Crazy week!

So.....work. Well, let's see. There were about 12 new hires in my training group, and there are three of us in IARCS, which is Internal Audit, Regulatory and Compliance Services. If you have no idea what that is, well, neither do I. I mean, I have a general description. Internal audit is like external audit except we audit internal controls, processes, technology, policies, and financial statements. The Regulatory and Compliance Services part means we consult on Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance for the companies. I'll have a better idea of what it is we do exactly in a couple of months, and I'll update as I learn more. But the thing is, these things aren't really covered in accounting classes. I'm the only accounting major in my group, so I'm probably a little more familiar with some of the concepts and frameworks we use, but we're all pretty much internal audit idiots right now. It should be interesting. I'm not worried or discouraged, though, because there are a lot of people in internal audit, and I'm sure they all entered without any idea what they'd be doing, too, and now they all seem to be just fine!

I know the weather's bad in Lubbock. We've had some weather here, too. So Monday was my first day, and the roads were REALLY icy. KPMG delayed opening until 10:00, but all of the new hires had no way of knowing that, so we showed up on time and ended up waiting for our stuff to start late. We met our transitional coaches and performance managers. Mine are both very nice...Richa and Jamele.

Tuesday, we went in and had our HR orientation. It was...not exciting. Then, we spent the rest of the day working on our online training. There are a ton of short "courses" we have to complete. They're long and boring, and they're all on the computer. After three straight days of doing that, my eyes are killing me.

Wednesday, the weather was bad again. Of course, most of the new hires still didn't have voicemail set up so we showed up at 8:00 only to learn that the office was delayed until 10:00. We got to work on our online training because we were all alone and had nothing else to do. Then, at 9:00 (after we'd all set up our voicemail), we got the message that the office was delayed until 12:00! So we used about an hour of our downtime to explore the area. We found the skywalks and tunnels that led to the food courts around the area. It's a pretty neat system!

Today, Hsin-mei (one of the other IARCS new hires) and I went out to Atmos Energy here in Dallas. That's were we are assigned for March through May. We met the team, had lunch, and continued working on our online training. We're out there again tomorrow, then we have the rest of January and February without anything scheduled, so we'll see where we end up for those weeks. Our performance managers are looking for somewhere to send us.

Sunday, we're all off to NYC for a week of advisory training with all of the US advisory new hires. I'm looking forward to that because I've never been to NYC in the winter! It's going to be so cold, but it will be partly sunny all week, so it should be nice. I LOVE New York!

Um, other details...I'm living way out in Sachse with my cousins. It's a long commute, but it's not too bad, and it's a good living arrangement. I drive about 20 minutes to the DART line then ride in for about 30 minutes. I get off about two minutes from the KPMG building. Of course, we're not in the building that often since we're always out at clients, so my commute will change a lot.

I think that's about all for this week. The weather's going to get bad again this weekend, but I'm pretty jealous that Lubbock's going to get a record snowfall. THAT'S where I want to be! That is, until Sunday when I'm off to NY!