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What destroyed audit for me
That one piece of advice you would give your younger self
Tin Mariano
May 18, 2025
Updates on ebook project (What I Wish I Knew Before Becoming an Auditor)
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In between various projects and personal busyness in the past few weeks, I just finished a reflection on my entire audit journey. Some key insights and stories include:
what made a real difference in shaping an audit career at the start
how my secondment journey almost made me quit audit
what my career break taught me about happiness
how my move to Europe influenced me to value experiences over empty titles
what destroyed audit for me
why I chose to leave audit
I’m hoping to put all of these inside the ebook. But first, I want to know your thoughts.
Which of these stories can you relate to?
What is it you wish you would have done differently if you restarted your career as an accountant/auditor?
If you were the one writing the story, what is that #1 piece of advice you would leave to future accountants/auditors?
Here’s a special preview and an excerpt which you can read in full via Medium:
I’ve stopped doing external audits, and left my Big 4 audit job a while ago. Thus, I can finally write an honest review and reflection on my audit experience. But this is not to promote an audit career to you or to discourage you from getting into audit.
Instead, I wanted to share the key insights and stories that shaped my audit experience and identity as an auditor. After reading these insights and stories, you can decide whether an audit career is a good fit for you. I felt that audit is an easily misunderstood profession, so I wrote this to give you a glimpse of what it means to be an auditor.
The people who will benefit from reading this are recent graduates or career shifters who aim to enter a consulting or audit firm but are still indecisive about which service line.
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2014 to 2017 — The initial, turbulent years of shaping an audit career
I graduated with a BS in Accountancy. I earned my CPA title in one try. I got a perfect score in Auditing Problems during the licensure exam (to my amazement when I saw the results). And yet, my accounting studies, the CPA title, and my auditing problem score did not prepare me enough for the roller coaster ride that was my audit career.
In my first year, I joined an audit team for a client in the technology industry. Through this client, I encountered the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and its tight regulations for the first time.
I started working on Expenditures — from understanding the expenditure process to controls testing and substantive testing. The seniors directly responsible for reviewing my work and coaching me were quite diligent (if you’re reading this, I hope you’ll remember all the good stuff you did and how it helped me).
I remember getting plenty of review notes during my first time submitting an audit documentation. I also made the mistake of fixing the documentation based on those notes, but not replying to the notes. Of course, my seniors have to coach me about it, too.
In that first client, I remember one meeting we had in one of the fancy hotels…
Read the rest of this article via this link. And let me know your thoughtful, honest feedback.
Deadline extended!
Do you want to participate in my ebook project "What I Wish I Knew Before Becoming an Auditor?"
If you're a former or current auditor, share your insights and stories in three ways:
If you want to write the story yourself, feel free to do so and share the final draft no later than 31 May 2025. You can share your draft via Google link through [email protected]. (I’ll share more guidelines in case you prefer to contribute the story yourself.)
If you prefer to get interviewed for your story, you can reply to this email and share at least three availabilities for a virtual call between 10 to 25 May.
Don’t have a story to tell or no time to write/share a long piece? Get straight to the point and answer the below prompt instead (in 3-5 sentences) through this link.
What do you wish you knew before starting a career in audit?
Tin here! Welcome to Busy Season Journals, a newsletter made especially for you by a fellow accountant/auditor, adventurer, and coach-guide. I write about my adventures as an accountant and auditor and everything in between. You get deeper insights and personal stories on how to shape a happy, meaningful journey.
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What do you think of today’s newsletter? Suggestions or ideas are always welcome through [email protected].
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