Coaching Culture at PwC

This was a very fun and very busy week in the Waterloo office. There were recruiting events at the two local universities, a dinner for recipients of a firm-wide achievement award, and the completion of the 2011 UFE for five writers, and of course, the subsequent social committee event to celebrate the end of the UFE...And yes somewhere amongst all that we completed client work! In fact as an aside, I had a great learning opportunity this week because my largest client acquired a company in France so I was involved in the audit of the acquisition.

Professional Development @ PwC

This is the time of year at the firm where everyone gets the chance to sit back and really think about what they’ve achieved so far during their time with the firm and about what they want to achieve professionally over the course of the coming year. Professional development and coaching are a significant part of everyone’s role at PwC and as a means of facilitating these and keeping them a priority on everyone’s plate, we set goals on an annual basis and reflect on our progress of achieving these goals on a regular basis. Now is the time of year that we set goals and since this is what I was doing directly before I starting composing this blog, I figured it be another great topic of discussion.

Putting ourselves in each others' shoes

 After helping out at a recruiting session two years ago as a summer student, I really found that I was passionate and interested in this area, and knew that I wanted to get involved. Personally, I believe that one of the best parts of my job is being able to connect with students like you, and help to attract some of the brightest students to PwC. Since it was not too long ago that I was in your position, it makes perfect sense for me to talk about one of the four behaviours within the PwC Experience - putting ourselves in each others' shoes.

FAQs at Info Sessions

I found myself on my old stomping grounds this week (London, ON) as a member of the Consulting & Deals representative team at the BMOS and Ivey info sessions. As much as it made me feel old (since not too long ago at all, I was one of the eager, bright-eyed students at the very same event), I really enjoyed the chance to address students’ questions about PwC and about the CA Training Office Program. This week, I’d like to share some of my thoughts on the most common questions students were asking me at the event.

Get Paid to Learn!

One of the best parts of working at PwC is all of the educational opportunities and support programs that are offered to help you learn and develop your technical knowledge. Aside from the typical CASB training that is offered, the Tax CA program enables Tax CA’s to build their technical skills through: The mentorship program, the apprenticeship programs, the advanced tax classes, and the conferences and seminars.

UFE support... It’s everywhere at PwC!

I’m in the middle of marking some practice UFEs for a couple of our UFE writers and thought that it was a great idea to share with you the amount of support we offer at PwC to our UFE writers!  I remember when I was going through recruiting.  There were so many of us asking questions about the UFE process, the UFE support, and what the UFE is really like.  At that point in life, I just remember the UFE being this big, scary, unknown exam and it seemed next to impossible that I would ever be ready to write such an exam!  However, PwC resources were there right from the beginning.  Keep reading to hear about some of the support we offer.

Coaching at PwC

When you first start working at PwC, you will undergo a formal training program called Assurance1.  This is a great opportunity to get oriented with the firm, PwC audit methodology and meet your fellow awesome new starts.  You get a ton of information about auditing during this one to two week session so it will probably seem overwhelming.  If you’re anything like me, you will probably think, “How am I ever going to remember all of this? And I thought corporate tax at university was hard!”

UFE Time!

It was that time of the year this week – another UFE has come and gone.  Our UFE writers wrote this Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  I thought that since the UFE was this week, I’d talk a little bit about my UFE experience as well as what PwC does for our UFE writers to help prepare them to tackle this crazy professional exam.

UFE Support at PwC

I looked at the date a few days ago and realized that next week is the UFE and had a mild heart attack. For those of you who don’t know, the UFE (Uniform Final Evaluation) is the final exam you write in order to get your CA. It is a three day long exam – the first day is one five hour long question, then remaining two days are three questions for four hours each day. I wrote a few years ago and I still get panicked when it’s UFE time.

We Don’t Just Audit, Especially in the Summer!

Summertime is usually everyone’s favourite time of the year, because it is the most popular time to go on vacation. In my case, I had a blast this summer not only during my time off in August, but because of the new and different things I got to do inside the office: coach, mark, and train!