I have auditor friends (lots of them in fact), having been once myself. It is not something that I am particularly proud of, considering I only get grimacing smiles from strangers when I recount my experience like a Russell Lee true horror tale. If there is ever such a word called office bondage, it would be most apt to describe the plight of most of them.
Often plagued with constant deadlines-nightmares, late night OTs, angry reconciliations with girlfriends after paper reconciliations, heavy eyebags and pimple outbreaks, they truly deserve the public's respect and sympathy.
Sadly, few truly appreciates the 'dirty and gritty work' that we do. Often, we tend to elevate our status during networking/gatherings for the sake of 'branding' (just like how a pretentious zi-char stallowner calls himself a chef or a salesman introducing himself as an evangelist). Honestly, I'm not sure if I feel better when people project us in a more favourable light.
I must say I am used to listening to feigned exclamations of 'wa, you earn a lot right?' and people rubbing cliched stories of their friends-brothers-mistress-son earning 5 digit pay as a senior associate.
Sorry to point out, I have yet to climb to the upper echelon of the audit hierarchy and perhaps, I never will.
