Business Insight Week Review

My role varied each day of the Insight week which allowed me to experience a lot in a short space of time. The first day was an induction in Birmingham which was an opportunity to learn more about what you would be doing for the rest of the week and meet new people. The day involved numerous planned activities and useful information to prepare you for the rest of the week. The next day I was shadowing my buddy in the Manchester office. My buddy was a higher apprentice in Assurance and she gave me tasks to do on Excel. It was interesting to learn how to process the data. On the Wednesday I was completing the tasks on my own which did become mundane as the day went on. However, my buddy organised a meeting with a Director which was really interesting to hear about how he had progressed in his career at PwC. On my final day in the Manchester office I was shadowing in Tax. I enjoyed my day in tax the most because it was more in line with my interests. I also had the opportunity to listen to a telephone meeting which was insightful. Every day I wrote a blog and had an online meeting which was an opportunity to learn about how to improve our employability skills. Finally, on the Friday I went to the Leeds office for a client project. I thoroughly enjoyed this as it was an opportunity to work with new people and creatively use the skills you had learnt throughout the week.

The insight week is a great opportunity to develop skills. Throughout the week you are given numerous handouts on employability skills and the online meetings were designed to give you information on being successful in the future. This included interview tips and what qualities you need to be successful in your careers. I learnt some skills whilst shadowing but due to client confidentiality you were limited to fairly basic tasks.

The insight week exceeded my expectations. Everyone I met during my work experience was very friendly and happy to answer any questions I had. There were two other people on work experience in the Manchester office with me and we all got on really well too. The whole experience has been invaluable.

The work experience was well planned which made you feel important as a lot of effort has gone into providing you with the best week possible. You were also given a company laptop which was a large responsibility and made you feel valued by the company. Everyone had time for you and would be happy to answer your questions whether they were there on placement or a Manager. The fact that we were allowed to observe meetings made you feel highly important.

The week was very organised especially the induction and final day. However, at some points with my buddy I felt I was in the way as they wanted to get on with their work. We were given tasks to do whenever we didn't have anything assigned to us by our buddies so I was never bored. The fact we had an organised online meeting everyday gave structure and it was nice to regroup with all the other people doing the work experience. The induction was very well structured and was packed with useful information and fun exercises. The final day was also well structured as the client activity was planned well.

The induction gave us initial training and prepared us for the rest of the week. The other three days I was shadowing. The whole week was designed to give you new skills but there wasn't much training involved.

There was a lot of support available if you needed it however as we were only there for a short space of time there wasn't much need. You were given several contact numbers and your buddy was there to support you throughout the week.

I was paid a lot considering it was only a weeks work experience, which again reinforced your value to the company. The amount I was paid was more than enough to cover my costs. However, there was a lot of travel involved but this was more representative of how it would be working for PwC as there is a lot of travel involved.

As it was only for a week there wasn't much opportunities outside work. However, a few weeks after I completed the experience I received a call about how I found the week and my future ambitions with the company. You also have to opportunity to become a PwC Ambassador.

Yes

The week was very enjoyable and useful. It provided a lot of information about PwC and was a great opportunity to find out about what you would want to do for a future career. It also taught you about other options you have with the company other than applying after you've got a degree such as the apprenticeship scheme.

When applying you have to complete online tests and a phone interview. There is a lot of help and practice available for the tests. The PwC website is the most helpful so I would advise reading through everything on there carefully. For the phone interview I would keep up to date with the business news as I had a question about a story I had been following. Furthermore, I would learn about PwC as a company and a brief knowledge on what is involved in Assurance, Tax and Consultancy as these are the areas you will be working in for the Insight week.