Audit Trainee Review

As an Audit Trainee, I work on the audit engagement of a wide range of clients from different industries - mostly in the planning and execution phases. At the moment I'm working on a group audit of different international subsidiaries. I'm also studying towards a professional qualification in Accounting as part of my role.

My Excel skills have improved a lot throughout my role as most of the work I do is in Excel. We had in depth training on preparing workpapers, the phases of an audit etc. My problem solving and communication skills have also improved, and I also learnt a lot about remote working tools

I'm enjoying the programme a lot as I feel like I'm being given a good amount of responsibility for my level of experience and I enjoy problem solving and getting stuck in the details, and working in a team with others I can learn from and constantly improve.

My programme is a good balance between work and study leave. When I started I had college and exams for the first 1.5 months which was a good theoretical foundation for audit work. After that I had a week of training and since then I've been working on audits - given challenging but enjoyable work.

Most of the people I've worked with so far have been very helpful, my people manager and buddy especially. Graduates in my year have been put into Trainee groups rather than going into sectors straight away which hasn't been that great in terms of support - but whenever I have a question I always have someone to contact.

It would be much better if all modules were taught. The tutors in the taught modules were very helpful with questions but I feel a bit lost sometimes with the self-taught ones. It would also be really helpful if we could receive learning materials more than 4 weeks in advance to take the pressure off.

It helps me understand accounting concepts much better, and it's also great to put the theory you learn in your qualification into practice and how they are applied in real life audit engagements. It helps me understand how to do a depreciation recalculation for example and understand abbreviations/accounting jargon.

There was one virtual social in December and a sector training/social but that's about it so far. I appreciate that socialising is more difficult virtually but it would have been great to be involved in socials more and get to know my colleagues/cohort better which hasn't really happened yet.

Yes

The people have been really friendly and supportive so far, the hours are usually 9-5 and the support you get for studying is great. There also seem to be very good development opportunities as you're given more and more responsibility every day and can see ahead what other people in their 2nd/3rd years are doing

Definitely do your research about culture and the BUILD framework and familiarise yourself with BDO's values and prepare some good questions to ask your interviewer, and show you have a passion for the role. Also make sure you're familiar with the structure of the application process and what's required at each step.