Trainee Associate Review

My job title is a trainee assisstant and I work on audits with a group of people. This will involve going and talking to clients to go through their systems, writing up reports and setting up lots of meetings.

Effective time mamangement and organisation are essential skills as you always have lots to do, and this is something I learnt very quickly on the job. I also learnt how to prioritise my work to make sure that work that was going to be reviewed first was completed in time. Another key skill to have is presentation skills in your work so that it is easy to follow. At first I did struggle with this but as you get to work with so many different people over such a short period of time you get to pick up tips and this quickly improved.

I enjoy my programmme as it defnitely is a challenge having to study for exams to become a chartered accountant and work at the same time. As a school leaver we do have five years to do this compared to a graduate who will only have 3. So this reduces the pressure on us as that we have longer to learn the job before each exam. It also helps being able to work and study as you can really see how everything you learn at college is put into practise.

I feel like EY value all of their staff and do try to make sure that they all have their say by frequently asking us to give feedback on training days and how work is genuinely going so that they can always improve. However it is good to know that you need to do well in your exams to be kept on. For each exam you get two attempts so the firm do realise that exams are very important and without them you cannot be chartered.

The programme is organised so that we have time outside of work to go to college. We also get half a days study leave before every exam. All of the exams are organised by EY and we are notified about them in plenty of time.

Our training provider is available from the start of each study period for an exam until the actual day of the exam. They are on site until late and after the period of study they are available on phone and email if you have any questions.

Through EY we are assigned a buddy and a councellor. The buddy is someone who is normally in the year above you who you can go to if you have any questions and needany advice. The councellor's role is similar but they also help you to dierct your career where you want it to go. They will meet with you as regularly as you need and always contactable to help you. If you have any issues or feel that something is not working for you then they will help you to resolve these.

All of our travel outside of our normal commute to work is reimbursed which is a big help as we do travel a lot. Also if we are on an away job and have to stay in a hotel we get dinner allowances so that we are never out of pocket. As all our exoenses are covered it means that we never have to dip into our salaries to cover work related expenses.

Within every EY office there is a team that organise social events so that you can get to know your collegues outside of the work environment. You are also entitled to 2 days paid leave to do work in the community as volunteering. This gives you the opportunity to help out with any scheme that you may be interested in. There are also opportunities to go and promote the firm and the programme at schools and universities if you are interested in doing this.

Yes

I believe that if you want to get straight into the working world and don't want the debt of going to uni it is definitely a better option. You still get to study and join with an intake of other school leavers. This means that you do not miss out on the social side of uni. It also means that you get paid so that you have a lot more money than friends at uni and have th eopportunity to do more things. As it is a 5 year programme it is afaster route to becoming a chartered accountant compared to univeristy, as you have a minimum 3 year degree in university and then a 3 year programme to get qualified after this.

The interview and assessment centres are quite relaxed so I would try not to stress too much. Before the ibterview it is defnitely important to read up on the firm and the role that you are applying for as you need to make sure that you are well suited to it. Something to bare in mind is that there is a lot of travelling involved and driving defnitely helps. So if you do not like travelling then audit may not be the job for you but you may be suited more to tax who spend more ime in the office.