PwC Talent Academy Summer 2014 Review

I really enjoyed it as it was a great combination of intensity and rewarding experiences. You learn a lot about PwC but also get opportunities to use and build on valuable skills such as presenting, working to deadlines, and teamwork with new people.

I definitely felt valued. The whole academy was free and you could really see that PwC was investing a lot in each candidate with opportunities to chat with senior partners and a really down-to-earth and friendly team, all of whom were really encouraging and helpful.

The nature of the academy is such that you don't receive guidance as such, given that the idea with many of the tasks is to come up with a solution as a team. However the expectations and criteria for the assessments were made very clear and in our practice group exercise we were given team feedback which was very helpful going forward into the real thing.

The information in particular is very valuable as we had a chance to hear from each of the service lines in great detail along with a Q&A session with each speaker. This was really helpful as I look ahead to graduate jobs in terms of what areas I might want to go into. The skills I developed probably won't be so useful in my course (maths tends to be very individual) but beyond my degree should be useful.

The academy was incredibly well-structured, with just the right amount of breaks to make sure that no time was wasted but equally that we weren't overloaded with information. The balance between tasks and listening to presentations was also really well structured overall, with a timetable handed out a the beginning that was almost entirely adhered to.

The atmosphere was really great as everyone there was keen to get the most out of the week and also to get to know the other people there.

There wasn't much in the way of personal training, more assessment than development, however the post-academy feedback was really helpful in this regard.

The presentations from each service line were invaluable, although they did vary in their level of detail, so we had a talk from Consulting twice as long as the one from Tax. However presentations can only tell you so much, I imagine I would get more of this from a work experience placement.

Although not specifically addressed, it was something brought up by each speaker and they all corroborated the collaborative culture at PwC.

The day affirmed that I wanted to go into financial services and also gave me a better idea of which service line interested me most.

Reimbursements were available for travel, but I don't live far away so didn't bother being reimbursed.

Each evening there was some sort of networking event either with current graduates on the graduate programs or with senior partners at PwC. Throughout each day the talent academy team were also happy to talk about their experiences.

These were very well organised, eg at a sit-down dinner the senior partners changed tables for each course so that we could meet at least three of them (it seemed also planned that they were from different service lines which was another helpful bit of structure).

The first speaker, a senior partner spoke about her involvement outside work but the general opportunities weren't really discussed.

Definitely if you are interested in working for PwC on an internship or placement year. The combination of insight and assessment gives you a great chance to learn a lot and get your foot in the door for a lot of opportunities with PwC.