Associate Review

I was involved the audit of financial services. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at EY as a placement student. I worked with some great people along the way. Everyone was very helpful and friendly. The experience I gained whilst working in teams and with clients has helped me a great deal. I would recommend anyone interested in audit to apply here.

All my colleagues very extremely helpful throughout my placement. Everyone understands your background and treats you appropriately. You get the chance to network with managers and partners who give me you great advice. I worked with a lot of teams and was comfortable in each one of them.

As a placement student in audit, you will initially be completing a set of icas exams which will give an idea of what work you will be involved with in the year to come. Once you join the office and start working on clients, you will be working with someone a year or two senior to you who will he able to guide you with all your work and answer any queries

On normal basis, the workload was just sufficient. I didn't find it stressing or difficult to cope with as there was always help. However, audit tends to get extremely busy during Year Ends as this is when you actually start to do the audit. This lasts for about a couple of months with high workload. The upside to it is that you will learn a great deal in a very short span of time.

This varied from team to team. In some teams I was given very basic work to do. This is usually when the client is big and the audit team has a lot of members. This allows the manager to delegate work efficiently so as a placement student, there is little responsibility. The responsibility increases the smaller the team. Your seniors involve you in more work so you are able to guide them.

I am studying accounting and finance at university. Undergoing a placement in audit is something directly linked with my degree. Whatever work I did during my year was the practical side of things I studied in university. My dissertation is also based on value of auditors. Therefore undergoing a placement in this division has helped me understand a great deal about my degree and will hopefully assist me in my final year project.

EY London has a very open plan office. That means employees from all ranks sit in an open structure office. Interns could be sitting right next to partners. I think this is great as it promotes networking and discourages the typical hierarchy structure in my many offices where partners and managers have private offices. This creates a great atmosphere where a lot of conversations take place.

As soon as the placement students join, they undergo an IT training followed by training relevant to their sectors (which is usually a week long in another city). Everything you need to know about the firm and your work is addressed here. After training, you instantly join college where you will take 2 icas exams. These will help you a great deal when you join the office.

As mentioned above, the firm sends all placement students to college. They learn towards the ACA qualification. This is something paid for entirely by the firm. More ever, there are always training sessions taking place which you can go and attend. Training sessions directly relevant to your work are compulsory to attend and will guide you around specific areas of your work.

As a placement student, the firm has invested in you for a year. This in turn means they expect you to perform well during the year and join the as a graduate if offered a position. Securing a graduate position is something which entirely depends on how well your perform in your team as they will be writing your feedbacks. If they believe you have done well and if you have passed both your icas exams, you should most probably be offered a graduate position (conditional to intake)

There was a very good social community of placement students. Events were planned weekly and a lot of socials took place.

I lived in central London so it was around £600.

The office is based in London Bridge. There are quite a few bars around where people go for a drink after work. The atmosphere around the office is great.

EY is constantly arranging events for anyone to participate in. You have the opportunity to join any community within EY. This could range from sports to charity work. There are definitely more events taking place then you can go to.