Crowe Virtual Watercooler Series

Since the beginning of this pandemic, working remotely has made it difficult for all of us to remain connected to colleagues and maintain a sense of community. 

Regularly keeping in touch with everyone in your team is a challenge and it is especially difficult to replicate those moments in the office where you get a chance the catch up with colleagues from other departments. 

While the experience has been tough for all of us, it is especially difficult for our new trainees starting their first full-time job and other employees who have joined the firm since March of last year.

Over the past few months, we have rolled out a successful series of virtual watercooler catch-up chats. This is where staff join informal sessions that enable all of us to check in online with each other, meet new colleagues and share our respective lockdown experiences as we start to emerge from COVID restrictions and look forward to a reopening of the office in the coming months. 

We have decided to extend this to a series of informal five-minute interviews with a range of staff across the firm. Thanks to all those that have agreed to take part.

If you would like to put your experience to work and grow your career with Crowe, check out the career section of our website to find out more about our exciting vacancies we currently have. 

Audit Manager Lisa Byrne 

We get a five minute catch up with Lisa Byrne, who joined our audit department in at the beginning of April 2021, to find out a little about her and how she is getting on.

Briefly, what is your career background? 
Qualified ACA in KPMG then moved abroad living in Canada and London, where I worked in practice, predominantly in the energy and resources market. I returned to Ireland in 2016 and continued in practice. Working in practice is where I want my career to develop, my end goal is to continue to progress and maybe one day be a partner. 

Why Crowe?
Two things. The opportunity to develop my career in the direction I want and then the people. On meeting the recruitment team, I got a real sense of the culture and type of people that work in Crowe. Easy to talk to, always someone on hand to answer questions, friendly and fun. 

How have you found your first month? 
Great, obviously the virtual onboarding was a little nerve racking at first, but the IT systems and people have made it really easy for me. 

What has been your ‘lockdown’ experience?
I had a lockdown baby! I now have three children under the age of three, so I was never going to be far from home anyway! It has made me realise that being a mum and working is the toughest job. I now really admire the sacrifices that some women make by taking a career break to raise their children, it is the toughest but possibly the most rewarding job.

What’s your hidden talent? 
I love singing but not in public!  

What’s your guilty pleasure? 
All things shopping. I love my retail therapy!

Your best Lockdown TV show
Line of Duty – but I wait for the series to finish and then binge.