Aidan's Audit

Featured

How I Learned that I Want to Get Into Law

I have a pretty good relationship with my friend Leo’s dad, Russ, who is a defense attorney in the Buckhead area. When Leo invited me to come to Fulton County Superior Court to watch part of the court proceedings of one of Russ’ cases, I jumped at the opportunity. I had always known that I was mildly interested in America’s legal system, and was excited to see it in action.

The case was about a girl in her twenties who, while going 80mph in a 35mph zone, hit a car and severely injured the man inside. After being in a coma for a few days, he unfortunately died. After he was pronounced dead, she was indicted for vehicular homicide on April 1, 2019. After receiving a plea deal of five years in prison and five years of probation, she pled not guilty at her arraignment on June 6. In my opinion, this was the wrong move. The plea deal was very generous, considering the maximum sentence for vehicular homicide is 15 years. Nevertheless, that was the decision she made, and the case was dragged out for four months until the jury deliberated over the guilt of the defendant.

Leo and I were due at court at 9 AM to meet Russ and the defendant. We were almost late because I went through security without putting my coat through the metal detector, but we made it just in time. Once Leo and I got to the eighth floor, Russ, his assistant Yeisi, the defendant, and her family greeted us. It was sort of surreal to meet someone due to be convicted of homicide. She was surprisingly friendly to me and seemed pretty relaxed. In preparation for the possibility that she might be brought into custody, she was wearing comfortable clothes.

Over the next few hours, we waited outside of the courtroom to be called in for the jury to declare their verdict. Russ, Yeisi, and the defendant were brought into the room once at about 10:30 to answer two jury questions, which were not disclosed to me. While we waited, Russ made it a point to explain to me everything that was happening. He gave me a brief rundown of the litigation process, told me the defendant’s story, and explained what he thought of the plea deal, the prosecutor, and the judge.

A few more hours passed until we were finally called into the courtroom at about 1 PM. Russ requested that Yeisi, Leo, and I sit in the back of the courtroom so that we could slip out quickly at the end. After some formalities and the jury being sworn in, the jury’s foreman read the verdict: guilty on all three counts, homicide by vehicle, reckless driving, and speeding. After the verdict was read, the victim’s family read a victim impact statement about their son as one last appeal to pathos before the sentence was entered. Both the Russ and the prosecutor were given a chance to make suggestions/requests to the judge. The prosecutor proposed that she be sentenced to the full 15 years with seven years of probation. Russ requested that the defendant be allowed to drive after one year of probation. After the requests, the judge told the defendant that if she had taken responsibility or expressed any remorse, she would be lenient in her sentence because she was a first-time offender. However, she claimed that since the defendant was not taking responsibility and did not express any regret about what she had done, she was not going to be easy on her. The judge then sentenced her to five years in prison, with seven years of probation, and the defendant was cuffed and taken into custody. As she was being escorted out, her mother yelled “shameful!” After that, Russ signaled for us to walk out of the courtroom with him.

Once we made it out of the room, he walked over to the prosecutor and gave him and handshake. I couldn’t make out what he said, but it seemed like an amiable, respectful conversation. Afterward, he came back to us and talked about how everything went. He pointed out that he thought the prosecutor’s plea deal wasn’t good because it wasn’t any better than the sentence that she was given after pleading not guilty. After a criminal serves sixty percent of their prison sentence, they are eligible for parole, and sixty percent of five years is three years, which was the same as the plea deal. He also mentioned how it was very likely that the defendant’s mother would appeal the case, which did actually happen. There will be a status conference toward the end of February.

I’m delighted I went. It was a very educational experience for me, and I was flattered that Russ took so much time to explain to me how everything worked and what he thought. Seeing everything first hand, instead of on TV or in a book, was very intriguing to me and inspired me to look into how I can make a career in law. Currently, my plan is to finish my BBA in Finance and Accounting and then complete a hybrid graduate program that will allow me to get my MBA and JD in three years. Eventually, after working for ten or so years, I’d like to get into politics as a representative or senator. Life is very unpredicable, and plans change, but I’m so excited about what my future holds.

