Hi Monica! For me the most interesting part is getting to see work with of different companies and seeing (from an inside perspective) how they work and operate! We get to talk to lots of Senior Finance directors at FTSE companies which is very interesting in my opinion. The most challenging part for me would be some of the longer hours from January - March after lots of financial year ends. However, you are always working in a team which is really nice and working together makes it not seem as daunting!

26 November, 2020 16:51

Hi Issy! Thank you for your answer. I also wanted to ask, what made you choose assurance?

26 November, 2020 16:55

And can you explain the difference between UK&I and FSO as well as how to decide which one to choose? Thanks!

26 November, 2020 16:56

Hi Monica! I studied Economics at university so knew I wanted to have a financial career and liked the idea of being able to work with lots of different companies on their financial statements, which underpin a lot of companies and their share prices!

26 November, 2020 16:57

FSO focuses on Banking & Capital Markets, Insurance and Wealth Management. UK&I splits into various other sectors (Energy, Oil, Technology) so depends what sort of clients you would like to work on!

26 November, 2020 16:58

Thank you Issy, this has helped me a lot too on deciding which area to apply for

26 November, 2020 17:01

Thank you! Very useful answers :)

26 November, 2020 17:02

What responsibilities do you have in your day to day? How much individual or collaborative work do you usually have?

26 November, 2020 17:03

Also, do you know where I can find which clients EY Assurance FSO works for? Thank you!

26 November, 2020 17:08

No worries!

26 November, 2020 17:09

I would say day-to-day varies a lot which is nice! It depends on what clients you have but in your first year you will often be responsible for lots of the cash, expenses, overall audit procedures and financial statement checks! I would say the seniors give you a lot of responsibility straight off (I was speaking to clients by Day 2 of my job!). You have lots of individual tasks to complete but the team ultimately work together to complete the whole audit!

26 November, 2020 17:11

I'm not sure there's an ultimate list of every client list in EY FSO but we do a lot of the big banks and wealth managers and insurance companies!

26 November, 2020 17:12

Thank you! How do you think new technologies are going to impact audit?

26 November, 2020 17:12

If you google a company and search their financial statements you will be able to see which company signed off the report (lots of them are EY!)

26 November, 2020 17:12

I think new technology will have a big impact in audit! We're looking already to make some of the more 'admin' based tasks automated so it gives us more time to be able to focus on the more significant and interesting areas of a company!

26 November, 2020 17:13

And how is EY responding to new regulations and the recent scrutiny of auditors?

26 November, 2020 17:14

What do those admin based tasks include?

26 November, 2020 17:14

And what would be the more significant and interesting areas of the company?

26 November, 2020 17:15

Also, how challenging is juggling the study for a qualification with work?

26 November, 2020 17:17

Hi Monica - we would describe admin based tasks as anything relating to support our clients financial statements and sampling parts of their accounts to make sure their statements are legal, true and fair.

26 November, 2020 17:19

Hi Monica, In regards to studying in assurance you will probably be studying for the ICAS qualification and the best thing about doing this qualification is that study is completed in blocks, so you would go to college for 6 weeks (for example), then only after doing the exams would you return to work. So in this respect, you wouldn't have to juggle work and study together as they will be done separately.

26 November, 2020 17:23

Hi Monica! EY is taking on the challenge and response very well, we're updating lots of our procedures to include lots more detail and ensure we have a fully covered audit based approach. We ensure our risk assessments are up to date to ensure we can focus our testing more specifically and cover off all areas of testing.

26 November, 2020 17:23

Great, thank you for your answers!

26 November, 2020 17:24

When admin tasks are covered by automation, what are the interesting tasks that auditors will do instead?

26 November, 2020 17:25

Being able to speak to the clients more about their business, how they have performed during the year, new developments and understand their processes.

26 November, 2020 17:27

It also means that instead of sample testing, the automation can scan thousands of lines of data and only pull out anomalies so we can ask the client about the anomalies.

26 November, 2020 17:27

Great, thanks!

26 November, 2020 17:28

Would auditors offer advice to their clients about decisions to make about their business? What decisions would these include?

26 November, 2020 17:29

We can sometimes give them some advice around how to make their processes a bit more efficient for future audits however usually we are more there to check their financial information. There are independence regulations in place that mean we can't cross that line of being consultants!

26 November, 2020 17:32