Insight Day Review

It was nice to meet new people from so many different backgrounds - from school leavers all over the country to people who were in university and even those who had done their masters and gone into work. We all got to know each other during the opening session when we were doing a human bingo session for which we had to find other people who fit the criteria on the sheet.

We were working together in groups to solve the problems given to us and perform a PEST analysis on different companies before presenting it to the whole group. Each person had to present a separate part - one would do the Political and Legal, one Economic, one Social and Demographic and one Technological. This meant that we were all valued members of the team.

We had trainees from different fields come in to answer any questions we had about each sector - Audit, Advisory and Tax. This was good as we could see how different the fields were and have any stereotypical views answered. The fact that we had the session with an admissions worker really helped as it meant that they could tailor the session to each application we would make in the future.

We learnt how to answer different styles of questions. Competency style questions are based on examples of what you had done in the past and so showed how what you have already done would help you in the future. Strength based interviews focused on the theoretical 'what ifs' you would do in hypothetical situations.

There was a timetable shown to us at the start of the day, and the change overs between each session were swift - with small breaks in between for people to grab a drink of water or to go to the toilet. It began with ice breakers, then specific sector advice,lunch, then admissions, then there was a quiz at the end for people to wind down and have fun.

We started off the day really well - the ice breakers were fun and got everyone to loosen up and move around - people began to talk to each other. Then we went into Q&A sessions, which would have been better if there was more movement so we werent sitting down for as long. The atmosphere could have been improved by adding extra group tasks that involved moving around between the sessions

We had limited opportunities with regards to personal training and development as we were only there for one day. This meant that there was no official training but we did have the chance to learn more about the application processes and so there was an increase in skills in the sense of interview and applications

We spent the majority of the day based with trainees in different sectors of the company who spoke about the workload as a full time employee and the social aspects. We also had the opportunities to ask them questions, however as everyone was just a trainee there were no long term people and so we do not know the full story

We learnt a great deal about the company culture as the employees stressed the social aspects of their jobs while they were speaking to us and we got to learn about how they all work together within the company and their teams. Also that the whole company - all offices come together once a year

This was good as we were able to speak to people from each sector - audit advisory and tax - who could explain what their section was about and we could see where we would best fit from the way they described the workload and if it was office based or client facing.

As many people came through this using the access accountancy website it would have been useful to reimburse people for their travel expenses as they would often be from less well off backgrounds. They did provide lunch, however which was useful as we did not have to pay for lunch in central london

We did not have good opportunities to network with people from the firm as we could not speak to them one on one, however there was the chance to do a Q & A session which allowed us to meet the employees, these however were only the trainees. We also had the chance to speak to everyone around us who had worked and come from different experiences.

Networking was good between the insight day people as we could get to know the people around us and speak to them about their personal experiences. This was particularly encouraged at the start during the ice breaker session using a game of human bingo. We then worked in groups throughout the day on different tasks

There were many opportunities outside of work, and these were stressed by the people who came to speak to us. They mentioned Centre Parcs days out with thier different groups and the types of socials they have where they go bowling. We also found out about the 10 charity days the firm gives off each year

It was an enjoyable day - particularly at the start and we had the opportunity to ask real professionals about their work. We could learn about each role individually and ask specific questions that we had to each of them. We were also offered the opportunity to learn a lot about the application process which is very different to the normal application process