Auditor
This page gives you the real story about what it's like to be a Auditor (with insights from someone who’s actually doing the job).
Your goal: Decide if this sounds interesting enough to explore further, or if it's clearly not for you. Both answers are useful!
It will take about 5 minutes to read through - by the end, you'll know if this is worth exploring or if you should look at something else.
What do they do?
An auditor checks that businesses are telling the truth about their finances. Think of them as financial detectives - they look through a company's records to make sure everything adds up and that the business is following the rules. When a company publishes its accounts, an auditor has to sign them off as accurate, which gives investors, banks, and everyone else confidence in those numbers.
Day-to-day, auditors work in teams reviewing information from clients. They're testing transactions, checking calculations, and looking at how a business operates. It’s not just the numbers, it’s how they make money, what their risks are, and whether their financial statements actually reflect reality.
It's problem-solving work. When you spot something that doesn't quite add up, you go deeper to understand what's really going on.
How much do they earn?
Salaries vary depending on the company, location, and your experience level. Here's a rough guide for control and protection engineering roles:
Apprentice (Modern/Graduate Apprenticeship) £14,000 - £25,000 per year
You're learning on the job while earning
Uni Graduate £25,000 - £32,000 per year
With Experience £35,000 - £50,000 per year
Senior Level £55,000 - £90,000+ per year
What affects your salary:
Which firm you work for - Big Four firms (PwC, Deloitte, EY, KPMG) typically pay more
Location - London salaries are significantly higher than other UK cities
Your qualifications - ACA, ACCA, or CA status brings substantial pay increases
Industry specialism - expertise in certain sectors can command premium salaries
Remember: These are approximate figures for the UK and can vary. The good news is there's clear progression as you gain experience, and many auditors move into well-paid corporate roles after qualifying..
You're curious about how businesses work
You want to understand what makes different businesses tick - how they make money, what their risks are, how different industries operate. If you find yourself genuinely interested in the business side of things when you hear about companies in the news, this could be for you.
You'll Be Successful In This Career If...
You like problem-solving
When something doesn't make sense, you want to dig into it and figure out why. You enjoy the process of investigating, testing different explanations, and getting to the bottom of things. Each client brings different puzzles to solve.
You like working within clear rules
Auditing is built around set standards and checklists, which means you’re never guessing what to do next. If you like organisation, consistency, and the satisfaction of completing work thoroughly and accurately, this kind of role might be a great fit.
You're good with numbers and detail
Not in a "I love pure maths" way necessarily, but you're comfortable working with numbers, spotting when things don't add up, and being accurate. It's described as a "numbers game" but you need precision - making careless mistakes isn't an option when you're signing off company accounts.
You work well in teams
Auditing is very collaborative - you're constantly working with other auditors, talking to clients, explaining findings to senior staff. You need to be able to communicate well, take direction, and work alongside people with different levels of experience.
The Bottom Line
If you're naturally curious about business, comfortable with numbers and accuracy, enjoy investigating problems in teams, and prefer working within clear professional standards rather than complete freedom, then auditing could be a strong fit for you.
Meet James – Auditor at PwC
James is an auditor at PwC, checking that businesses' financial statements are accurate across industries from football clubs to tech companies.
What the job actually involves
The core work is checking that a company's financial statements are accurate and comply with accounting standards. "It's a numbers game, but you need to be accurate in that numbers game," he explains.
Day-to-day, this means testing samples of transactions to verify they're legitimate, reviewing how the company records its finances, and checking that the numbers in the accounts actually match what's happening in the business.
"You work with so many different clients in every industry in the world. You would have the opportunity, if you really want to say, I want to work on auditing a football club, you know, I could realistically go and try and do that and then you understand how a business works."
Much of the work involves gathering evidence - looking at invoices, contracts, bank statements - and documenting your findings. You're constantly asking: does this transaction make sense? Is it recorded properly? Are there any red flags? It's detective work, but with spreadsheets and financial records."
Why he likes it
"There's two very separate reasons, The first one is just understanding loads of different businesses. As an auditor, especially at a sort of big firm like PwC, you work with so many different clients in every industry in the world."
"You understand how a business works and then say I wanted to go and leave PwC. I'd be a specialist in auditing, you know, in how football clubs work and I could work for that. The skills and knowledge you build are highly transferable.”
"The other thing is you really develop people a lot at PwC, which I didn't realise I really enjoyed doing until I kind of walked in the door and started doing it. It's really nice seeing how people develop. So yeah, two very different reasons. That's why I enjoy it and long may it continue."
His career journey
James's path to auditing wasn't straightforward, which is actually quite common. He studied chemical engineering at university, choosing it specifically to keep his options open.
"I was always quite sort of maths and sciency. And I just wanted to keep as many doors open as I could. I never really wanted to be like a doctor or a lawyer or anything like that or an engineer for that matter."
During his degree, he realised that while chemical engineering was interesting, it wasn't what he wanted to do long-term.
"A lot of it was just very niche and not very relevant day-to-day. I just didn't feel like I was involved in something that's actually, you know, seeing an impact day-to-day."
"At a high level I wanted to be involved in business, corporate type stuff. That's when I thought I'll maybe do a chartered accountancy, do auditing and then you can understand how businesses work."
His best advice if you want a role like this
"Learn what the job actually is," James advises. Too many people apply without really understanding what auditors do day-to-day. Do your research - talk to people in the role, read about what they actually do, understand the qualification routes.
“What Does A Typical Day Look Like?”
There is no single routine day for James, but most days sit somewhere between desk-based review work, client interaction, team collaboration, and learning.
The day often starts with planning - looking at what needs to be done on the current audit, what deadlines are coming up, and coordinating with the team on who's doing what. James might be working on multiple clients at once, so there's juggling priorities.
A chunk of time goes into focused review work. This is when you're actually going through the evidence, making sure everything checks out, and documenting what you've found. Sometimes this means going to client sites to meet with their finance teams and understand how their systems work. Other times you're at your desk working through documents they've sent over.
Team check-ins happen throughout the day. You're getting your work reviewed by more senior auditors, discussing findings, and making sure everyone's part of the audit is connecting properly. There's also time spent helping newer team members understand tasks and reviewing their work.
The learning curve is steep because clients change. Right now James might be getting his head around how a particular industry works, what the key risks are, and what he needs to test. Next month it'll be a completely different business model to understand.
Breaking that down more specifically:
Planning daily work and coordinating with the audit team
Focused time reviewing evidence and documenting findings
Client meetings - either at their sites or virtually - to gather information
Team discussions and having your work reviewed by seniors
Supporting and reviewing work from junior team members
Learning about new clients and industries as they come up
The Summary
Auditors check that businesses' financial statements are accurate and comply with accounting standards, working across different industries to verify that the numbers companies report genuinely reflect reality.
So if you're curious about how different businesses operate, comfortable with numbers and detail-focused work, enjoy investigating problems, and work well in teams, this role offers constant variety, transferable skills, and a qualification that opens doors across the corporate world.