What My Goals are and What Success Looks Like to Me

My main career goal at this point in my life is to have a successful career in public accounting at one of the Big 4 accounting firms, that is PwC, KPMG, EY, or Deloitte. I’d like to start off working in an audit department and then climb the ladder to manager or senior manager. At that point, I will likely consider applying for an executive position at an industry company. I’m really exited about the future because I have actually been offered internship positions at EY and Deloitte in their audit departments. This is extra cool for me because at the end of the internship, the vast majority of interns are offered a full time position. This will allow me to transition right into a full time job at one of my dream companies as soon as I finish college.

To me, success is made up of multiple factors. The most important factor is financial stability. Growing up in a family that did not have a lot of money has given me a lot of anxiety about money and being able to keep up with my bills. There is nothing I want more in life than to not have to worry so much about money. My next most important factor is enjoying where I am working and continuing to learn. If I ever get into a position in which I stop learning, I will be unhappy. Finally, the last factor of success to me is having enough money to own a few very nice cars and travel the world. Cars and travel are my passions, and if you aren’t happy outside of work, your life will likely not be fulfilling.

In one year, I will have just completed my internship and will likely be going back to work as a server. After my internship ends in March, I’d like to do a maymester study abroad before summer classes start in June. In three years, I will be working full time as an Audit/Assurance Associate at whichever firm I chose to intern with. I will also be working on my masters degree and preparing to take the CPA exams. In 5 years, I should be a Senior Auditor at the firm and be on the path to Manager. Reaching Senior manager is where I believe I will start meeting all three of my factors of success.

“I Love it When a Plan Comes Together”

My entire life, I have been plagued with anxiety that I will not be enough, that I won’t work hard enough, that my grades won’t be good enough, that I won’t learn enough, that I won’t land the job, that I won’t get a Porsche, and so on.

I think some of that may be rooted in my upbringing. I often felt like I could never please my parents. I wasn’t going to be a pastor, I wasn’t going to go to Christian college, and frankly nothing in my life would have anything to do with Christianity. I also think that part of my inadequacy anxiety comes from the fact that I want so much from life. Whenever I don’t do my best on something, it makes me feel like that bright future that I want so much is slipping away.

This feeling of inadequacy was very strong during my freshman year of college. I wanted to be the most competitve student ever. I worked hard and wanted a 4.3 GPA. The year went on and I worked hard, but only achieved a 4.24. I knew that this was an incredible GPA, but for some reason I felt let down that I couldn’t achieve perfection. It literally made me feel like my future was once again on the line.

This year has been a different story. I wanted to change. The pursuit of perfection was too exhausting and disappointing. At the beginning of my sophomore year, I told myself that I needed to calm down a little bit and realize that perfection is not attainable for any of us. And you know what? It worked. I focused less on my grades, and more on just making sure that I was working hard, and it helped lower my stress levels. I’ve found that if I work my hardest, even if it isn’t perfection, I will still be doing very well.

This year is also the first time in my life that I have really begun to make strides towards my goals. For starters, I applied for internships at PwC, KPMG, EY, and Deloitte, and actually got offers from my two favorite firms, EY and Deloitte. I remember thinking during freshman year that I could never work at Deloitte. I thought my grades and my resume would not be good enough. Fast forward a year, and executives at these companies have liked me enough to want me to be part of their teams. In addition to the internships, I made it into the exclusive Panthers in the District cohort. This is a cohort of 16 students who are selected from a pool of over 200 applicants to go through six months of professional development sessions. The process culminates in a four day trip to Washington D.C. in which we get to rub shoulders with executives at some of the best workplaces in the District.

This has been an incredible year of growth, and I’ve finally had to opportunity to see that my work is actually paying off. It’s been so fun to see myself becoming what I’ve wanted and securing the future I’ve always dreamt of. This just goes to show you, if you really work hard, your plans will come together.

Protected: My Personal Statement

Well this was unexpected…

If you had told me two months ago that COVID-19 would have this profound of an effect on my life, I would’ve laughed. At that point, I knew that the illness was spreading fast and was killing thousands of people, but I felt very detached from the situation. The epicenter was on the other side of the planet. Fast forward to today, and I have been forced to move back in with my family in Savannah, where I’ve been doing my schoolwork online. I didn’t sign up for this. Then again, none of us did. In times like these, complaining is that much more pointless, because we’re all going through it.

