Audit Associate Review

I enjoyed my placement overall. It was a great experience and have learnt a lot. I was surprised in the beginning by the amount of responsibility I got given and the level of exposure. As with every job there are things you like and enjoy doing and things you kind of have to do, but overall I would say it was a good placement. I worked in UKI Assurance Audit and had a busy season from January to March which entailed long working hours (sometimes until 11pm), I was however aware of the business season working hours and knew what I was getting myself into.

One thing I didn't expect was to be part of more than one team and travel to client's site every day. When I joined I was expecting to work from the office quite a lot and presumed I'll be part of one team and one team only. However, because I was in the London office and given the size of the Assurance department I had different teams for different clients- which was a great opportunity to meet new people and network but at the same time can make you feel like you don't really belong to a team, as you kind of jump around from one client to another.

Support and coaching was given on a regular basis. In bigger teams you would have a senior who would be there for you and coach you throughout the audit and in smaller teams you would normally work closely with a manager or senior manager who again will provide you the support necessary for you to complete the work.

As I've said in Audit there is a busy season from Jan to March which was 8:30am till 10-11pm. This period was quite intense and demanding. Outside of busy season, it really depended on the clients you were booked on and their Financial Yearend. I for example had another yearend in May which meant slightly later hours (not as late as busy season, though!). There are also quiet days when you would not have much time to do and I would normally fill my days with online training or do things outside of audit. If there are no strict deadlines, you would normally finish around 5:30-6 max.

I was given a lot of responsibility during my placement. Especially when I worked on small clients and reported directly to the manager. On big group audits you would be in charge of a few account for which you would take sole ownership- so again a high amount of responsibility.

I was sent to College for 2 weeks and took the 1st two certificate exams for ACA. I also had Introduction to Audit Training for a week and various webinars. All of these have helped me developed both professionally and intellectually and will come in handy when I go back to university.

Because I spent most of my time at the client site I didn't really experience the EY office very much. However, on the rare occasions I went to the office I didn't know many people there as I only had interaction with the people I worked with.

It was organised well- had training in the beginning for a week, College was 2 weeks and we then had some time after college and before we sat the exams for revision. We also had a 2 days induction when we joined which was a great opportunity to meet other students.

Like I said they sent us to College and paid for our exams fees as well as organising internal training facilitated by EY Staff.

If you get a 3 out of 5 rating and pass your exams you'll pretty much get an offer. They will let us know in August if we got a grad job.

There are socials organised every few months by the social committee. We also went out for drinks/dinner with other students on a regular basis.

London- so expensive.

London- so a lot of options.

Yes, you can get involved in Student Recruitment and pitches for new clients.