Apprentice Review

My role is auditor within the real estate asset management department, within this role i work within an audit team helping to complete the audit on an asset management fund. This role consists of completing testing over variance accounts for example cash, rental income or any other note/ figure in the financial statements.

I have developed my communication skills as this is cruical to being able to complete an audit on time as you have to communicate the query to the client and get a response that gains comfort over certain accounts. Within this role you will be communicating to a lot of people inside and outside of KPMG, another important skill is organisation that i have developed at KPMG as you will have to juggle many different responsibility and deadlines at once.

I enjoy getting to learn new skills and work in new departments, this has really allowed me to experience a lot of different departments and jobs in my career already. The downside is that you have to continue changing department even once you have decided on the department you wish to stay in which has reduced the enjoyment as you are forced into departments you do not wish to be part of.

The programme is the best structured apprenticeship available for accountancy as you get to work in so many different departments and you have so many different department that you can work within. However the organisation is poor as there are so many students for the apprenticeship team to organise meaning most things are very last minute and not well organised. This is a great opppourtunity for your career however apprenticeship events that you must complete will not be well organised (understandably due to the size of KPMG).

The support from the apprenticeship team is very good, they are willing to answer questions and take the time to make sure that everything is working for you. Also if you are struggling i have seen individuals reach out to the apprenticeship team for help due to stress and they have helped and in cases taken apprentices out of clients with unreasonable deadlines. However from departments the support can be limited as at KPMG there are time that everyone is very busy so this can be a downside but is to be expected when working at a big 4 accountancy firm.

There is a lot support from the training provider and depending on your teacher they can be very willing to go the extra mile to get you to be able to understand something. BPP will continue to have calls with you to make sure that all support is there when required and to see if they can help with anything.

The training provided really helps with the understanding of topics behind your work as you progress throught the training course. There will be course that do not directly provide value for your department but they will help with you understanding of accounting on a whole. I would agree that the qualification helps you perform better in my role.

Pre-COVID there were a lot of department team building activities depending on departments that i got involved in. Outside of this i would complete volunteering days that is something KPMG offer for you to take time off your work and completing volunteering. I also take part in the KPMG rugby team.

Yes

Even though KPMG can be demanding and certain departments/ teams can be overly stressful or tough KPMG is a great place to work and the opportunities are great. This is a really good place for you to start you career and develop yourself. This demanding work is to be expected from any big 4 and will really develop yourself.

Advice i would give would be to interview KPMG as they are you and what i mean by that is reflect on KPMG's values and on the people that you interact with to get an understanding of the organisation as you need to feel the KPMG is right for you just as KPMG need to feel you are right for them.