Flying Start Degree programme - Grade 1, Bristol Review

I worked with engagement teams in auditing insurance companies. I was involved in face-to-face client interaction, testing of companies controls, and the testing of companies accounts. I worked to ensure the completeness, accuracy and existence of the figures in a company's financial statements, such as the figures in their payables listings.

I developed a lot of independence during my time here, ensuring to fully understand my work and the clients I worked with, which deepened my understanding and knowledge. I learned lots about how to communicate, whether it's with people on my team or people in the clients team, which gave me professional communication skills which I can use for the rest of my life. I also gained a lot of technical skills, such as how to use AI properly and how to use excel. This has helped me become faster and more efficient and effective with technology and tasks I am given.

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience. I met a lot of new people who were all very kind and helpful. This helped me fully enjoy going to work each day as I knew I would be surrounded by people who care for and support me. The more I began to understand the work I was doing, the more I enjoyed it. I enjoyed being given the independence to speak to clients alone, and being given more workload which I understood made me feel valued and trusted within the team and the company. It was a very hard working placement, but being thrown in the deep end was definitely good way to learn.

My experience was very organised. I had a 'Connected Development' partner who worked with my for my first two months, and this helped me gain a deep understanding of the work I was involved in, as well as giving me a strong level coaching. This made my knowledge grow massively in a shorter period of time. In my teams, the managers were very understanding of your level of knowledge and experience, and gave you a workload that was manageable but enough to push you. When I did not have enough work to do, I was given work very quickly, or if I had too much on my plate, people would help me out.

I learned that the company culture was all about working together and taking pride in our work. Everyone in the company who I worked with was part of a team, where working alone was almost unheard of. Everyone, whether I knew them well or not, was supportive of me, and ensured I received feedback on the work I achieved, congratulating me in my progress at any given point in time.

I was always unsure of what I wanted to do, but working in a culture and environment where I look forward to going into work really helped me decide this is what I want to do. I enjoy the work, and the process of ensuring the accuracy of other companies financial statements. This is definitely something I can see myself doing for a career.

I was paid each month on a good annual salary, plus all the overtime hours I worked. I was reimbursed for all expenses I incurred whilst on the job, for example dinner if I worked past 9pm. The healthcare services were reimbursed for, such as eye tests and prescription glasses. When we were sent away on work (e.g. London), we got to expense our meals upto a certain amount and all of our travel and accomodation was paid for by the company.

There were definitely opportunities for networking, such as team lunches, office drinks and breakfast with the partners. There was also opportunity to network outside your office, for example being sent to London for a week allowed me to connect with people working in different offices, expanding my networking base.

Yes

Because you learn so much, you grow in ways you didn't know you had in you (independence, knowledge, intuition), you learn skills that are necessary for life (communicating, excel, AI), and you get pushed to become the best and most productive version of yourself. You also maintain a work/life balance, and they offer flexible working. You meet a lot of new people, make a lot of new friends, and you get paid for it!

You need to want to learn and develop in order to enjoy what you do. It will be hard work and some longer work days, but if you want it, it's easy to do.