Staff/Assistant Review

I work in audit, at the moment this involves working under the more senior members of the team. I help them with things such as documenting testing to test for any misstatements in the financial accounts. I also helped with filling the necessary forms that are required for the audit. I also have been involved in writing up the minutes for several meetings I have attended.

During my time working with EY, I have learnt time management in order to be able to balance work and home life as well as carving out time of my day to revise for my exams. I have also been able to develop my communication to be able to present my availability so I am not overworked and do not burn out.

I enjoy the experience I have had so far with EY. This is mainly due to the culture within my team and department. The social aspect of the company definitely adds to the experience I have had. Also in a more professional aspect, I enjoy the work that I have been involved in so far. I am a part of a team with just me and my manager, so I have enjoyed the further responsibility that I have had on top of the roles I am expected to partake in.

The program is well structured, with the exams spread out over the year so that I do not do more than one at a time it alleviates the pressure that I would feel with the exams all at the same time. This also enables me to focus on the work at hand and allows me to excel in both areas.

We each receive a counselor who helps us with any problems that we are facing. They also help us to deal with any pressure or feelings of being overwhelmed. They are also able to talk to the more senior levels of staff to express our struggles in a more firm manner than we would be able to.

We receive our training by the service provider first intuition. I would say that in this area it is a lot harder to learn, specifically as it is online so actually understanding the content is more difficult. As well as this we only receive one week to practice the information and we do not have any flexibility on when we sit the exams so even if we know we are not ready, we are not allowed to move our attempt and means that we have failed one of our four attempts.

The qualification that I am undergoing does help with the things that I do in my role in audit, specifically the assurance paper that we have sat. However in the same manner there are also some exams that I take that are not relevant to my job for example management information. Although it is useful to know as a base knowledge for what we do as a company.

There are several activities that I could involve myself with as well as networks that I could join. I personally have not yet looked into this however, as at the moment I do not think I could handle the extra work on top of what it is I am already doing.

Yes

I think that it is a very good company to work for as a whole. The people are very friendly and the fact that the apprenticeship pays as well as it does while we are still training is very worthwhile. The social aspects of the job also counteracts the stress of the job.

I think that anyone applying to EY should definitely take the time to research which department they wish to join in to, although it should also be made clear that EY make it possible to easily switch between departments if they wish to do so. I would also make sure to mention that the school leaver program as opposed to the grad program is less intense as the exams are more spread out.