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Reflecting on the recent peak @ work I had to go through.....

Alright...... let me see where to start. :)

It all started when I got seconded to help another manager. At that time all I knew was he had a really, really low supply of staff. So at that time, being so junior in the firm I thought to myself, "How tough can it be?? Besides, I probably just end up doing the same ole' senior assisting stuff a.k.a. senior say do, I do kind of thing."

But.........

I was wrong. Dead wrong! Senior was maxed out with other clients to handle, so there was no senior for the early substantial part of the engagement. And I had to learn to guide a fellow new-comer, which was not easy considering I was only slightly more experienced than her (combining my experience as a vacation trainee before, and whatever experience I had accumulated since I joined in October 2006).

It was a bumpy start to the audit. Client's staff were not too friendly, and somewhat hostile. Eventually, things got better as we got to know each other better. But in terms of workload, things got pretty rough. I was still working and trying to handle the complexities of the engagement step by step. It was not easy..... believe me. 'Overwhelming' was the feeling I got deep down in my heart. But, I was still ignorant regarding what was about to come...........

.......and what came about?

Things moved from low gear to high gear when my senior informed me that I had to assist in doing a more complex task. More complex than I expected alright! It was pretty complex to the point I had to dig out my text books from my university days to help me get into the task at hand. That task, was pretty much every accounting students' worse nightmare - consolidation (if you are an accountant, or accountant-to-be I can see your grin, yeaaa, you reading this blog)!

Deadlines got really tight - at one point my senior and I worked for thirty six hours, and the whole team ended up staying over at the office. Even to the very last minutes of our deadline, amendment were still coming in. Eventually, we got it done and we all gave a huge breath of relief.

I guess, this pretty much sums up my peak period for the first half of the year 2007.

Conclusion - I learned a lot about leading, being a team player and assisting a manager in his job. It was tough, but I believe I benefited from the experience. In addition, I intend to carry along this experience in hope to improve the quality of my work as a whole and to assist other seniors and managers!

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