KPMG360 Apprentice Review

As a KPMG360 apprentice we rotate through different departments within the firm every six months. Currently I am placed within Management Consulting and am required to help prepare presentations for clients and help set the strategy for the future direction of the team. In a normal 9 - 5 day I spend the majority of it responding to emails and drafting slides to be looked over by directors.

We are enrolled in a Level 3 AAT Course, which will leave us with a basic professional qualification in accounting once we finish. Outside of this, being predominantly an accounting firm, you learn a great deal about Microsoft Excel. Though currently I spend most of my time in powerpoint and honing my presentation skills

Each to their own. With the rotational aspect of the apprenticeship, you can have a say in which area of the firm you would like to work. It's enjoyable in terms of the great deal of choice you have to pick something you think you would like to work with. Balancing studying for exams with work can be a pain, but having your hours capped to 35 a week during the first year helps with this.

We get a great deal of support from the management team overseeing the apprenticeship scheme, if you feel that you're not being utilised properly or unhappy with your placement, they will do your best to find somewhere where you feel that you can thrive. There's opportunity to be recommended for awards for exceptional work, though this is largely down to the discretion of your placement team.

The management team is excellent in terms of providing support to individuals if they need it. We are assigned a performance manager, who we can turn to in order to voice concerns or troubles and the management team as a whole listens to what input apprentices have on the future direction of the programme, and any decisions that may effect us. Only gripe is that sometimes there isn't enough communication in advance of important events such as exams and team building exercises.

Our training provider offers plenty of avenues to seek support. Whether the support they offer is actually useful is questionable. You are assigned a 'buddy' of sorts that you can ask questions concerning the course material, though I know of nobody who has used this. We usually rely on emailing the tutor that delivers our lessons, or listening to pre-recorded lectures and completing online exercises on the provider's website.

As mentioned above, we are all assigned a performance manager that we can talk to concerning any issue we are having at work. Anything from whether we are happy in our current placement to health issues. KPMG has a huge support group for mental-health issues, and won't discriminate against any condition that you may have. They will bend over backwards to help you.

Our salary is on the lower end of what is offered to school leavers in the wider market. £18,500 is the current offering to new apprentices in the first year of the program. How far that goes depends on how much your commute costs, for the London Office transport costs can eat a large chunk of your salary. KPMG does offer a lunch allowance of £3.20 every day though, so provided you remember to spend it, you can get subsidised hot meal or just load up on chocolate bars.

This depends largely on what the team your rotation is in is like. Most teams go for drinks or some other social event once a month. The company offers opportunities for you to volunteer for a few days a year for a variety of causes. Helping the homeless, giving presentation to schools etc. There are your usual sports clubs also, though you need to go looking for them as they aren't very well advertised around the office

Yes

KPMG holds a lot of power in its brand. Other than being a good name to have on a CV, it's actually a rather nice place to work. A wide support network to help you with any issues you may encounter, and people who are genuinely nice and pleasant to be around - not the cutthroat corporate stereotypes you may fear when joining a large global firm.

Apply as early as you can. The 'deadline' for applications that is given to you isn't real. Places start being given out before this deadline is reached, so its best to get you application in early to get the best odds. After the initial application, the second stage is an assessment centre with an individual interview with a member of the KPMG360 management team at some point during it. As far as assessment centres go, this is fairly relaxed. The majority of it will be icebreaker exercises that aren't assessed, with a written exercise to come later. Do your usual interview preparation (read the website, remember the history and values of the company).