Flying Start Degree programme - Year 2 Review

As a second year on the Flying Start Degree programme, the role I took within the Assurance department at the London office was similar to that of an associate. After being assigned to a client, this mainly involved being assigned work by a senior and liasing with them throughout the day with questions and feedback for the work completed. Other aspects included emailing clients and other members of the team with regards to the work. I undertook controls work for the majority of my placement, for example checking internal documents to 3rd party confirmations to ensure the information matched. However, as I had little experience, often this work was quite menial and boring and luck played a massive part in enjoying the tasks as you were rarely assigned something exciting.

As this was linked to the ICAEW accountancy qualification, many of the tasks I undertook were relevant to this, as I had to apply theory from the qualification to real-world jobs at work. In terms of new skills, I learn how to effectively communicate with clients and draft emails to them in order to get exactly what we needed. I also developed my communication skills in general, as well as my leaderships skills as much of the work was independent and focused on taking the initiative, rather than relying on your senior for answers. Additionally as part of mandatory compliance, I had to complete various CPD tasks which greatly enhanced my professional knowledge of the field.

I found this programme to be not only extremely enjoyable, but useful and practical. As it takes place whilst still at university, I was able to use my knowledge from the classroom to understand why the subject material was being taught and its applications in the workplace. The structure of the programme also means that upon starting, you are treated as if you were joining on the graduate scheme, which allows you to easily fit into the new environment. As well as this, the London office consists of informal groups that organise activities outside of work, which helped me to make friends easily and feel comfortable with my colleagues. At times however it was quite taxing, especially as some seniors tended to take advantage of us and get us to do much more work than necessary. For example some of my seniors would get me to do work on some of their other clients as they were stuck for time, even though this was their responsibility and not mine.

As an associate I assumed that I would be given minimal, boring work that senior members of the team did not want to do. However, I was given both tedious (as expected) and complex work which was challenging yet something which made me feel as though I was positively contributing to the company. In addition I was often told by seniors how grateful they were to have me on the job as associates are able to dedicate much more time to certain jobs. I do however feel that often Flying Starts are overlooked and misunderstood as many other employees are unaware of the programme. This often means that we were either given much too complex work or not enough work as our abilities are underestimated. Additionally as we are not in a permanent position, many people are uninterested (especially the graduate joiners more than seniors) in interacting with us which made me feel somewhat undervalued and unimportant.

At first the programme seemed to be bizarre in that, unlike most degrees, instead of a placement year, the placements are spread out over the 4 years. However, I now think this is a positive as it means that I can gain experience at different levels of knowledge so that as my academic knowledge develops, as does my professional knowledge. We also receive periodic emails and sessions to update us on the programme as well as information about other years e.g. previous performance so we can determine particular difficulties which provides a good background for what we can expect. We also have a great support system as we are able to liase with professors, university staff in general and personal people managers in the workplace. These people are all aware of each other as well so that matters can be communicated across the board without the need for much effort on my part. My main complaint would be that as the course is relativity new at Nottingham, there can be some uncertainty as the course is constantly developing.

As mentioned earlier, we receive periodic emails about updates to the programme and PwC in general. Our module convener is accessible at all times and we are able to contact them whenever needed through email and I have always received a quick response to any questions I have asked. Our training providers also make sure to emphasise that they are always available to help with any problems we may have and provide us with their office locations should we need to talk in person. I would therefore say the support we receive is fantastic.

At work every effort is made to inform the manager or senior in charge of your position as a Flying Start (whether by resourcing or yourself). This meant that they were happy to help you with any questions you may have about the work as they knew your level of knowledge. Additionally I was assigned a people manager who's job it was to check on my well-being and development, as well as to answer any questions I may have had. My PM was extremely helpful and despite having a lot of work on his plate, always made the effort to help me and provide me with knowledge about all aspects of the company (not just our department).

I felt that for the position I was in, the salary was adequate as I lived at home. This meant I had no need to worry about standard living costs such as bills and food. However a significant amount of my salary was taken up by travel and social expenses, especially as I was located in London which is much more expensive in comparison to other areas of the country. Therefore I would say that for those who didn't live at home, the salary may not be sufficient enough as most would be spent on food and living costs.

As mentioned before, I was placed in a social group for activities outside of office hours. These were not often however were a nice opportunities to get to know my colleagues. I was saddened to hear that my departments formal events were cancelled due to budget cuts, despite other departments and offices still being allowed them. Although I had heard that there were sports and voluntary activities available through work, we were not made aware of these, and the only way I was able to find information was through word of mouth.

Yes

As a Big 4 company and one of the biggest graduate employers, PwC does a good job of transitioning students to the workplace due to the number of years it has been doing so. This means that the in-house structure does a good job of providing support and guidance to students. In addition many of the seniors have been though the process themselves so understand your situation. In general, the experience I have gained is really useful and means I don't have to worry about applying for internships or go through the process alone.

For the interview process I would mainly say don't worry about having to have lots of grand and complex examples of your experience. For example for teamwork it doesn't have to be that you were on the national football team, it could just be something as simple as a group project you had worked on in school. My main tips for the placement in general would be that it's not as difficult as you may think, and to make every effort to network. Becoming friends with colleagues made my experience much more enjoyable and also means that in my placements to come, I already have connections that I can build upon.