Associate Accountant Review

I'm an Associate Accountant working within the audit service line. When I started I was assigned to various clients which involved a lot of travelling around the UK. On a daily basis I look at various account and perform analyses on them, such as comparing them to prior year figures and finding out the cause of the change. We work in teams, and depending on the job my team size can vary. Sometimes they are as large as 10 but could also be as small as 3. I interact regularly with the client and with the personnel managing the account I'm analysing.

In audit the use of Microsoft Excel is very essential in audit, before I started I had barely used Excel. I have quickly come to grasp how it works and have learnt some shortcuts in the process.

The programme fufills what I would expect an apprenticeship to be. However, I feel like it is not so much a programme for "school leavers". This is because I don't see anything that differentiates it from a graduate scheme other than it takes us longer to qualify. I feel like my firm could do a better job at increasing the incentive for people my age to apply for their apprenticeships and actually enjoy working for the firm.

EY is good at making sure people feel valued by having monthly meetings either with your peer group which would then be fed back to managers etc. Additionally everyone is assigned a counsellour and a buddy which I beleive is vital and really helpful.

The programme is extremely organised and well structured. Our induction was very informative, but also did feel quite rushed as we were approaching busy season. There is team hierarchy in terms of experience, however, this is quite a blurred line when working in teams as I have found everyone to be really friendly and helpful.

We recieve a lot of support from my firm as well as the college we attend. I enjoyed college a lot.

I have had to get used to long working hours and my holidays. It is very different to school / sixth form hours and holidays. I miss the Holidays.

I live at home, so my expenses are significantly cut. The costs I have would come under travel mostly, depending on where the client is and how much I can expense.

So my office has regular social events which are really cool, (For example Theatre Trips, Pizza Making events etc.) as well as events for all employees in the audit service lines. Outside of work is abit more difficult, especially during busy season and exams you're free time diminishes quite a lot.

Yes

You get a good headstart in your career. A great alternative for university especialy if you want to avoid Uni debt which for the accountancy profession I do not think is necessary.

Build a solid portfolio of your strengths. EY is really interested in what you can bring to the workplace and what skills you have to offer.