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Chief
I’m sure you know by now you have to learn new things every year as you progress the ranks. The key is to read and understand what you’re doing. The issue with associates, I find, is that they don’t read their workpapers- they just go straight to rolling forward and testing or say “this is new to me” without giving it a shot. The purpose, procedure, conclusion is there for a reason.
Read, ask clarifying questions, and just do it. It’s okay to make mistake every once and awhile and learn from it. What’s not okay is to make the same mistake 3 times then get frustrated that they keep sending it back to you to revise.
Chief
I agree that a quick wp walkthrough to explain purpose and procedure is a must… but like I said, read first then ask clarifying questions after. It’s similar as going into meetings, you don’t go unprepared and not knowing anything. You read the materials first and ask what’s not clear with your senior thereafter. The senior doesn’t have the time of day to explain step1-100 to every associate staff- specially with the current over staffing environment.
You’d be surprised to know there are still second years out there where if you ask the purpose of subcash testing and they can’t give you any answer… when it’s sitting in front of them under “Purpose” and bolded. Why do they not know still? Because they were shown how to do it and jumped straight into testing instead of reading the work paper.
Rising Star
Every day you get less and less leeway so ask as many questions as you can now. Also best thing is to build a squad of peers you can ask dumb questions to and help them out in return.
Pro
As always, it depends on the context and details. What would be an example of a stupid mistake?