Trainee Associate Review

My day-to-day job includes many different things giving me a large amount of exposure to the client. I often help to develop presentations and have lead workshops on many occasions with the client, this is allowing me to develop my confidence and communication skills. I also run the monthly budget report for two different work stream areas helping me develop my skills on excel and dealing with large amounts of data making it into a format that is easy for people to understand. I also facilitate weekly lunch and learns for my team helping the team learn from each other and have a greater understanding of the project.

Recently I have completed my first week of college which has helped me develop my understanding of organisational structures and how a business is run. We also looked at double entry bookkeeping that has helped me understand how a financial statement is put together and given me more background information. As I have said in question 1 I facilitate weekly lunch and learn sessions with my team. This has been a learning experience for myself as each week I learn about other roles that are within consulting helping me develop my skills and gather more knowledge on what I would like to specialise in. Finally, there are many internal training courses that are available, for example we have has a beginners excel course put on for those in the office in order for people to brush up on their excel skills.

When I first joined PwC I was concerned that there may be a lack of community and support as it is such a huge firm however I could not have been more welcomed. There is a huge sense of community with fortnightly huddles, socials and many more events where everyone supports one another as much as they possibly can alongside their day jobs. The team I am working with is a really closely knit group with a lot of support for the junior staff such as myself.

At PwC everyone is treated as an equal and everyone's opinions are just as valid as anyone else's no matter what their grade is. we also have a recognition system called Gems where you can send points to one another if you want to quickly say thank you to someone for help or a great piece of work they have done. There is also a huge emphasis by PwC on mid-year and end-of-year reviews, encouraging people to gather feedback from peers and seniors alike.

The induction to the programme wasn't up to the standard I was expecting as it wasn't very relevant to those who worked in the Regional offices and only really relevant to those in the London offices, this feedback has been passed onto the organisers of our induction. The support from our training provider has been quite limited as there seems to be very little organisation on their end, however the training we have been provided with has been to a very high standard and I have found it very useful so far.

The tutors that we have had for college learning/lessons have been very good at providing me with plenty of content and information. My talent coach (the person who is there to support me) has also been very helpful and has been there anytime I have needed her. However I was not appointed a talent coach until four months into the programme even though other apprentices who started at the same time as me we appointed one and I often had to chance them up on this issue.

I have both a people manager and a line manager and they have both been very supporting of the work I am doing. Both have supported my college work and any extra things I am doing for this. My line manager has also made sure that the next role I take on will be useful for my development so that I don't take on a role that won't be helpful. I have a HR contact so I know that if I have any issues or questions I have someone who I can contact. There is a really great attitude towards support people at PwC.

I am currently based in the Birmingham office and so have less living costs than those in London. My salary supports my lifestyle with me being able to afford a car and allowing me to live in a shared house with three post-graduate students. I also have enough disposable income to pay for social aspects of my lifestyle. PwC have a great benefits package as well allowing all members of staff to have private healthcare insurance and giving everyone an option of what else they spend it on, for example dental insurance or contributions to childcare costs.

There are many events within the company with regional meeting held quarterly and many different events that we get involved in, for example there is a team of 150 people running the Birmingham 10K. There is an app developed by a member of staff called Balance, that shows all activities we can get involved in outside of work. It includes everything from pottery painting to football teams that meet every week. There is a real push for a good work/life balance.

Yes

I feel incredibly lucky to be a part of a fantastic organisation that is so supportive but also provides so many opportunities. Everyone gets an equal chance to go as far as they want in their career and there really doesn't feel like there is much holding anyone back on going where they want to be and there is nothing stopping people achieving what they want to achieve.

Despite the application process feeling like it takes forever it is worth doing it properly and don't rush any of the questions on the application form or on the online test. On the assessment make sure to get on with the task at hand and try to stop the group getting sidetracked. Finally, during your interview just make sure that you be yourself and don't worry about it too much as that won't help your performance but rather hinder it.