Aidan Butler, Senior Associate Assurance, PwC

What is your name, job title and employer?

I’m Aidan Butler and I'm a senior associate at PwC.

What are the main tasks you do in your job in a normal week?

I joined the graduate program in the PWC Kilkenny office in 2016. A general day would be dealing with clients or because I work in the audit department you can either be at a client site or you can also be in the office and so you deal with the client every day. You also always work in teams so you're never working alone. The assurance department is essentially audit so we audit the financial information of the client through analytic and substantive procedures and then we team if the financial statements are reasonably stated. When you work in the Kilkenny office you have a mix of both funds experience and also industry-based clients like agriculture and construction, so you get a mix of both between the world's biggest funds and then also local clients.

What skills do you need to be successful in your role?

I think the main skills that I would use especially as my roles has come forward would be leadership and also team skills. I think team skills are the most important because you will never be working alone, from partner level all the way down to say summer intern, you're always working in teams. So I think management of people and working well with people is essential.

What do you love about your job?

The main thing that I love is that the people are so friendly so wherever I am not understanding a certain area or having difficulty with something you can go straight to any staff member and they're willing to help so it's definitely that the number one thing and at any level you can ask a question.

How did you get into your job?

I studied in the University of Limerick and completed the Business Studies degree and I actually done my co-op placement in the PWC Kilkenny office in 2015 and then I decided it was for me, so I came back to do the graduate program in 2016. The graduate program is structured in terms of you work while also doing your chartered accounting exams and so in your first year depending on what accounting exemptions you have you can either state your second set of exams called cap twos or if you haven't thought if haven't cap ones completed you do those in your first year. The contract is three and a half years, you've done a master's and you get loads of in-house support to pass the exams.

What advice would you give to a college student?

I think the main skills that I would focus on (in college) would be any teamwork projects you have. I know a lot of people don't like the teamwork side of things in college. They want their individual result however, in a work environment wherever you are you'll never be working alone so I think the main thing would be to focus on would be to try work well in teams and also just show ambition and try do the best that you can while having the social life things as well.