Assistant Senior Associate, Assurance Review

Assistant Senior Associate in Assurance. This is quite a varied role and can be anything from having to manage a whole team of juniors out on a client's site to working on more complex engagements where you will be the more junior member of the team. Most work is carried out at client's sites so commutes to clients can be quite long.

I am currently studying towards the ACA, having previously completing the CFAB qualification. There are also plenty of frequent internal training courses which are a mandatory part of continuing professional development at the firm. The internal training courses are good for learning soft skills and networking, but even when learning EY specific software in courses, applying it to real client data isn't quite the same. Recently data analytics has been the main focus.

I used to really enjoy the programme, but since stepping up to senior, I've found that managers no longer provide as much support and when you identify any training or skills gaps, managers will say everyone else manages, rather than coaching you or advising which training courses to do. The changing teams every week is also a challenge as you never get to know your colleagues and you make the same small talk every week.

I feel that there are lots of gimmicky initiatives from management to try make people feel valued, but when you ask for support, this is rarely given. Also they do not seem to care when you highlight any issues you are having and they just say everyone else copes with it, rather than trying to help.

The structure of the programme is good, although it is too long as it could be done in 4 years and the timing of exams is a little odd. It makes little sense to do 2 exams at a time, twice a year, when it would be easier to do one exam per quarter. Other than that, it is probably one of the best in it's industry.

Kaplan are really good and tutors will go to any lengths to support you. They are available outside of working hours by phone, which is great for revising in evenings. The materials provided by them refer to online videos that they have produced which helps guide you through tricky topics.

The support from counselling managers (mentors) is really good and they are sympathetic to most situations and are willing to help, although they do not seem to have much ability to change much. HR is mostly done by an emailing ticketing system which is a slow process to get anything done with. The general attitude is that if everyone else can do it, you should be able to as well, so support is limited.

Leeds is far more expensive to live in than other regional areas, but is painted with the same brush as Hull and other smaller cities. Travel costs to clients are often not reimbursed to you as they say anything within 10 miles of the office is not claimable, even though most people will get to the office by £22.50 a week train smart cards, so the firm expecting people to treat travel to clients by car as a personal cost is unfair.

The opportunities outside of work are limited in a couple of ways. Majority of events put on by the firm are in London, so outside of London, you can only really dial into the events. The other issue is working hours culture as working until 6.30pm everyday, there isn't much time to do anything outside of work. On a positive, the offices in Yorkshire are encouraging the use of CSR days.

Yes

It is a good place to build connections, but I would caveat that by saying that they should only stay whilst they are benefiting from the experience.

There is a lot of travel involved in audit, which isn't something they make clear, so commutes can be up to 2 hours each way everyday. In interviews and assessment centres they aren't looking for anything in particular and so just be yourself, as they want to build diverse teams.