Audit Vacation Scheme Review

I enjoyed the vacation scheme with KPMG greatly, as it offered a real and full-on insight into what life would be like as a graduate with the firm.

This is what pleased me most about the vacation scheme. I was made to feel very valued and useful, something I was a little worried about going into the 6 weeks, as colleagues gave me important tasks that needed completing and seemed to enjoy a new person's insight on such work.

I felt that my colleagues were always there to help me, and though I was a little shy about asking questions at first, once I had settled in anyone was happy to answer even the most basic and to them stupid of questions.

As a business student the scheme was reasonably relevant to what I learn at uni, and also some of the skills I learnt from the interview, talking to other clients, working in a team, will definitely help me going forward.

For me the scheme was exceptionally well structured. I was always busy, mostly working on a variety of client jobs and also various days for interns in between, such as charity days organised by KPMG and days with the other interns to learn more about the company.

The atmosphere was always serious but the team environment of audit meant that there was always the opportunity to have a bit of a laugh with colleagues during breaks, which was nice because it meant that the day wasn't just full on work from start to finish.

There was a lot of support in terms personal training and development, as I was given plenty of different tasks so that I had a lot of exposure to the various different areas of an audit, and the support I had from colleagues who had experience of the tasks was essential for my learning and development.

As I was given the responsibility to talk to clients and help complete a variety of different tasks throughout my vacation scheme, I feel as though I was given a real feel for what it would be like to have a full time grad role with KPMG because these are the responsibilities given to such employees. The only thing i didn't have exposure to was the accountancy exams which go alongside work as a graduate student, but having spoken to people in these roles I feel as though I understand what this extra commitment would be like.

Getting the opportunity to work with a range of different audit teams gave me a good understanding of company culture as I worked with many different colleagues with different levels of seniority. I also had the opportunity to attend some company events such as socials, and speaking to even more people here in a non-work environment helped my understanding of the company culture.

The content of the day was excellent in helping me decide my career path, as I want to carry on with audit, as I feel as though it is an excellent start to a career due to the exposure it gives you to a vast range of different businesses and seeing how they work on a daily basis.

As I said before there was the opportunity to go to socials and other such events, where you could meet colleagues from across the firm, of varying levels of seniority and from different service lines too.

These events were a good way of speaking to a variety of people from across the firm with varying levels of seniority.

I was lucky enough to play football weekly with people from the office, and this was a nice extra from the firm and gave me a good idea of what sort of activities you can get involved in outside of the office.

I would certainly recommend this vacation scheme to a friend, because I feel as though it was a great introduction to what it would be like to work full time at KPMG, even if audit isn't what you want to go into, it's a great introduction to a business career in general.