Audit Associate Review

Grant Thornton has been a fantastic place to work thus far. The year-long internship programme is excellent as you are treated like a new graduate (in fact, the majority of the people in my office assumed I was a graduate) which is great as this allows you to get a real idea of what a career here would be like. However, you don't just get thrown in at the deep end. Grant Thornton is a great place to work and to train, and their internal training staff and facilities are amazing at getting you up to speed quickly and making sure that you can make a real difference to the teams you work with.

The colleagues you will meet at Grant Thornton are likely to be amongst the friendliest people you will work with. Everyone is helpful from the start and everyone, from secretaries to partners, are available to answer any questions or queries you may have about working at the firm. The firm is also a great place socially, with a strong office-based social committee organising a number of both formal and casual events that give you a chance to socialise and get to know the people you work with better.

The management and supervisors at Grant Thornton are very down to earth and happy to help you out with any queries you have at the start of your career, and indeed throughout your time working there. I have never been hesitant or made to feel unwelcome to ask questions if I was unclear of my duties or assignments I was given.

Grant Thornton is a large firm which, while expecting a lot out of its people, really seems to recognise the need for a good work-life balance and the firm has a strong commitment to ensure that everyone here maintains that work-like balance.

You are giving the same levels of responsibility throughout your placement as you would a graduate. I have been on all the same jobs and training programmes as the graduates, which shows the level of investment that Grant Thornton places in its interns. You are expected (with the help of the right training) to come in and play an active role in the teams that you work with, which means you're always faced with new challenges and opportunities to learn.

Grant Thornton places such emphasise on continued learning throughout your time working, not just in formal training courses, but throughout your time with the firm by learning through practical experience that it would be impossible to come away from your time with the firm having not picked up transferable skills that will assist you throughout the rest of your degree and beyond.

It is a professional services firm so obviously its not going to be a Disney Land environment 24/7. However, the office does have a really great, relaxed atmosphere that allows people to talk freely and to feel comfortable while at work. The great relationships between staff also help this, and a number of informal events such as pizza and drinks in the office on certain Fridays after work help to create that more relaxed feel to the environment.

The internship was set up great, and I was able to come into the office on my first day and immediately begin settling into the role. As said before, they treat all new interns just like they do graduates, so you will be set up with all the necessary info and equipment you would need when starting at a new firm.

Grant Thornton invests a lot in its interns and graduates and I have already been sent on a number of training courses that have helped be both technically but have also contained strong elements of personal development (in fact, pretty much all Grant Thornton training seems to encompass some aspect of personal development). The firm also seems to have a very open and responsive policy on allowing people to take on new challenges and seems happy to support them with the training needed to do so.

Grant Thornton has a clear appraisal and performance measurement system and so, provided you are willing and able to come in and play an active role in the team, you are very likely to be offered a position with them at the end of the placement.

While I was the only placement student in the particular office at the time, as said you were treated as I graduate and I was invited to all office events and socials. I was even included in all the local ICAEW student society events (by way of one of the reps in our office) who invited me to all their events even though I wasn't actually working towards my exams at the time.

I was able to live at home throughout the course of my internship and so, while I was paying cheaper rent than you might do otherwise, Sheffield is still a great and affordable place to live and work.

Being a Uni student in the same city I did my placement in has allowed me to stay in contact with all of my Uni friends while making new friends through work. Sheffield is a great place to go out and provides an excellent and varied nightlife for people at Uni throughout the week as well as working professionals going out at the weekend.

Grant Thornton's Sheffield office has an amazing social committee that organise a number of events throughout the year, from formal events to really casual ones. These also included a number of drinking and non-drinking events, so there is something for everyone. And the social committee is very inclusive and you're invited to events from the minute you start working there, so its a great way to get to know the people you work with and other colleagues in various departments you may not see much during work.