Women in Technology Insight Week Review

Everyone, from the people to the mentors to the employees I've come across, were extremely friendly, helpful, and grounded. This insight week showed me a lot about KPMG and its values as a company, and how the tech environment is, and at the same time kept the experience enjoyable and interactive.

I felt very valued because we would have speakers from people in higher positions and through the skills sessions it was evident that KPMG really wanted to help develop our personal brand and how we approach problems and present them.

Support and guidance was always there when needed. When I shadowed a manager in Tech Solutions, she would always check up on me and even taught me a few basic coding skills and introduce me to everyone she came across. We were also given helpful hand outs, and all my questions were answered.

Some skills, specifically presenting will definitely help me in my studies next year. However, the main skills I developed like networking, some code, and creating my personal brand will carry on to be valuable skills for life and in the future when meeting with potential employers, clients, or even just talking to my fellow employees. By learning the different areas in tech, it also allows me to streamline into a choice and work towards that as an end goal during my time at university.

The insight was very well structured and punctual. We had activities, skills sessions, talks, and presentations planned. However, I wish we had maybe a choice in which area to shadow or maybe half the day to shadow one area in tech and the other day to shadow another area. Shadowing was one of my favourite days, and by the end I was eager to see more of how the sectors in tech worked from a first hand experience.

The atmosphere was professional, but also very warm, fun, and friendly. Everyone talked to each other like equals, and almost all the people I've met were very passionate about what their careers. It eradicated any previous expectations of what I thought an atmosphere in KPMG's Tech sector would be like, and I think that's fantastic. It was very welcoming and made me realize that a similar atmosphere to this is where I can see myself working in the future.

I believe they invested a lot because you can see employees from graduates and partners take time out of their personal schedule to give a talk to us, run a skills session, or join us for dinner. The skills sessions also emphasized how and why we should do certain things when presenting and introducing ourselves, and how they can help us in the future.

I feel like I have a pretty good idea of what it's like to have a full time role, but there are some areas that didn't really answer the question when I asked about a typical work day like in Cyber Security. The fact that each sector does different things everyday makes it hard to fully understand their tasks, but I was able to take away the general idea. I also learned that KPMG treats its employees really well, and understands their situation whether it's having a child or pursuing another passion.

It helped me a lot. By being immersed for 5 days and eating lunch around the same time as everyone, it's easy to understand the KPMG culture. Furthermore, all the employees I've spoken to really enjoy talking about the work environment. Whether it's forming a really close bond with his/her team members or joining KPMG socials, there's always something to do. Something I also found really interesting was how KPMG invests in their employees by having Skills Workshops for them. They really want each individual to grow to their full potential while at the same time enjoying their work.

Very valuable. I originally wanted to pursue Tech Risk because it was the most well known one, but now I'm also considering looking into Tech Solutions and Cyber Security. Either way, the insight week made me realize that I want to be working in a tech related career in my future.

We were reimbursed travel costs and given an adequate lunch allowance.

Definitely. Almost everyday

Really helpful in terms of asking how the KPMG culture is like, what the employee does, their experiences, and knowing more about the kind of projects KPMG works on.

I know there are partnerships with IBM and also McLaren, but other than that not much. During my shadow day I also realize a lot of employees are friends with their team mates in and out of work.

Absolutely, it was really helpful and I enjoyed it a lot.