Placement Trainee Accountant Review

I was part of the group team at the head office, working closely with the Group Financial Controller and the Group Accountant. My routine involved generating reports, compiling management accounts, assisting in the creation of month-end documents, converting subsidiary files to AES format, overseeing budget management, and handling various tasks to support the finance teams operations.

I have learnt a wide range of skills while at AES, my technical accounting ability has developed significantly and my Excel skills have come on leaps and bounds thanks to using it daily and undertaking training courses. Not only this but I have enhanced my business acumen through exposure to different types of tasks and from engaging in conversations with my colleagues about how businesses are run.

As I was the first placement student within the finance team, it took some time to figure out where I would fit in and which tasks I could be given but once I was settled in, I began to receive a fair amount of responsibility. I was trusted with reporting the figures for one of our largest shareholders, creating reports for the Group Finance Director, preparing some of the month end documents and so on.

The support and guidance at AES was outstanding, everyone is very friendly and more than happy to help if you are ever stuck or have general questions about career advice etc. The quality of the advice/mentorship I received there is also excellent, the members of the finance team are very well educated and brilliant at explaining things.

AES has a very friendly and easy-going culture, the atmosphere in the office is always a happy one and it is a very welcoming environment. They have a stranger policy which essentially means if there is a task you have not come across before (i.e. a stranger) then you are highly encouraged to ask for help and your colleagues are always happy to take some time out to explain it to you.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at AES, being a placement student I was given different tasks to experience various aspects of accounting and what goes into being part of a finance team, so my day-to-day was always different. The colleagues are all very friendly and it is exciting to be given some responsibility and use the skills I developed at university in an actual business.

Yes

Do not be nervous about joining AES, the people are very welcoming and extremely helpful so try to always ask questions and use the experience to your advantage.