BDO Insight Day Review

Fully enjoyed the insight day - gained a greater understanding of accountancy and the different streams. Found it very useful and applicable to many areas, for example with the application process help this is transferable knowledge for the future. Only lacking a bit more networking and chatting to current trainees.

The current staff in the office were very friendly and welcoming that clearly enjoyed working at BDO which was nice to genuinely see. This made the atmosphere engaging and relaxed which made me feel valued during my time with the company and I felt I could ask any questions without being judged.

During the insight I received lots of guidance and support - any of the questions that we had were answered thoroughly which was good. There was also lots of guidance about the application process that was very helpful and definitely made me feel more confident about applying for the graduate scheme.

I definitely gained more skills and a greater understanding of the application process. For example, where to practise online tests and what makes a strong video interview. This can be transferred to other applications that have similar processes and help with my confidence in understanding how to partake them well.

The insight was very well structured - we were given information about the day prior to arriving and I would agree that the layout was pretty much identical to this information which was positive as knew what to expect. The day was fluid and there was a good use of the time available.

The general atmosphere during the insight was very positive - all the current staff in the office were welcoming , supportive and interested in understanding our backgrounds more. This made everyone engaged and act as a team to learn about BDO together. Nobody was there to judge anyone else so felt comfortable.

I wouldn’t say there was much personal training and development but I would say that they were very helpful in developing our understanding of what the firm do, the different roles or streams available, and in particular the application process. To improve it would’ve been useful to specify the important skills required for the role in greater depth.

The insight day definitely provided an interesting outline into the work that each stream carried out by bringing in staff or trainees from each of these areas. The graduate scheme and other routes were also outlined and information was provided about what each of these involved and how to apply.

The insight day definitely helped me to understand the company culture - this was because we were asked to look up the company values and then discuss what each of these mean. As a group we became more aware as to the meaning of each of these for BDO which was important.

To be honest I am a very indecisive person and I am very open to lots of fields of work at the moment. However, I did not know much about accountancy prior to the insight day and I could definitely now say which stream of accountancy I would choose if that was the route to chose to take.

I was not paid or reimbursed for this experience but to be fair I did not ask whether I would be able to. However, I believe that the experience was worth the price that I paid for a train ticket and I did not have to travel far to get there.

There were opportunities to ask some staff from other areas of the company questions after they had given a description of their work. However, I would say that I was expecting there to be more networking, for example, over lunch I thought that I would get a chance to chat to the employees of the company.

As I mentioned above I would not say that there was really any networking or social event opportunities to get involved in during the day. There was a question and answer opportunity but I feel that this isn’t the same as having a chat to someone about their job one to one.

I did find out about activities that employees can get involved in outside of work which made me feel positively about the company in addition to the rest of the information provided. It was nice to know that there is a good social life and examples of this were given.

I would definitely reccomend this insight to a friend - I have a lot of friends having just finished university who don’t know what to do next and I think that insight says are a great opportunity to understand roles more and I thoroughly appreciated being able to do this.