The Audit Agony Aunt

  • It’s always tempting to start the new year with resolutions. But researchers are sounding a warning bell about the pitfalls of the New Year Resolution tradition. What might be a better alternative for your wellbeing?
  • As audit technology enters a new age with generative artificial intelligence, ever-pervasive automation and cloud collaboration, what better platform for the switched-on Gen Z cohort to hit the ground running.
  • Wellbeing matters. And, despite the article title, it’s not just all about ‘work’ wellbeing. But first, what do we mean by 'wellbeing' and why does it matter for auditors?
  • Outside of your Internal Audit work sphere, in the social arena, what do you respond to the inaugural, ‘what do you do for a living?’. 
  • For all her thirty plus years in audit, Our Audit Agony Aunt has seldom felt such a thrilling buzz around the buoyancy of audit careers. Find out what is making waves in the industry and why she thinks a career in audit is a great pathway to be on right now.
  • Gone are the days of auditing being hard skills-driven, perpetuating the stereotype of the nerdy, possibly boring, left-brain dominated professional. Beyond entry level, to complete the rounded audit skillset and secure promotion, the fuel of audit career progress is dominated by the power of sof...
  • Some of you will have been fortunate enough to have moved swiftly and effortlessly between jobs, perhaps even headhunted, without any formal job search. For most of us though, at some point or other, we will be in active job-seeking mode. So, how do you stay motivated?
  • It would be easy to give a list of tips to improve work-life balance – but surely the place to start is discerning what work-life balance actually is, and whether ‘life-work’ balance would be a more appropriate moniker in the twenty-first century.
  • Join Carol McLachlan, our Audit Agony Aunt, for a whistlestop tour of the skills and competencies that you need as an auditor in order to stay ahead of the competition in 2022, and beyond.
  • There’s no denying that we're currently in a ‘candidate-driven market’ where the demand for audit, assurance, risk and compliance professionals is comfortably buoyant. But from a career-perspective, is it the right time to be changing jobs? Let’s consider…
  • What advice would you give to your younger self when you were just starting out in Audit? We asked Carol McLachlan, our Audit Agony Aunt and qualified accountant with over 20 years of experience, what she would tell her fledgling self about a career in audit.
  • Nobody really pretends (or ever did) that virtual is better than face to face: it’s simply different. And like many aspects of work and life, we are growing to embrace and indeed love the opportunities of the new hybrid world. And that of course applies to audit.
  • When Dalian Paul qualifies as an ACA, in around 3½ years’ time, not only will he have dodged the dreaded student debt, he will have been earning for 5 years, visited around 50 different organisations, built relationships...
  • Jane’s story provides a valuable case study for identifying personal motivators, finding a passion and then carving out a career in a service that she really cares about. So, let’s find out how she has gone about it…
  • Claire was just coming up to the end of her ACA training contract when we first met. I wanted to find out how she had made her initial career decision on graduating and how she had found the experience of working in a smaller, local firm...
  • AG is your complete audit specialist. External audit is what she does, has always done and even after twenty years of honing her expertise, audit, remains, to this day, her professional passion. As a big four audit director, her technical abilities in audit and financial reporting compliance and...
  • The Audit Agony Aunt, Carol McLachlan, interviews four different audit professionals at different stages of their careers. Read their candid interviews and advice for newcomers to the profession.
  • Self confidence, self belief, self regard, self assurance, self worth and self efficacy. We’ve discussed all of these previously on these pages. But how are they different from self esteem and why does self esteem merit its own article?
  • Audits are projects. From the most junior trainee up to director or partner level, we all manage projects or aspects of projects in some shape or form.
  • Meetings…the bread and butter of our business; the glue that holds together our organisations; grist to the mill for each and every one of us!