What sort of tasks does a first year do while working in assurance? Is there anything you wish you knew?

Hi Harry, hope you are well! In your first year you get given a lot of different responsibilities. Tasks can include the following: performing walkthroughs with clients (this is where you go through the various processes the client has for different accounts), performing testing over lower risk areas like expense and cash testing, preparing documentation for the planning stages of an audit e.g. researching the client and its environment.

Its a steep learning curve and one thing I wish I was told was that everyone is in the same situation and that your first year is the year of asking questions! The seniors on your engagement will always be willing to help and its always impressive when someone wants to do better/ keen to complete a task correctly.