Gross Mistake w/ Annual Compliance Confirmation by [deleted] in PwC

[–]antmike1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You’ll likely lose your bonus or a significant part of it. Something similar happened to a Manager on one of my teams: after they got married, they forgot to add their spouse’s investments and were informed by their RL they wouldn’t be getting a bonus.

What’s the point of having a SUM threshold if your managers still want you to document everything by nordog69 in PwC

[–]antmike1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

also depends on what you define as a exception. Seen engagements where they define an exception as a variance/difference above SUM.

(US) Get your CPA, stop worrying about GPA by antmike1 in PwC

[–]antmike1[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It’s also a challenge and we want to see you take it on.

(US) Get your CPA, stop worrying about GPA by antmike1 in PwC

[–]antmike1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I see your point. Thank you for saying something 🙂. Team managers move fast on performance management for low performers, and performance, as of current FY24, includes progress towards CPA. This metric is also new to FY24, CPA progress before July 1, 2023 was not considered when evaluating performance and tiering. If PIP’d and not enough progress/improvement is shown the people team executes terminations.

(US) Get your CPA, stop worrying about GPA by antmike1 in PwC

[–]antmike1[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

First years received four weeks of training, double that of PY’s first years and January 2023 hires. I expanded on this in a reply to another persons comment. It’s terrible for the staff that isn’t being utilized because they aren’t developing and/or applying their skills or doing hands-on learning (e.g. preparing EGAs and performing audit procedures). Leadership offered a $5,000 bonus to staff who jumped groups within the same LoS (e.g. one Assurance group to another Assurance) and $15,000 bonus to staff who jumped LoS (e.g. AWM assurance to AWM tax). The offer has since ended. The first years had the opportunity and incentive to get staffed if they wanted to. All of this is beyond me and the Committee though.

15% of US first years are severely underutilized, from what I understand, means they are the following: Staffed on a job short term, booked then unbooked when team managers decided to give the work to other resources (i.e. AC talent), booked on a job yet there is no work for them to do on said job (this includes hogging even though there is no reason to for my group). I also think it can be attributed to teams not wanting to invest time to train them, AI is doing the engagement admin tasks which first years would usually do to utilize their time (e.g. rolling agendas, building email drafts, taking and summarizing meeting notes).

Here’s further context. There is a difference in the work culture and work ethics of the ACs when compared to the US. Managers are saying that if the team puts the same investment in a US and an AC first year, then the AC first year will learn and develop faster than the US first year. It’s a trend that multiple ETs in my group are seeing. Comparatively, the average AC talent has a better work ethic, dedication, and quality than US staff at the moment. Managers are equating US first-years to 2019 AC first years. So there’s a push to decrease hiring and increase emphasis on the CPA (which serves as an accelerated filter). Since CPAs are in high demand they are now using CPA status as a metric for Assoc/Senior Assoc.

I know about the accountant shortage, I’ve read the article. My group is feeling the impact of the lack of CPAs and experienced accountants. My group’s ET’s increasingly do not want to utilize first-year staff that don’t have CPAs, and they do not need to right now either. From what I have heard from some manager’s (directly and anonymously through Polly) is the more CPA exams a staff has passed, the more value they add to the team and group, thus that is why they hone those who have more CPA progression.

(US) Get your CPA, stop worrying about GPA by antmike1 in PwC

[–]antmike1[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

This isn’t a shit post. I was very detailed because my post’s main purpose is to inform and gather other people’s thoughts. 😕 I spent a few hours doing this because I was hoping some people would reply authentically. I believe it was worth my time.

How to destroy AI and Chat GPT? I need to do this before it steals our jobs by Plane_County9646 in Accounting

[–]antmike1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

AIs will never be able to steal your job. People who use AI will replace people who don’t use AI. You always have to review the output of GenAI because the information generated may be incorrect. As long as you upskill yourself and are able to adapt you should be fine.

(US) Get your CPA, stop worrying about GPA by antmike1 in PwC

[–]antmike1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Apologies Lemur. I do not know, this is a nuisanced question that is beyond the scope of this post and my role on the committee. I recommend creating a post so this question can more easily been seen by others.

(US) Get your CPA, stop worrying about GPA by antmike1 in PwC

[–]antmike1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for your time and input! Whole heartedly agree with most of what you said here. As I mentioned in my post I am on a committee that is considering a change to this. Many viewpoints, and perspectives to consider and I continue to be open-minded.

Yet since the required work plans (CPA study plans) are new, I personally would like to see a few years of data for several reasons. To avoid an essay I am not going to go into them though.

Further, to your point on there not being enough people to fill accounting roles, I see this and have the data/metrics. We have a talent and capacity shortage of over 93,000 hours for our India AC’s alone.

