I’m a Career Coach who is passionate about helping early-career professionals navigate corporate life and ultimately, get promoted. I share strategies, frameworks, and insights I wish I’d had when I started. But today, I want to be transparent with you, because understanding me helps you understand why I teach what I do, and how I …
How to Get Promoted at Work Quickly: The 5 Basics You Need to Know
If you’re a few years into your graduate scheme or early career, you’ve probably been told promotions are annual, at a steady pace. What if I told you, that doesn’t have to be true? I achieved Big 4 Audit Manager in 3.75 years, where the typical pathway is 5 years. This was one of the fastest …
Networking When It Feels Awkward: How to Actually Get Started
Networking can feel uncomfortable and especially so at the start of your career. You’ve probably been told it’s “essential” for growth, promotion, or opportunity, but no one really explains how to do it without feeling like you’re faking it or maybe worse, bothering people who already seem so busy. I get it. I’ve been there. …
How to Navigate the Corporate World: A Practical Guide for Early-Career Professionals
Starting out in the corporate world can almost feel like walking into the unknown. Between formal hierarchies, “unwritten rules”, and the pressure to prove yourself, it’s easy to feel uneasy. There’s no handbook that tells you how to act or present yourself. It doesn’t really form part of formal training either. It’s especially tricky to …
11 Best Tips For Surviving Busy Season – External Audit New Joiners
For those of you who are unfamiliar with busy season, this is essentially the time of year where external auditors are at their busiest. It is the year-end period of an external audit where there can be tight deadlines to be met. This is where you will hear the horror stories about working into the …
My First University Careers Talk – Jag’s Journey
I probably sound like a broken record at this point but last Thursday was my first Thursday “off” from posting blogs after 53 weeks! You would think I might have decided to take it easy now that I will only be posting fortnightly but oh no, I instead did my first ever careers talk. Through …
Big 4 Transaction Services Secondment Opportunity
Earlier this year, I came across an internal secondment opportunity within Transaction Services (TS). If you are not familiar with TS or what they do, I will of course be sharing this information with you. This six-month secondment is not something I went out looking for but it did grab my attention. After hearing more, …
10 Essential Excel Tips and Tricks For Finance Professionals
Before starting my role as an external auditor, I did not expect to use Microsoft Excel in my job as much as I do (almost daily). Excel is used to document the majority of testing from the audit side. However, our clients within the finance team also tend to use Excel for their own calculations …
11 Big 4 Interview Tips to Pass with Flying Colours
After interviewing for jobs since the age of sixteen, I would like to think I am actually pretty good at interviews by this point. I have worked my way through many roles: a drinks maker, an events promoter, a business analyst, a secondary school Maths teacher, to finally in September 2018, landing myself an external …
A Career in External Audit – An Insightful Deep Dive into “What is Audit?”
Do you want to know more about a career in external audit? I am currently an external audit assistant manager at a Big Four firm and wanted to pull this blog together to give you an insight into the role. Before I get into the details, you should know that I started my graduate scheme …