Associate Assurance Review

I am currently working as an associate within audit and this involves checking a clients financial statements for material error. I work within government and public sector so get to work with multiple councils and NHS bodies. I am frequently interacting with my clients, and travelling around to their various sites.

For starters my excel skills have improved dramatically from constantly working on workbooks! I will finish the course as a fully qualified chartered accountant, and am currently studying the ACA qualification with ICAEW towards this. My interpersonal skills and confidence has developed massively since joining EY due to the constant client interaction that we have. We often having training courses and calls to update our technical knowledge so we are fully up to date with the relevant audit guidance.

The thing I enjoy most about my programme is the people that I work with, especially working within one of the smaller offices you know everyone. The work that we do can at times be intense and I know the hours are considerably longer than most jobs, especially at my age which wasn't what I was expecting when I joined, however I recognise that its such an opportunity to gain experience within such a huge and well recognised firm

By my local team and the people I work with I feel very valued, my contribution is always made to seem very much appreciated, and my managers and seniors always are considerate to me as a person, eg allowing me to work flexibly around my personal commitments. However from central down I don't feel as much of this recognition, for reasons such as resourcing problems within the firm which then places pressures on everyone else, and then cutting things such as award schemes etc

On the whole my programme has been well organised throughout as its now a process EY has been through with many different school leavers such as myself. I have a councillor who is always on hand to discuss my progress and future development and it is known that every year we will go on a different training course as we progress through each level of the scheme. Prior to joining I was kept well up to date with all information I would need for my entry to the firm.

We complete our learning with Kaplan Financials, the quality of the tutors is very high from what I have experienced so far, and they always make sure we have sufficient materials to cover all the material for each exam. The tutors have always made effort to make sure they are contactable out of college times with any queries. The only thing that slightly lets Kaplan down is they can often be quite late with letting us know things such as our college dates etc, which is irritating for forward planning

No matter what my issues is there would always be someone within the firm who would be able to help me with it. All of my seniors and managers are more than generous with their time when it comes to coaching and on the job training and we have a dedicated person for HR within our office alone.

I personally feel that for my age and level my salary is generous, however I am currently living at home and therefore when I move out this opinion may change slightly. All of my work expenses are covered separately, so I don't have to have pay out for things such as my commute to and from client site which is really good, as this would take a large chunk of my salary.

EY is really good for offering multiple opportunities, we have so many social events throughout the year that are all paid for by the company, and then theres also the option to join things such as the sports teams, charity committee or social committee. As well as that theres also multiple fundraising teams that we set up, so in a few weeks I'll be cycling 100miles with my colleagues for charity

Yes

The work may be intense and you can't be shy of working hard but the rewards significantly outweigh this in terms of having great teams, a generous salary for my age range and loads of opportunities to get involved socially

Make sure you do your research well prior to applying, its good to have a knowledge of the competing firms, and the current issues currently facing the business as a whole. Mainly though just be yourself, I really liked that EY's interview process focused not just around how I could fit in the business, but how the business could fit me, so I really felt that the interviewer wanted to get to know me and who I am