrencies, political crises, high inflation rates, or interest rate changes. Piecing together that picture for each client can be fun and is very interesting.

Guido: Meeting deadlines is for sure the most challenging part of our work. We do a variety of activities where we face many different stakeholders, and it is not always easy to have everyone aligned toward the same goal.

What I enjoy the most is a consequence of the above; as a manager I am required to make this possible. I have to implement a profound project plan, I need to discuss with many people on both the Deloitte and client side, I need to mediate between different positions and make everyone aware about the goal set. Meeting client needs and maintaining the best quality in the work is challenging, but when reached, is a rewarding satisfaction.

What makes the audit team at Deloitte special?

Alicia: The Deloitte audit team is a group of young, diverse and international people, which I appreciate very much. I believe that here everyone can find someone with whom they identify, who can challenge them and help them grow professionally and personally. Through the years, I have made and remained good friends with co-workers, even after they have left the firm.

Guido: In Audit we are a young team very focused on growth, and where us, the employees, are the pivotal factor. What I think makes us special is how we work together, where nobody is left alone. Does not matter which grade you are, what language you speak, what are your strengths or fears. In Deloitte there will be always a colleague to laugh with and a senior team member to learn from.

Felix: I would say it's the team spirit. Looking out for each other and also having a laugh during tough times. I mean, you can't deny that there will be times when you have to work really late. But you can still make a joke to lighten the mood. And you can leverage the knowledge of the team. If I know someone has experience in a project I’ve just joined and am unfamiliar with, I can call these people and they show me how to do things and we can go for a beer afterwards when we finish.

How does your work at Deloitte make an impact in the world?

Alicia: At Deloitte, our goal is to make an “impact that matters”. This can be on a personal level or in the context of our responsibility in the market. Looking at the bigger picture, we recognise that decisions made within the firm can set a “best practice” throughout the industry, which has an impact on overall mechanism that installs trust in our financial markets.

Felix: Within auditing we ensure that the financial statements are in line with accounting standards and laws. Thereby, we give investors assurance that the numbers presented are correct. Ultimately, we are (at least partially) resolving the problem between the investors and the reporting entity when it comes to financial reporting.

Guido: Being part of Deloitte means sharing a common view on how we would like to make an impact. Our common values and objectives are our flag. As auditors we know our mission; we work to safeguard the interests of our clients providing value adding audits, but we should never forget about our families, our friends and our colleagues. We learn so much during the many hours we spend working, but it should not all end there. We have a lot to bring home of what we learn at Deloitte also on the personal side.

What advice would you give to someone considering a career in audit?

Felix: It’s important to accept that you don't know everything and that you're continuously learning. As an auditor it's always important to be curious. You need to understand the kind of business you're auditing so it's always good to ask questions. And there are never dumb questions and never too many questions. So if you're starting out and you don't get what someone is explaining to you, keep asking.

Alicia: Join us for a traineeship and find out for yourself if this is a career you enjoy. I did the same and I was convinced. If you like working with various groups of people, getting to know different companies and are curious to understand them from the inside out, the chances you will like working in audit are high. At the same time, you will receive a great education and invaluable working experience.

Guido: I suggest to young professionals considering an audit career to be curious and eager to learn. Be ready to make an impact from the day one.