Assistant Senior Review

Day to day, we go to client sites and obtain evidence sufficient enough to gain assurance that their accounting records are up to date and accurate. We check for any potential errors they may have made - in accounting treatment or in error. In doing this we see lots of different client sites and meet clients giving us good visibility of the world of business.

I have learnt and built on countless skills while taking part of my training programme. Most importantly I have developed my communication skills, by meeting lots of teams (both internally and externally with clients) and learning to build relationships with them. My analytical skills have also increased, with lots of our work being judgemental.

I am part of the school leaver programme and I do enjoy it. There are times where there are struggles faced - e.g. lots of traveling to and from client sites, long hours coming from deadlines having to be met and the added pressure of juggling studying and working at the same time. But overall I do enjoy the work I do .

My training programme is quite well structured - if you stick to the original plan. The way that our education works is part time college/learning and part time on the job learning. If all exams are passed first time, there are no issues with progression but struggles do arise if exam failures/time off around college take place.

I receive adequate support from my employer. Obviously they would rather I am on the job learning more than I am learning in a classroom but ultimately I need to pass my exams and learn the accounting treatment to progress in my career with EY. Support such as study leave and flexible working is offered to us.

My training provider - Kaplan Financial - provides some support when working towards my qualification. The study materials they provide are great - with workbooks, question practise books and an online platform to learn from being given to us upon enrollment for the course. Where they are not great however is with resits, where no additional help is really offered to us.

I feel that my qualification that I will obtain through Kaplan (my ACA qualification) will definitely help me perform better at my job. The vast majority of content covered in each module is used on the job day to day. While learning on the job is a great experience, sitting down and properly learning content is also extremely beneficial.

There are countless outside of work activities to get involved in with my work. EY has countless committees, such as the sports committee who not only organise sporting events but also sports socials which everyone is invited to, and the social committee which regularly organise trips for EY and non-EY guests to attend.

Yes

EY is overall, a great place to work. While there are struggles (hours, college and work juggling, and the travel needed for the job) the jobs you will work on, and the teams you work with give you an invaluable experience. With the added benefit of gaining the ACA qualification from a Big 4 firm, I think it is a great place to work.

I would advise other people to think about whether they need a degree to work in the industry or field they want to. I did not go to university and will end up with the same qualification at the end than those who did go to university - and I will be a year younger than them.