Audit Assistant Review

I have enjoyed my work placement much more than I expected, given the often negative view of the industry. It has been challenging, but at the same time I have enjoyed the role and felt motivated enough to work hard. It has been a very positive experience that has given me a lot of insight into the industry.

Working as an Audit Assistant was a role that made me feel valued, as there were clear expectations that were made apparent from the beginning. Despite joining Audit in the lowest role, I was always made to feel as though I was bringing value to the team, despite my little knowledge.

Within Audit there are assistants and supervisors. Most of the time you will have an assistant on site with you, or easily contactable. Therefore you will always have somebody to ask if you have any questions. They will give you guidance for the role and also for any other job-related questions.

Generally I had the optimum amount of work to do, such as a specific job to work on. However sometimes when there wasn't a job for me to work on, I would be in the office with minimal work to do. However my supervisors and managers always tried to find work for me to do or would ask other offices for work.

I think the level of responsibility was at a good level. On site we had the responsibility for our individual tasks and also communicating with clients. However we always had supervisors who ultimately were responsible for the overall job, and would never give us too much responsibility if we didn't want it.

After just a short time in my placement role I felt I had learnt a lot more than I did during university; both in theory and practice. This was due to not only working in the role, but also because of the numerous internal training courses that are provided. It was also important to learn from others in the industry.

Everybody I worked with were friendly and welcoming, with all departments getting to know each other and having to work together occasionally. However the out of work activities were minimal in comparison to some of the bigger offices, and there were not many new starters who joined at the same time.

I felt the whole work placement was well organised from the correspondence prior to joining, all the way until the leaving interview. My progression in the company was always clear. The only area for improvement is the organisation of secondments to other offices, which could have been better organised overall.

It was clear from the beginning that a lot of money and time was put into personal development. Despite not being on a training contract, I still spent many weeks at residential training courses, learning about accounting, audit, tax and other personal courses such as how to manage stress.

From the beginning it was always clear that a job would likely be offered, which was always good to know. I was offered a job in good time before the end of my placement so it was in place before I left. Despite wanting to move offices, I was always supported and encouraged by my managers who helped me get a job in the location I wanted.

There was the odd meal, however this was minimal.

The area was very cheap in comparison to most of the country.

Decent nightlife for a city of that size and definitely improving as time goes on.

None known about.