Associate - Financial Services Assurance Review

Organising the team, coordinating with client, performing financial statement audits. This can vary from Excel based workbooks to Word File notes. Coaching junior members of the team, largely booked on big clients most of the year. Responsible for several areas of the audit and overview of the status for the whole team.

A lot of opportunity to develop organisational skills throughout the time - making sure status trackers are updated, summaries of requests for documents from the client, managing team workloads etc. Dealing with clients in a professional manner is another skill developed. Clearly a lot of technical knowledge gained throughout performing the work too.

It has been generally fairly enjoyable, albeit with the 'busy season' peaks in Jan-March which are almost unmanageable. The expectation placed on hours worked is pretty obscene, and there are no rewards/benefits for putting the extra time in. Particularly concerning is the rough calcluation of hourly rate for those months, especially in Junior years.

I think the programme is 'dragged out' for longer than it needs to be - to fulfil the ICAEW requirement of 450 working days it does not take 4 years, but the apprenticeship is this long. As such, I feel I have been held back from completing it in a reasonable time.

Support from the employer is overall quite positive. Apprenticeship coaches are assigned to each individual, and when there are key topics to cover, such as completing the ICAEW training file, specialised training calls/sessions are held, with replays available when needed. There is a good understanding that the study element is important - ie, work does not 'get in the way' when there are things to complete for the apprenticeship.

Kaplan provide good support - all relevant learning materials are shared well in advance of the courses, tutors always offer their time/email addresses to respond to any queries which may arise. There are mock exams which are marked like a real exam. The courses are well spread out to allow learning time.

In the qualification, all relevant technical knowledge of accounting is learned which is obviously fundamental to performing the financial statement audit in my role. I feel the skills-based exams in the higher levels are also highly beneficial as it trains the mindset needed. There aren't any areas of accounting which haven't been covered through the qualification which I have needed to learn in the role.

No - I don't feel it's possible to maintain a healthy work/life balance and also get involved in extra-curricular activities at work. The workload of hours, especially in 'busy season' is quite high and so for my own wellbeing I avoid taking extra activities on in the work environment.

Yes

EY as an apprenticeship provider are quite strong in my opinion. The company is reputable and so completing a training programme through EY is of great benefit to a future CV. As a large organisation there are always good networking opportunities. There are also established support networks which help when progressing through the apprenticeship.

Make sure you have fully researched the service line/role you are applying for! I suspect a lot of people don't fully appreciate the expectations/nature of roles such as audit, beyond the vague concept of 'busy season'. I would encourage people to talk to others already engaged in a similar role and get an honest view of what the day-to-day entails.