Audit Vacation Student Review

I enjoyed my time at KPMG and found the experience extremely valuable. Having already completed a placement with another member of the Big 4 in a different service line, it was good to get a comparison between the two companies, clients, offices and service line.

The work that I completed was reviewed and added to the overall audit file for each client. I felt that the work that I was completing was contributing to the final piece of work that would be handed in by the team for review.

I was assigned a buddy and introduced via email to them a couple of weeks before my placement began. Any questions that I had beforehand were quickly and easily answered and felt like I would be made welcome when I did start. Unfortunately I was unable to actually meet my buddy in person as we weren't assigned to the same jobs. However, everyone that I worked with was very helpful and supportive, and would answer any questions that I would have about the work, their careers, or any other general queries that I had.

This would vary both with the client and the number of people working on each team. Some days I would be busy for hours on end, but other days would be the opposite. It was a regular occurrence that I had nothing to do as we were waiting for the client to produce some information for us which was frustrating. Also, when working with a larger team, there was less work given to me as the work was shared pretty equally amongst everyone.

I was given quite a lot of responsibility whilst on placement. I would often complete pieces of work individually and would liaise with the clients' staff in order to find information regularly. Although the work that I did was always checked, I knew that I was doing work that other members of the team would be doing if I wasn't there, so I was working at the same level as qualified staff.

The skills I have developed will assist me more in future life and my career than in my studies. I had to be very thorough with my work and communicate well with both my team and clients. If I was to take a job in a client facing role in the future, this wouldn't faze me very much now as I have gained the experience.

I spent little time in the office as part of my placement as I was on client site for much of my time. However when I was at the office there was a professional atmosphere but it was very sociable and not intimidating at all. Everyone was very friendly and always open to questions.

The application process I thought was very good. I passed through it very quickly and was informed of each step in good time. The actual placement itself was also pretty well run. Sometimes I didn't know where I was going to be the following day or following week until the last minute and was sent to Gatwick (200 miles) as a result of a lack of opportunities locally for me to go to. It was a good experience as this is the type of travel that auditors experience in their jobs but it felt a bit unnecessary.

I attended an induction day in the Bristol office on my first day which explained lots of information about KPMG. There were about 15 others at the day so was good to speak to others in the same situation. It also gave a few of the basics about what we would be doing but it wasn't that helpful as I learnt most of what to do on the job. Being told about a few bits of useful terminology that we would hear was very useful though!

I have been offered a Partner interview which will happen a week after the end of my placement. They are flexible as to where you want to interview for as I originally applied for the Cardiff office and wanted the opportunity to interview there instead which KPMG agreed to.

I was the only placement student in my office so was limited to just colleagues. There weren't any official social events when I was there but everyone was very easy to get along with. We would always go to lunch together when working at a client.

I was told of sports teams and social events that the office does get involved in but was unfortunate that nothing was scheduled for when I was working there.