Flying Start Review

I'm a student enrolled on the BA Accouting and Business course at Reading university which involves placements at PwC. When on placement, I'm a Flying Start working in the assurance sector of the company. Day to day this means being part of a team conducting audits at various other companies. Also, it does sometimes involve other tasks such as performing stock counts.

The university side of the degree, when finished, exempts me from 12 of the 15 accountancy exams needed to be able to become chartered. Whilst on placement, I developed many audit skills and additional knowledge through performing work and additional e-learns.

The university side of the course allows me to have the uni experience and enjoy the social side that comes with that. However it is noticably harder than most other course as the content is challenging, and so result in additional stress. On placement, there is a friendly and happy work environment with a lot of support from other colleagues. I enjoyed and acheived more on placement than I was execting to, and really enjoyed it.

PwC does its upmost to support you and make you feel important whilst on placement. You start on the lowest level of the team and so do tasks which are simple and straightforward in the perspective of other team members, but you are never made to feel as if you are of less importance. There is a culture of team work throughout PwC and so its a team contribution, not just individual.

It is very well organised and structured. Placement and lecture dates are distributed to us promptly and we have dedicated people on both the PwC and University side to organise us. When on placement, you are allocated to jobs and a timetable of those are on a system which you can log onto at any time to see where you are working.

You are provided with a personal tutor at university who you have regular progress meetings with. They answer any questions you have promptly and without making it seem like an inconvenience. In addition, there is a buddy scheme where you are given a person in the year above you to ask any questions to or ask advice.

At PwC, you are given a people manager who have regular meetings/phone updates with you to dicuss your progress and any feedback you have received. Also you are allocated a Flying Start Champion who is there to answer any other queries. There is a general additude to encourage support between colleagues whilst working.

You are provided with a generous salary whilst working and PwC provides various benefits. Any travel you do to clients in addition to your normal journey to the PwC office can be expensed and claimed back. Also any accomodatoin needed for away jobs is reimbursed. If you cannot live at home, you are provided with accomodation near the office free of charge.

PwC organise regular socials and other activities outside of work which range from sports teams to office away weekends. The University has a Accounting and Business society which arranges various socials which are open to all the years so can interact with many people.

Yes

PwC has many amazing oppotunities for young people looking to work towards becoming a chartered accountant. They support you throughout and adapt to your goals. With them, you arent just another placement student, you become part of the PwC team.

Show your enthusiasm, be confident in your abilities and most importnatly be yourself. PwC arent just looking for perfect but people who know there flaws and are ready to work on them.