If you’re an auditor looking to expand your career opportunities, making the switch to a transaction advisory services role could be a great move. Transaction services encompass a wide range of accounting and finance functions. Specifically, the most common path for auditors is to move into financial due diligence, which can also be called deal advisory, accounting due diligence, or transaction advisory.
As an auditor, you already have a strong foundation around understanding financial statements, asking good questions, investigating and assessing risk, and digging into details. Leveraging this base knowledge to land a job in transaction services allows you to get closer to the action while working on impactful projects and actually helping your clients rather than being a thorn in their side. However, the transition does take effort and preparation.
Analyzing the Differences
While auditing primarily focuses on compliance, transaction services is more advisory / consulting based. Audits also concentrate on historical data versus while transaction advisory focuses on historical information with the larger picture in mind towards future projections and valuation. Here are some key variances between the two roles:
- Workload – Transaction services can experience extreme peaks and valleys in work volume around deals. The schedule is largely unpredictable, but slow times are extremely laid back. However, tight deadlines are common with transactions. On the contrary, audit is relative stable and is tied to cycles of year end and quarterly filings.
- Critical Thinking – In transaction services, you apply more creative problem solving versus following audit procedures. This includes building financial models from scratch, investigating potential issues and using pattern recognition versus checking them for accuracy/compliance.
- Client Interaction – Transactions require more intimate and consistent client interactions to deeply understand the business issues, discuss findings in real time, and provide meaningful advice. Auditor independence limits this in traditional audit roles, and is largely confined to audit requests and internal control discussions.
- Team Dynamics – Transactions center around deal teams formed for specific engagements. While these teams are generally consistent, they can vary from deal to deal based on staffing needs and expertise. You also work more independently versus the hierarchical auditor job ladder.
- Technical Skills – Auditing emphasizes GAAP, IFRS, and testing skills. Transactions demand excellent excel abilities, due diligence expertise, financial analysis, as well as accounting.
Taking Action on Your Transition
When transitioning from audit to transaction services, it is important to evaluation your wants and future career goals.
- Decide Why You Want to Make the Switch: Beyond expanding your skillsets or work variety, reflect on your underlying motivations and end goals from a career transition. This clarity will fuel you through job search and learning curves in a new role. Ultimately, a career in transaction advisory services (financial due diligence), is very rewarding and will open up many more doors than audit.
- Understand the Skills Required to Make the Transition: Job listings, connections in transaction services, mentors, and online guides like this one can outline key hard and soft skills critical for transaction roles and help prepare you for the interview.
- Ask for Exposure Opportunities: Seek out rotations, lateral moves, or new assignments within audit that involve M&A transactions.
- Enroll in Relevant Training: Many formal training programs exist both within public accounting firms and via third parties focused specifically on transaction services skills.
- Align with a Transaction Services Mentor: Find an engaged mentor who currently works in transaction advisory. Have them take a look at your resume, help you make connections, land informational interviews, and discuss the case study.
- Evaluate Public vs. Corporate Roles: Transaction work spans both public accounting firms handling buy and sell side due diligence as well as in-house corporate development groups for companies and private consulting firms. Research both sides as you consider work preferences. There can be significant salary differences between firms. Geographic limitations may also dictate options.
The Bottom Line
Breaking into transaction advisory services brings tremendous career expansion opportunities. In your transition to transaction advisory, you will leave behind compliance-focused auditing and move towards elevating financial statements, deal dynamics, and critical thinking abilities. Businesses need professionals with sound technical skills coupled with instincts to advise around high-risk, time-sensitive transactions both on the sell-side and buy side. Be sure to proactively address your skill gaps and use all resources available to you throughout your career transition.
Interviewing for FDD Jobs?
Practice makes perfect. The best way to prepare for an FDD interview is to practice. First, you will need to nail down your understanding of the process and goals of financial due diligence. Next, you will need to learn how to analyze a business with an eye toward identifying red flags and potential quality of earnings adjustments. Finally, you will need to work on your ability to present your findings in a clear, concise, and confident manner.
Leverage our free resources or complete financial due diligence interview guide to help you prepare for all of these items
