Associate Review

I work on audits for client. This involves working with the rest of my audit team along with various clients to ensure that the company is reporting accurate figures. The main skills involved in my work are communication and problem solving as often the information we receive from clients is not the clearest.

I believe I have developed my business acumen skills greatly as before this I had no employment in a corporate environment. These include my client communication but also my timekeeping and general business persona. Alongside this I believe my general communication has developed through having to communicate with various members of client teams.

I am enjoying my work particularly because I am continually learning. This means that I am always engaged and even if the work isn't the most exciting, I find that the task of becoming proficient at it is provides enjoyment. There are some days where the workload is very heavy however and so that detracts from the enjoyment a bit.

My programme is fairly well structured. We have a dedicated apprenticeships team who we can go to with any questions on our program. We also have a team for ICAEW for exams and Kaplan for our training. I feel like if I had any questions on the programme I would know who to go to.

As mentioned above we have dedicated teams for each of the programme aspects so I would say that we get a large amount of support programme-wise. We also have a councillor who we can go to if we have any problems with our work or teams so there is definitely a large range of support available.

Our training provider, Kaplan, provide a large range of support. We have lots of physical resources which are available to us, along with an online site with mock exams etc. We also have a tutor assigned to us after we finish college who we can email if we have any further questions.

As I am only a first year I have not yet sat an exam at the time of writing, however I believe that it has actually worked the other way round. I have picked up skills through my work after I have been at college which have made me more comfortable with accounting principles. After college as it was so intense, I didn't feel I was able to apply much immediately to my work.

Yes, we have a wide range of extra-curricular activities along with regular social events. As I am relatively new to the firm I haven't had the time to get involved with any of the sports teams however the socials are really fun and are a great way to get to know each other.

Yes

I feel like, for an alternative to university the school leaver scheme at EY is a great option. You are able to gain a qualification which is higher than a degree in becoming a Chartered Accountant and get paid in the process. Alongside this you gain valuable years of work experience over any graduates if you join at 18 or 19.

Gaining some work experience to talk about would be useful, and also a little bit of knowledge on current world events and how they may affect businesses. In terms of actual accounting knowledge and even business knowledge you need next to none, as you learn everything from scratch on the job. Any knowledge you do have is just a bonus! The cliché is to be yourself and that is again true throughout, but also ask any questions you have throughout the process, make sure EY is right for you too.