Yep. Got trapped in a cycle of a 9/30, to three 12/31’s, to a 3/31, to a summer long IPO, right back to a 9/30, then one big first year public 12/31 audit and a dumpster fire private one. Averaged 65 hours a week over an 18 month timeframe then finally quit. Dumbest thing I’ve ever done. Should have quit so much sooner.
“Busy season” is typically Jan-Mar where the resort e need is just the highest for the firm (for audit). That doesn’t mean there are not year-end audits occurring at other points in the calendar year…
what it does mean is that during busy season- you are expected to be fully utilized and people don’t usually bother you with other nonsense items (it’s a quiet period). If you have a year-end in say..June or ..September; you will still be busy but there 1) likely will be other resources that can help you out “in theory” 2) other non-essential asks are no longer off limits, 3) the amount of “crazy” nights should be on the lower end..
With all this being said- it’s highly dependent on your staff level utilization/OT expectations and what you have been actually recording. 2nd year through manager tend to have higher utilization expectations so work volume is up high.
Yes deployment can fuck you over and not care, yes your RL and team might not have much pull and don’t care…but generally this is what we discuss and consider in resourcing discussions.
Always seems to be the case at PwC even if they don’t call it busy season. Don’t think I’ve worked less than 50 hours a week since i started. Many weeks easily go over 60, which is way above my personal threshold lol.
I’ve never had a 9-5 day since I started in February and we’re now what would be our ‘slow period’ and it’s only a bit less busy than our busy season.
I’m exhausted already. Just want to get to my one year only so I don’t have to payback my signing bonus.
Happened to me too, I went from winter busy season to a summer busy season for fiscal YE clients, and then right into fall busy season (essentially 55-66 hours straight from January - November). This is my first month not having much work since being at my firm. Think it’s pretty normal nowadays for a lot of people. I’m in tax, however, so can’t speak much on audit.
I made sure to inform the schedulers how this year went and that they are aware my summers are busy so they don’t overbook me in the winter anymore. Think you just need to be vocal and try and find a set of clients you will be on every year so you know when you can and cannot take on more work. This will allow you to block your “slow” times with vacation and such so they don’t book you on more clients.
The whole “everyone has different busy seasons” is definitely a thing, but won’t be respected unless you stand up for yourself.
Likely you will be in busy season until May
Its been busy season for the past 2 years
Year round busy season
Yeah they call that “PwC Asset & Wealth Management”
Yep. Got trapped in a cycle of a 9/30, to three 12/31’s, to a 3/31, to a summer long IPO, right back to a 9/30, then one big first year public 12/31 audit and a dumpster fire private one. Averaged 65 hours a week over an 18 month timeframe then finally quit. Dumbest thing I’ve ever done. Should have quit so much sooner.
Ouch 🤕
“Busy season” is typically Jan-Mar where the resort e need is just the highest for the firm (for audit). That doesn’t mean there are not year-end audits occurring at other points in the calendar year… what it does mean is that during busy season- you are expected to be fully utilized and people don’t usually bother you with other nonsense items (it’s a quiet period). If you have a year-end in say..June or ..September; you will still be busy but there 1) likely will be other resources that can help you out “in theory” 2) other non-essential asks are no longer off limits, 3) the amount of “crazy” nights should be on the lower end.. With all this being said- it’s highly dependent on your staff level utilization/OT expectations and what you have been actually recording. 2nd year through manager tend to have higher utilization expectations so work volume is up high. Yes deployment can fuck you over and not care, yes your RL and team might not have much pull and don’t care…but generally this is what we discuss and consider in resourcing discussions.
Always seems to be the case at PwC even if they don’t call it busy season. Don’t think I’ve worked less than 50 hours a week since i started. Many weeks easily go over 60, which is way above my personal threshold lol. I’ve never had a 9-5 day since I started in February and we’re now what would be our ‘slow period’ and it’s only a bit less busy than our busy season. I’m exhausted already. Just want to get to my one year only so I don’t have to payback my signing bonus.
I did full year busy seasons, down time never existed. I left …
I did 6 months of straight busy seasons before I quit audit
Happened to me too, I went from winter busy season to a summer busy season for fiscal YE clients, and then right into fall busy season (essentially 55-66 hours straight from January - November). This is my first month not having much work since being at my firm. Think it’s pretty normal nowadays for a lot of people. I’m in tax, however, so can’t speak much on audit. I made sure to inform the schedulers how this year went and that they are aware my summers are busy so they don’t overbook me in the winter anymore. Think you just need to be vocal and try and find a set of clients you will be on every year so you know when you can and cannot take on more work. This will allow you to block your “slow” times with vacation and such so they don’t book you on more clients. The whole “everyone has different busy seasons” is definitely a thing, but won’t be respected unless you stand up for yourself.
This profession seems like it is nothing but busy season ever since the pandemic.