Associate Review

I completed a placement in an advisory role (as opposed to tax or audit) and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I thought the company and my team were very welcoming and the ethos of the company was very modern and future-focused. The work was interesting a varied day to day and my colleagues were always available to assist with training when I started and to help with questions throughout the placement year.

My colleagues were very friendly and inviting throughout my year at Grant Thornton. They were always available for questions and to assist with anything I was unfamiliar with. They made it very clear that they valued me and expressed that they were sad to see me leave the team in order to go finish my degree. Additionally, as I became more experienced in the role they also made it clear that my opinion on cases was important to the work we did and that there was no hierarchy when it came to who could provide ideas for the work we did.

My managers were very focused on my training from the moment I started the placement year. If I had any questions they were always available to ask and provide useful guidance while ensuring that I had a clear understanding before I went back to my work. They also were aware, during busy times, that I had a lot of tasks on my plate and were conscious of if/when they had given me too much work to do in order to make sure that there was a healthy work/life balance.

I always had work to do as long as I took the initiative to ask for it when I was running out of tasks to complete. At times my managers would request various tasks and it was up to me to prioritise and manage my time. So although I was busy, with proper organisation I was never overwhelmed with the work. If there had been a time I had too much to do I would have felt comfortable speaking to my team to let them know that I could not complete everything, however this was never an issue.

My team always provided me various work to do, which, once I was trained, I was trusted to complete on my own. I was also given further responsibility for various investigations we were carrying out in terms of designing spreadsheets to summarise the analysis I was completing. However, the nature of the work my team completed meant that the ability to be responsible for my own workload from the start of a case to the end was impossible - taking this into account though I never felt micromanaged.

I am currently studying accounting at university and although I completed my placement with an accounting firm, the actual role I was in within the advisory division of the company meant that I did not have significant or consistent exposure to accounting work and concepts. I was however able to learn about working in a business environment and was able to network and learn that there are many other branches of work that I had not considered that I may have an interest in in the future.

My entire office was fairly segregated into each individual department. This meant that coming from a small team it was sometimes difficult to interact with a wide range of people in the office. However, this did not mean that people were unfriendly - everyone I spoke to was always happy and welcoming.

I started after most of the other placement students and instead started with the graduate students. It seemed like the first few days of training no one knew there was going to be a placement student there. I additionally found that the individuals that were running the placement scheme forgot that I would have missed out on a significant amount of information that was covered when the other placement students started. This meant that, in regards to placement information, I always felt like I was behind everyone else.

The company was very willing and encouraging in regards to my training and development. They never had any qualms about paying for travel and accommodation in order to attend training courses in/near London.

I am definitely interested in obtaining future employment with this company as I have enjoyed my time here immensely. However, the department I am in does not offer graduate schemes so it has become slightly more complicated in order to obtain an offer for after I get my degree. Luckily the company allows other departments to make these offers if they are impressed with the work I have done and so I will be looking into this further in order to secure a graduate scheme prior to leaving.

It seemed very apparent that the only encouraged social scene with placement students and colleagues interacting between departments was focused mainly in/for the benefit of London. There seemed to be a very structured social scene, whilst there was nothing set up to help new placement students or colleagues in other offices.

I did not live close to where I worked nor did I socialise often, therefore I did not find it particularly expensive.

I did not live close to where I worked nor did I go out often, therefore I do not have a relevant opinion in regards to the nightlife.

An encouragement to get involved in other opportunities or activities outside of work seemed very London focused. There seemed to be a very structured set of activities and groups to get involved in, however in the office I worked in these were few and far between which meant that it was difficult to find one that fit my interests.