Associate Review

I work in Auditing within the PwC uxbridge office. The job over placement mainly consisted of performing test of detail for different companies year end audit. This generally involved performing testing for different FSLI's. Day to day work consisted of gathering information from the client and documenting the information, making sure there are no exceptions, and following up with the client and other members of the team if there were.

I have learnt many new skills. This includes improving on my technological skills around using the different system which are needed to perform the audit. I've also improved on my practical audit skills, using what i have learned at university and put it into practise. I have also improved on my organisational skills, as this is my first time on placement in a job like this i had to quickly learn to make sure that information i received and documented was in order. This helped to keep myself and other team members updated to what stage i was at.

I enjoyed the programme a lot and thought it was great for my training development to become a qualified chartered accountant. It was nice to see the results of putting what I had learnt in university into practise. It was also good to get a better sense of what a job in audit involves.

I find it is well organised. There is good communication from the people overseeing the course which makes it easy to know what is going on throughout our time on placement. For example the Covid-19 situation was handled well and we werent left in the dark as to what was happening.

I felt like we received a lot of support from the employer. Whilst on placement we were given a career coach which was very useful when trying to solve any issues which were internal to the firm i.e admin issues. There is also a PwC coordinator who we had a mid-placement check up with. They are separate to the office and if i had any issues i would have felt comfortable raising them here.

We study the degree at the University of Reading for the first term of the academic year. I feel we get a lot of support around this time to help us towards our qualifications. Whilst on placement we do not really here from them, but this is reasonable as we would usually be too busy to focus on academic studies.

We have an Audit and Assurance module that helps us with some prior knowledge to the placement. I do feel that they are more focused on the qualification, as apposed to the role while we are on placement. I do however expect this as it is the role of the university to help us work towards our exemption exams, and the role of PwC to give us the more practical knowledge of working in audit.

There have been a number of social activities to get involved in however i feel this is made difficult as we are working during the busy season so are usually working long hours and are away at the client site which can make it hard to get involved with some of the social activities which are normally held around the office. Also to note the recent virus outbreak has made the social extra curricular activities hard to be held.

Yes

Great firm to work at with a good reputation. Gives access to a host of different clients to work with, big and small. Helps to provide support to the development of individuals, and has helped my development personally. I have found there is a usually a good working environment and have enjoyed improving my skills and knowledge while on placement.

Ask lots of questions. When you start out it is very likely that you won't have a big idea of what is going on like so many others in your position. Asking questions is not only good for yourself and your own development, but in the long run would also help others around you i.e the team which you are working in.