The Running Man

Recap of PwC Singapore

This may be important to some readers (haha..) but here is a recap of what has happened so far...
Previously from Sept 2005 to April 2006 I was working in PricewaterhouseCoopers (Singapore) with a great bunch of people doing Assurance (Audit). I didn't enjoy what I was doing and really couldn't see myself doing it for long, so I moved to Sydney to try afresh (more on that later). There were somethings which I like (and now miss) about audit:

1. Working in various teams on various engagements/clients (variety of surroundings and people);
2. A great run (something like a training cohort of new auditors who are the same level as you and go through all the training with you..something like a 'club'?);
3. Ability to take absurdly long holidays due to the amount of OT that we can charge..this is very subjective and depends a lot on other factors like manager, job budget, TIC, etc;
4. Off-peak season (April-Sept) when I can go and play various sports (volleyball, basketball, badminton, etc) representing PwC (at their cost)...although this aspect is also very subjective as your job may not enable you to play at that particular time and some people (especially the more senior you become) may not even have an "off-peak". This is probably only applicable for the first 2 yrs of your audit career; and
5. The annual Dinner and Dance, Post and Pre-peak bashes - all involving free alcohol, lots of girls and food (now that is a triple delight..haha).

Now in a nutshell, this is what I didn't like about audit:

1. Long hours - now I have previously said that you could claim OT back, but its almost never 1 for 1 so for eg. you could be working like 10 hours extra, yet only claim maybe 2-3 hrs (even less) again this is subject to your current job and manager;
2. Unreasonable managers (if you are unlucky) - these are the people in audit who pretty much control the quality of life in audit via OT and expense claims, setting of deadlines and expectations, their own competences and knowledge, their level of comfort of risk adversity (very random);
3. Pay does not match the amount of work put in - now don't get me wrong..and say that I am lazy and a slacker, all I am implying is that if you paid me decently then I will work through the night for you;
4. Inability to use take your absurdly long holidays (which were hard earned thru many more hours of OT work) as and when you wish. This is because it is subject to the amount of jobs you may have and the 'free' spaces available on your schedule (retain). This sucks.; and
5. Dynamic FRS, IFRS and other accounting laws and regulations.

Now before I bore you with any more of my ramblings and/or complaints, here are some pictures of the fun times I had while in audit with my run (mostly outside of work):

My PGL (something like a mini team within a run)...at this point in time, 5 (including myself) of the above people shown in the picture above are no longer in audit (that is how fast the turnover is in audit). Still I am pretty close to them all. btw we were called "the Optimists" (haha..it was something that we had to come up with).

This was taken @ Alley Bar after we completed our 'gruelling' 2 week audit training session ("Go Audit")...this is only part of the run.

Our PGL leader (Yeong Kheng) with Mandy and Angela (two of the pretty gals in my PGL)

As you can see we all like a drink (oh yeah did I also mention that most of our firmwide activities eg. Dinner & Dance, Post/Pre peak bashes..all involve lots of alcohol? somthing about auditors and alcohol always mix)

More alcohol and run people

Another 5 of the prettiest gals in my run.

Yes all those images you see above were the "happy times" (right after our first training session as auditors) and we were still young and innocent (naive?) about the nature of audit. Next we (or some of us) went to Sentosa beach for a picnic.

I am surrounded by beauties (lucky guy eh). At that point I was the only guy around.

Pretty, Cute, Gorgeous, and Beautiful (in no particular order).

Group photo of all the PwC attendees for the picnic (pretty exclusive group of people).

A beautiful gal (love those dimples)..too bad I ruined the picture :P

I think that we also had a BBQ at one of our run's condo (Shuxian). Quite a big turnout and also celebrated a couple of birthdays too.

This was quite a big turnout for a group outing (maybe we set some kind of PwC record?). It was fantastic of Shuxian to let us use her aunt's condo.

My PGL all present and accounted for...

Just some of the girls at the BBQ

One of the birthday boys (Jason) being 'helped' into the pool by another bithday boy (Mark)

d

After...

Some more beauties from the BBQ

We also had a PGL Chinese New Year party @ Shuxian's place...lots of fun and again lots of food (too much). I brought sushi while I can remember Eugene bringing a Hagan Dasz ice-cream cake (delicious), and of course Mahjong!

Here are some of the people who came for the CNY lunch

Mahjong time!

Look at the massive amount of food that we brought (can you see the ice-cream cake in the background?). It was all delicious!!!

Now I have previously mentioned that we had lots of bashes and parties, here are a few pictures from them (not as many because I am the one who usually gets the pictures from others) - I think this was the Post Peak bash @ Dbl O in Apr 06.

Me and some of my run people having another drink (or was it my second, third one?)

PwC people in a group photo @ Double O for the Post-peak bash (April 2006)

Lin Ting and me (before the start of the bash and the drinking...see I am not yet red)

We also had a small BBQ at Eugene's condo (not as big as the first 1). Only invited PGL and 'honourary' PGL members...

The attendees...

The guys...

Meant to be just the girls..but somehow Eugene snuck into the picture.

There were a few more outings (on a smaller scale) that we all took part in, the above pictures just show a sampling of some of them. We even managed to celebrate our 1st aniversary @ East Coast Park Chalets with a massive BBQ, quite a good turnout. Played drinking games and had tons to eat and drink...that was 1 of the fun times of audit.

They were my most fun times I had while in audit, and now that I am in Sydney, I miss them all. Well life goes on...

posted by Darren at 11:57 AM