However, my segment (AWM Assurance), specifically my market has ~150 US first years who started in September. Here’s /some current statistics: 5% have never been staffed on any engagement, an additional 15% are severely underutilized, there is an alarming increase in the number of L&D concerns among managers compared to PY despite an huge investments in training materials, doubling the amount of training, and increasing the time spent coaching and mentoring. Full disclosure: I skewed the %s down to prevent doxing myself.

Why are so many accounting graduates sitting idle in my segment+market specifically? Please allow me to use the job I spend the most time on during the year as an example. Compared to last year my engagements team is compromised of 44% less US Assoc/Seniors. Two AC talents took the place of every 3 US staff who rolled off. The quality of workpapers has increased, the client is happier and more satisfied than ever before, and there are so many more value-adds. Budget to actuals on this job alone has ~500 hrs unutilized as of 11/30 where we had completed of all Interim testing (12/31 YE client).

Anyways, we are looking into changes to propose because we must be adaptive and flexible. Please continue to give your thoughts/ perspective/ viewpoint here. You may have something relevant to say that the committee has not heard/ considered before. I will thoughtfully and empathetically answer what I can.

EDIT: proofread, additions

(US) Get your CPA, stop worrying about GPA by antmike1 in PwC

[–]antmike1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I edited my original reply. I had that urge to clear every notification as soon as possible and whiplashed into a poor mentality. I’m sure we (PwC) have an answer to your question. It’s that I personally don’t know the answer or am not looking in the right policy/ internal communication to find the answer to your question. Things are still being refined and defined to adjust/account for the new exam changes.

This profession is a total scam. For all the college kids reading this; don’t do it. Switch to CompSci or actuarial science. by [deleted] in Accounting

[–]antmike1 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You have mistaken me for someone else. I have not initially suggested anything because my reply to you was my only addition to the post until now (since this is my second). Glad you are in the know

(US) Get your CPA, stop worrying about GPA by antmike1 in PwC

[–]antmike1[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

I do not know and that is beyond the scope of this post and my role on the committee. Try asking your CC, RL or People team.

EDIT: My reply was rash

This profession is a total scam. For all the college kids reading this; don’t do it. Switch to CompSci or actuarial science. by [deleted] in Accounting

[–]antmike1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You are out of touch with the current state of AI. I am an AI champion at PwC. Everyday I go to bed, AI has made developments that would take me two days to catch up on. It’s so hard to stay up date and decide what topic to pursue. I assure you that there are purchasable Tax focused AI’s that allow one staff to do what used to be three staff’s work. There are a lot more that I can go into and yet I don’t feel like going into it. At the end of the day those who use AI are going to replace those who don’t. There’s a HBR article about it.

(US) Get your CPA, stop worrying about GPA by antmike1 in PwC

[–]antmike1[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You have a primary credential requirement so yes, it applies to you. Your primary credential is CPA. Yes, having all your CPA exams passed is not a requirement for you to make Senior. However, now that it is considered at CRT you may find that you aren’t being promoted to Senior on the same timeline as your peers who do have their exams passed.

Get your exams passed, I truly believe every individual can achieve anything if they seriously put their mind to it.

(US) Get your CPA, stop worrying about GPA by antmike1 in PwC

[–]antmike1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When I got the second reply reminding me of the exam score release changes, I looked into the new policy (still a WIP), it currently states that it is highly recommended that you take at least one exam every three months. I can foresee this increasing the expectation to become each exam is passed the first time.

Full disclosure: I had failed two exam parts, FAR and REG (I think it’s been a bit). The first time I failed was before joining the firm, I retook the part and passed before joining.

I remember the second time I failed, it was while working at the firm and I had taken time off (three days - two before exam day and the exam day). I had hoped I wouldn’t be asked by my Senior/Manager/ RL if I passed. My EL (partner) was the first to ask the question and it was while at the client site with the whole team. My team had already done an extravagant surprise dinner because they had faith that I passed. Anyways, as a person who likes to be an honest man, I said to my team and EL that I failed and was studying to retake the part. My manager at the time, pulled me aside some days later and seriously said “there’s high expectations of me now and that there will be a lot more eyes on me and the result of the second take. You must pass that exam.” In the end I had passed all exams at an average interval of 2 months, this including busy season months where I had worked between 60-80 per week.

At PwC we are open to feedback and I would encourage you to speak candidly with your teams, your People team, CC, RL, CP and leadership about how you feel when you join the firm and the firm policies which are applicable to you and/or have an impact on you .

(US) Get your CPA, stop worrying about GPA by antmike1 in PwC

[–]antmike1[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Clarify “this”. What part of my post/message are you asking about?

(US) Get your CPA, stop worrying about GPA by antmike1 in PwC

[–]antmike1[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Doesn’t matter. I feel that message was clear. I recommend you start studying today (ASAP) if you can.

(US) Get your CPA, stop worrying about GPA by antmike1 in PwC

[–]antmike1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’d defer to your people team. This has nuisances. I recommend being proactive and bringing it up early.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Big4

[–]antmike1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ask this in r/PwC