EY Degree Placement Student Review

It was an enjoyable experience meeting lots of new people and learning a lot about accounting and auditing. The social aspects are great with many socials (pre-arranged or otherwise) although sometimes the workload can get very high - this depends on which clients you are working on and the time of year (busy season is very busy for most).

Your team will value you highly if you put in the effort and contribute towards team goals. This is rewarded by £50 vouchers which can be received for exceptional effort. It comes down to more than money though, feedback is given after each engagement and it is a good feeling when the feedback from your colleagues is positive.

You are thrown into the deep end a bit and the first few weeks are tough getting to grips with what you're supposed to be doing and why. However colleagues are more than willing to answer questions and guide you through how to do the procedures and how they fit into the overall audit to build up your understanding of the audit process.

This will vary between departments and clients, but I was extremely busy for most of the year owing to large clients with September, December and March year-ends which meant I was pretty much non-stop for most of the placement. This does get a little tiring and annoying when people in other departments do not work anywhere near the same amount. It's all good experience though and you will get well-known within your department.

Being on mostly large client engagements, the level of responsibility was limited as they were high risk clients. However I was put in the position to coach school leavers and industrial placement students even though I only had a few more months experience than them. This was a good experience - I enjoyed having more responsibility.

In terms of technical accounting, the knowledge learnt will definitely help in my final year at university. However the experience gained from working with a lot of people from a range of backgrounds is arguably more important and will help more in the future in just about anything you do. I have become more independent and confident as a result of the placement.

The TMT department is a very fun place to work. There are a lot of people to joke around with and everyone gets to know everyone else. Certain clients are more fun to work on than others but all have a good atmosphere if you are a social person so try and enjoy it!

Organisation was good, there weren't any major problems. The contact with the placement coordinators improved over the year so this is something that is getting better as there were a few times towards the beginning of the placement when it was hard to get answers from the coordinators which was frustrating.

The induction week was very useful in preparing us for audit although it wasn't really enough time. However you learn faster as you're on the job anyway so perhaps the training was enough. The IT training is fairly basic however so you won't learn much if you have a decent level of skill in excel.

I received my graduate offer a few weeks after the end of the placement. Out of my cohort, everyone who wanted a job offer did receive one so as long as you stick it out and don't do anything stupid, you should get an offer to start full time. Be warned though, the professional exams and high workload don't suit everyone and several people dropped out.

As most of us knew each other before the placement, there was a good social scene. There were new people to meet though and they were included in most social events. It was hard for me to attend a lot of events as I had to commute from outside London but for those living nearby there were almost weekly meetups to enjoy.

London is an expensive city. Food, drink and entertainment are generally the most expensive in the country. I lived at home outside London so my rent was cheaper but the train into the capital just about made up for it. Some lucky people lived at home in London and they managed to save quite a lot of money.

London is a great place for nightlife as it is so varied. It can be expensive but there are also places you can go that are cheap and a great night. It was hard when living outside of London to have a proper nightlife but after work drinks at the pub every Friday was enough for me.

I personally didn't get involved in much but I know a few people who did. There are certainly a fair few things to do but it wasn't necessarily easy to find out what exactly and get involved. If there is something you enjoy doing though there is likely some kind of club you can join within EY to do it.