Talent Academy Review

I did enjoy meeting senior directors, partners, graduate recruitment and fellow like-minded students. However, the three days at the Talent Academy with no real breaks between sessions did tire me out by the end of the Academy- I was for once glad that an insight event was not as long as a week!

I felt I was being assessed the entire time at the Academy, which was probably the greatest reason why I was selected by PwC. I would be silly to say that I felt like I belonged to PwC when they were constantly assessing me. However, they were never discourteous nor unfriendly to me.

There was a large group of PwC graduate recruitment team members who were responsible for the running of the Talent Academy, which I was quite impressed about. They were nearly always around to help us if we needed help. I feel that perhaps they could have approached us a bit more during breaks and mealtimes, but since they were assessing around 70 of us in three days, it is understandable that they needed some space and privacy to do so!

To be honest, a lot of the exercise was very much geared towards the assessment centre PwC conducts- which is an amazing opportunity to improve assessment centre techniques, but not so much for my degree subject.

It was very well structured- we were given an information pack with the timetable right off the bat, and I could see that it was jam-packed with activities to develop our assessment centre skills etc. Sometimes the sessions went over a little, cutting down our downtime, which was a shame, but it is understandable since there are a lot of people to look after and assess in three days.

I had some fun socialising with fellow students during little social time we had. They gave us drinks vouchers every evening, which was great, and the facilities were great.

They invested in a lot of resources to bring about this Academy. We had Teach First come in to give a presentation and a lot of group exercises took place. I took away the importance of having a personal brand from the Talent Academy, and so I feel I can conclude that PwC overall invests very much in human resources.

We had a networking dinner with senior partners and directors in our first evening of the Academy, and we also met a few associates and graduate recruitment team during the time there. I feel while it was great to get to speak to the people actually working in service lines I am interested in, it is never the same as undertaking a work experience at PwC.

Like I said, they placed a lot of emphasis on developing personal brand and feedback. It helped me to certainly differentiate PwC from its competitors.

I am still relatively unsure about which career path I will choose, but no matter what I choose, I will use skills from the Talent Academy to succeed.

I was reimbursed expenses for my journey only. However, they did pay for all meals and board, and the rooms were surprisingly very nice and spacious.

Yes, there was a dinner with senior partners and directors as well as drinks reception with graduate recruitment and associates. However, they were only a few hours long at best.

As I mentioned above, there was not enough social time, which is understandable as the Talent Academy was designed to be almost like a 3 day assessment centre experience.

Teach First did a presentation about their scheme with PwC, where future PwC employees become teachers under Teach First before going on to their jobs at PwC. Otherwise, I just assumed there were the usual activities employees could get involved in outside work as they didn't elaborate on the topic.

I would definitely recommend it for anyone trying to get some experience in how assessment centres work and developing their skills. It is also a valuable time to get to know like-minded students of our age- a lot of us will be seeing each other again since we are pursuing similar lines of work, so it is great to network with each other too.