How do you align with our purpose
- enjoy helping others - key aspect of guiding firms - desire to understand their particular problems.
State Kreston Reeves’ purpose
Guiding our clients, colleagues and communities to a brighter future
State Kreston Reeves’ values
- understand
- look ahead
- make it personal
- be crystal clear
- be human
Explain Kreston Reeves value of ‘understand’. Why do you align?
- Curiosity (ask, listen)
- Empathy
S: tamago target market
T: decided to explore
A: talked to lecturers, foreign students, put myself in their shoes, & online research.
R: problems long-term so bad idea, useful for business planning
Explain Kreston Reeves’ value of ‘look ahead’. Why do you align?
- Anticipation & embracing change
- restaurant changing & anticipating needs but also long-term client-base e.g. dependence on students and health of UKC (ig menu).
- S: Menu often changing at restaurant
T: Avoid changes causing delays and bad customer experience (e.g. inability to answer Qs)
A: Commit dishes to memory during quiet periods
R: Customer experience is not affected.
L: Do the same for audit, commit regulatory changes to memory.
Explain Kreston Reeves’ value of ‘make it personal’. Why do you align?
- Adaptability to client’s needs.
- genuine desire to help others, so comes naturally to me
- restaurant, strange requests, “no…but”
S: Phil Soc event-planner.
T: Looked to pick events that would keep people coming.
A: Got to know everyone in society, asked them about their preferred interests / types of events. Gave me useful data (variety, activity based, topics, trips), which I implemented.
R: Attendance didn’t drop, most successful Phil Soc in years.
Explain Kreston Reeves’ value of ‘be crystal clear’. Why do you align?
- Clarity and precision in feedback to clients
- Study analytic philosophy, emphasis on this.
- lots of public phil assignments
S: presentation on theories of justification (technical).
T: make presentation clearer / more accessible.
A: narrowed focus, avoided jargon (e.g. formal logic), broke complex points into multiple slides, included geometric depictions & other pictures, encouraged questions throughout.
R: Lecturer loved it, asked to use some of slides, other students more engaged in rest of seminar.
EAS trained written communication as well
Explain Kreston Reeves’ value of ‘be human’. Why do you align?
- relationship building
- positive ‘can do’ attitude.
- partly, being friendly. partly, making it personal.
- S: often get return customers.
- T: build relationship to make them feel appreciated.
- A: remember their names, usual orders, interests.
- R: more likely to become regulars.
- L: helpful in audit, client-facing, friendly attitude helps get client support and key info.
Why do you want to work for us?
- expertise in Southeast
- expertise in NFP sector (why do you care about sector?)
- genuine commitment to having social impact (B Corp, KR foundation)
Why did you apply for work experience as well as grad scheme?
- want to learn as much about audit as I can as soon as possible.
- thought it would be a good way for me to demonstarte my potential to the firm
Why do you value integrity? Tell me about a time you have demonstrated integrity.
- Other than naturally having a strong disinclination for lying, a big motivator for me is helping others, which you can’t do if you’re dishonest with them.
- Honesty in philosophy assignments. A: explicitly highlight problems and look for solutions. R: high grades.
- High standards I set myself in philosophy
- L: take a similar approach in audit (look for solutions to poor control)
Who did you meet at Kent careers fair?
Sasha & Jack
State two softwares you will use at KR other than excel
- Datasnipper
- Mindbridge (analytics)
What audit reports have you read? What have you learnt?
Kent Cricket, Martha Trust
Real Good Food - risk to going concern of business / outlines basis for materiality / key audit matters: 1. revenue; 2. goodwill
What will your job entail in the first 12 months?
- completing certification level, maybe more?
- helping plan audits
- shadowing larger audits
- casting financial statements
- audit fieldwork (fixed assets, stock takes, bank)
- testing internal controls w mindbridge and datasnipper
- on-site visits 2-3 periods per month
What achievement have you accomplished that has made you proud?
Getting better at presentations
How have you demonstrated time management?
C: Balancing two jobs alongside studies
A: Make sure I complete assignments weeks in advance, in case I get assigned sub-editing work.
R: Meet all deadlines without having to cram
How have you demonstrated discipline?
C: high grades alongside two jobs and volunteering
A: require discipline to ensure uni commitments completed week(s) ahead of deadline in case I’m assigned projects that week or asked to cover at restaurant.
How have you demonstrated working under pressure?
- ST pressure: working at restaurant (re-framing)
- LT pressure: balancing work alongside studies, time-management. spreading learning out with flashcards.
Tell me about yourself
x
Why audit?
analytical problem solving:
1. forensic, sceptical mindset: phil: looking for misstatements, caution in claims, risk assessments.
- sceptical mindset:
- - Partly good fit for my skill-set: the two skills you get from studying philosophy are analytical and communication skills, which are most applicable skills to audit.
- Find it interesting: Realised I’ve been inventing & implementing a lot of internal controls to minimise H&S risks at restaurant and others to ensure high proof-reading quality with EAS, think that mind-set will translate well to auditing. Been doing a lot of research into audit process.
What do you know about audit?
- main objective
- audit process: who needs auditing, acceptance procedures, letter, planning, carrying out audit, report.
Questions
- Specialisms (priv. sectors)
- Unique (audit process)
Anything unique about your audit process? - Automation prep (AI)
Which three values are you most aligned with and why?
- understand
- look ahead
- be crystal clear
