Audit Vacation Student Review

I thoroughly enjoyed it! I worked with great people each week forming good relationships, which will help when I return next summer. The hours are manageable and give you a good idea of what to expect - although summer is a fairly quiet period. The work was varied and everyone took the time to explain what to do well. Asking questions about why you're doing the work not just how to do it is a good idea and makes tasks more interesting, and looks good on your performance reviews.

Very valued. My first two weeks there were only two of us doing the entire audit for a client. This meant I was given a long list of tasks including a lot of client interaction. This clearly showed I was trusted and regarded as competent by my in-charge. The following week I worked on a large company and formed a good relationship with the team and manager, who then requested form to be booked to a number of other jobs for her.

I was assigned a buddy and performance manager when I joined. The buddy is someone who is not yet qualified but has been there a few years so is able to answer any questions you have. Mine was very helpful whenever I needed help but sometimes slow to respond as you aren't exactly top of their list when busy. My performance manager was very nice and took me to lunch for our first meeting. We had weekly chats, which were helpful especially towards the end when my partner interview was approaching. Each in-charge gives you a performance review after you finish working with them, which is really good to see what went well and where to improve.

This varied from week to week. Summer is a quiet period so I didn't experience the longest of hours but still a fairly long week. Work again depended on the client you are booked to, some weeks I was extremely busy and staying late to finish whereas others my in-charge was struggling to find enough things for me to do to fill an entire week. In these cases it's a good chance to talk to other people in the office and build relationships.

A good amount, you are treated as any graduate joiner would be and given the same tasks. Including talking to senior managers and finance teams within large companies. The amount of responsibility does depend on the client. I worked on a few large and one small client and was given much more responsibility on the latter, as you would expect. Overall you are given slightly more responsibility than I expected.

Not too sure about degree, I guess it will serve as motivation to get the required grade to get the grad scheme if you were previously lacking in motivation (which you probably aren't if you got the vacation scheme offer).. I feel like I would have a decent advantage over someone who hadn't worked there previously partly due to doing the work before and having a basic understanding of what needs doing but also the networking you are able to do over the 6 weeks.

As it was summer and everyone has less work on (which is still a lot) people were able to talk to you a fair amount, which made the atmosphere really nice within the office. There was always a large group of people going to lunch together giving you the chance to meet new people. A couple of Fridays people organised a quick pub lunch for whoever wanted to join, which was a nice surprise. Overall a nice atmosphere to work in which nice and helpful people.

Having the scheme in summer is a great time of year to do it. People are generally a bit less busy and so able to answer your questions and explain more fully what is going on and how everything works, which makes the work a lot more interesting. There are a few training courses to complete when you join, mostly about ethics and those sorts of things. As the vacation scheme is only 6 weeks you don't do any real formal training but just working for that period you lean a lot.

Probably one of the best bits about KPMG. It's such a huge firm with offices all over the world and a huge variety of departments, you have the chance to do a variety of jobs in loads of different offices. There is definitely a sense that hard work pays off and if you want to get ahead and are willing to work for it you will. In terms of prospects from the vacation scheme if you secure the scheme and work hard throughout your time with the firm there is no reason you won't get a grad offer, which makes third year a lot less stressful!

There were a number of events organised like bowling and other evening events. It was a joint thing between a number of offices around London. This meant I couldn't really go as I was at a client not especially close and the events were after work so getting there was a bit of hassle. So there were events and stuff to go to which sounded fun but needed a fair bit of travel to do so, which was a bit annoying.