What's your employer doing and what are your areas of responsibility?
Mazars is a multinational and multiservice audit, tax and advisory firm and I fit into the audit and assurance services where we perform our audit testing to mitigate weaknesses in system controls and advise our clients on the consistency and reliability of their financial information.
Every week in audit is a new experience with varying clients from regional, national, and international companies from Agribusiness to Luxury to Not for Profit Industries. My daily work usually starts with checking my emails for any important information and updates, then moves towards quick catchup with my manager to discuss what tasks they would like me to do and follow up on work that I have already started or finished.
As a grad, I am given a good amount of autonomy to do the tasks I have been set, and only need to follow up with my seniors and managers when I need help or I have completed the task. Today I am discussing our client’s bank reconciliation process and controls with them and then randomly generating a sample to test. After this, I am working on conducting expense testing where I am selecting 20 samples of payments and trace them to their invoices, bank statements and any make note of any issues identified. If I have time left after this, I will check in with my seniors to see if there is anything else I can help with.
What's your background?
I am born and raised on the north side of Brisbane, where I went to school. My favourite subjects in school were always accounting and mathematics. During my school years, I played team sports every trimester, including Volleyball, Netball and Basketball. In year 10 I joined club volleyball and played until midway through year 11 where I picked up a job at McDonald's.
After I graduated high school I went straight into university, studying a double degree in business and mathematics. In my final year of uni, I applied for some grad roles that took my interest – I was specifically looking for a role where I could use my analytical skills. I had the opportunity for an interview at Mazars in late December 2020, and before I knew it, I was offered a grad position starting early January 2021. I was very excited to enter this new chapter of my life, however, it was a sad goodbye to the McDonald’s team that I had been a part of for 5 and a half years.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
It really depends. To land a role in audit, you need to have some sort of business degree, ideally majoring in accounting, commerce, or finance so that you have a sound knowledge of financial accounts.
All of our team members have qualifications in Business, we have grads from a music degree with a Master of Finance, and another with a Master of Commerce. While having some business qualifications is necessary, there are some characteristics that an employer will find attractive. Some examples include communication skills, having an inquisitive mindset and the ability to work independently and within teams.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
The coolest thing about my job is being able to travel to see our clients. Travelling to a client’s premise allows us as auditors to get a behind the scenes look at a business and its processes to really understand how their company works.
What are the limitations of your job?
While travelling is great, if you do not have access to a vehicle, it can be stressful to get to a client – especially when you are new. When I had first started, I had shared use of a car, so on the chance that I did not have the car and we had to travel to a client, it took a lot more planning than just jumping in your car and putting google maps on. There was more time involved in planning when you need to wake up, how you are going to get to the public transport and which train/bus to catch and is there someone who you can carpool with.
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