[Anonymous]

A partner for a firm I intend to interview with this fall said something to the effect of “the social/people aspect of auditing is more important in a lot of ways than the technical side”. Is this true?? If I were giving a grade I would be an A in social/people skills and C+ in technical skills. Would a candidate be better off if they were a C in social/people skills and an A in technical skills? I’m looking to see how much soft skills are valued and how much learn technical skills are acquired on the job.

[y_u_no_pass]

I've heard a lot of talk about soft skills. The problem is they are difficult to measure or evaluate, so sometimes hard skills are given more weight whether fair or not. I tend to have the opposite issue- good hard skills, but weaker soft skills. I have been working on them for years. I think anything can be developed, but generally speaking soft skills may be harder to train and develop, which is why employers value them. But soft skills are also more difficult to measure, so sometimes they are not given appropriate weight in evaluating candidates.

Florida CPA!
Took final exam 2/25/15.
Sent in Application 3/12/15.
Issued License 3/20/15.
Used CPA Excel solely for all exams.

[Anonymous]

Yeah I agree, tough to measure. It's one of those things too where you either have them or you don't. The partner I spoke with on the phone said I “come off well” and sounds like “you don't have any issues carrying meaningful conversation”. Again, maybe that's important enough to build around provided I had some technical aptitude. Almost easier to train technical stuff vs social stuff. My buddy that's a CPA says the very best auditors he knows are the very weakest at creating working papers and analysis, but can easily understand the meaning of the numbers and even easier communicate them to the layman.

[Anonymous]

Soft skills are WAY more important than technical skills, one of those soft skills being ability to learn. I don't care how many degrees and certificates you have and how many years' experience, there will always be technical things specific to the employer that you have to learn, so I consider technical skills something that comes with time in the job. However, the soft skills seem to be “either you have them or you don't”. I wouldn't put people skills at the top of the list of soft skills, though…things like critical thinking and creative problem solving (the actual skills, not the buzz words) as well as ability to learn and adapt are, I think, the most valuable soft skills, and the hardest to teach.

[Author]

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