Compared to some other people, I have it pretty well. My mom owns a business with online operations, and my dad is an “essential” worker, so their income has not changed. I am now unemployed, but I applied for unemployment and am just saving it for when I move back to Atlanta in June. We are still having a hard time finding what we need at the store, and my dad is concerned about working in these conditions, but at least none of our bills will go unpaid. In addition to that, I have a place where I can stay. At least I’m not an international student who couldn’t return home.

As for how COVID-19 has affected my industry, very little has changed. Despite the pandemic, the capital markets must still be held accountable, and annual reports are still due. I’m very impressed with how the auditing industry is doing during this time. I’ve been in touch with members of my network who work at PwC, Deloitte, and EY, and they have all said that their jobs have transitioned very well to their new work-at-home settings. They are actually becoming concerned with whether or not coming to the office is a necessity! A managing director I know from Deloitte said that it will be interesting to see what will happen after all of this is over, because if anything, it has shown us that the industry can handle this kind of obstacle.

What is an Auditor and Why do they Matter?

White-collar and corporate crimes are some of the hardest crimes to bring to justice. There are two reasons for this is. The first is because it is challenging to find out who was behind the crime. If it is determined that a company has been recording its liabilities as equity, to increase its liquidity, it will be difficult to isolate the perpetrators because the whole accounting department cannot be held responsible. The second reason is that companies act very quickly to fix problems before anyone notices that they have occurred. Big companies do not want anyone to know about white-collar or corporate crimes that have been committed, because they want to preserve their reputation among their stockholders. If word gets out that an executive has been embezzling money, or the accounting department has been baking the books, the stock price will plummet.

The process of internally mitigating these crimes can sometimes be complicated because the ownership of the company, it’s stockholders and board of directors, are generally very out of the loop regarding the daily operations of their company. This disconnect is called information asymmetry, and it occurs when the management of the company knows more than the ownership. This is where auditors come in. Auditors, specifically external auditors, work to bridge the gap between the management and the ownership to shed some light on the operations of the company and expose whether or not the financials fairly represent the position of the company.

There are two types of auditors, internal and external. Internal auditors work for the company that they are auditing to ensure that the financials are being reported accurately. These auditors report to the management, and their findings are not posted to the public. On the other hand, external auditors work for an auditing firm, such as Deloitte or PwC, and are hired by the board of directors. External auditors report to the board of directors, and eventually, the public.

At the end of the audit, which can take months, the external auditing team publishes an opinion about whether the company’s financials fairly represent the company. This opinion is part of the company’s annual report, which is available to the public. There are three types of opinions: unmodified, qualified, and adverse. The “clean” unmodified opinion means that the auditors found nothing wrong with the company’s financials and internal control. A qualified opinion suggests that the company’s financials are mainly good except for some errors in accounting policy, presentation, or estimates. A qualified opinion is not good, but it will not break a company. Finally, an adverse opinion is bad and means a company’s accounting system has significant errors that are painting an inaccurate picture to the stockholders about how the company is doing financially. An adverse opinion will likely break a company, which is what happened in the early 2000s with WorldCom. After an $11 billion accounting fraud was exposed by their auditing firm, Arthur Andersen, the CEO was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison, the stock price plummeted, they were severely fined by the SEC, and declared bankruptcy in 2002. The WorldCom remains the biggest accounting scandal in US history.

The function of an auditor is vital. If no one investigated the accounting systems of major corporations, the entire stock market would be based on baked books and fallacious growth metrics. While most people think that being an auditor sounds less exciting than watching paint dry, I believe that it is fascinating. I was first exposed to the auditing profession during my Perspectives 2002 class. Since then, I have been working hard to position myself as a strong candidate to work for one of the Big Four auditing firms; Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, or EY. Each of these firms has offices in Atlanta, and I am currently in the candidacy process to become a summer intern at PwC and KPMG.