[Tootsie]

Today is my first day of busy season, yay! I work at a big four accounting firm. This week is supposed to be slow because we won’t actually get any work until Friday, so I’ve been told that I can study REG. Yay? LOL.

So everyone’s that’s working in busy season or has before, what do you do during slow times? Study, surf the net?

FAR - 76
AUD - 88!!! DONE!!!!!!!!
BEC - 76
REG - 77

never, never, never give up

[Anonymous]

Heh, I'm guessing by the fact that you're cheering your first day of busy season that you're a first year? Good luck. I'm still in big 4, but transferred two years ago to a custom modeling group that has no busy season. Don't miss audit at all.

Toward the end of my first busy season, I remember watching a girl sitting across the conference table from me just break out in tears, and run out of the room. Turns out she ran to the manager of the project and basically told her she was on her way to HR to quit. Granted this isn't the norm, and that client was particularly bad with quite a few issues. I only had a couple weeks on that one as I was pulled on after my “main” busy season client. We were easily pulling 80+ hour weeks on that one, and I'm guessing working two months without a weekend finally made that girl snap.

That said, I'm sure you'll be fine. Good luck with your first busy season. Your client really makes or breaks your experience. For the most part (excluding times I was pulled in on clients like the one above when extra staff was needed), I was assigned to the same clients for my busy seasons, and I was really only doing ~60 hours.

[Tootsie]

@Aviator, yep I'm a first year. Been here for 5 months. My team so far has 3 people, and they are nice and curse a lot, lol. The manager does not want to work on the weekends, so I'm sure we'll be working our butts off during the week. I am here for 8 weeks, 7 of which will be hell. I'm thinking I'll be working around 60 hours/week. We'll see.

That is very sad about the girl you mentioned. Hope that doesn't happen to me. I am the only girl on the team too, so this will be interesting! Supposed to pick up 3 other people soon.

FAR - 76
AUD - 88!!! DONE!!!!!!!!
BEC - 76
REG - 77

never, never, never give up

[Anonymous]

These kind of stories make me wanna go into PA. lol. I'm a sadist…lol

[Anonymous]

I'm sure you'll be fine. Like I said, the project I mentioned was very much out of the ordinary, and the client had many issues. Everyone was really burnt-out and snappy by the time I rolled on (both on the engagement team and client contacts included), and it was just a really toxic environment. Just keep a positive attitude, and don't feel shy about asking for help if you need it. Your seniors/managers would rather spend a bit of time explaining a process to you than having you spin your wheels for a few hours if you're confused.

Also, you'll find 60 hour weeks really aren't that bad. During my busy seasons we generally did 8AM-8PM Monday – Thursday, 8AM – 6PM on Fridays, then a few hours at home during the weekend. You'll most likely have some half days during the weekends towards the end of the project.

[HumanPiranha]

Yay?

Eff that noise.

[Anonymous]

For Norm how long the busy season last and from when to when?

Thanks!

[palal9923]

I usually surf the net when I am not busy, and as far as time to study- we are busy also, but I just tell them that I am going home to study and they looked at me pretty pissed off – O well 😀 gotta do whats right for you I guess 🙂

[Tootsie]

@palal9923, the norm seems to be to stay late even if you have no work, lol. It's just plain crazy. I just keep asking if there is anything I can help with until they finally say I am free to go.

FAR - 76
AUD - 88!!! DONE!!!!!!!!
BEC - 76
REG - 77

never, never, never give up

[Author]

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