Assistant tax advisor Review

I work in the financial services transfer pricing team assisting financial services companies with setting up appropriate transfer pricing policies and documenting these in line with the laws and regulations of countries worldwide. On a day to day basis my role is fairly varied but may involve meetings and workshops with clients, writing reports and discussing potential transfer pricing models with my team.

During my apprenticeship I have developed many skills including improving my writing ability to be more concise and understandable. Further to this I have also developed my communications skills to communicate with people with differing levels of understanding of a topic this has been achieved through helping to run training sessions, leading client meetings and participating in internal meetings. I have also almost completed my ACA qualification and have attended many internal training sessions to develop my tax technical knowledge.

I enjoy the programme in that I find it challenging and there is a lot of skills and technical knowledge to be learnt which means I am constantly learning and this keeps work interesting. Additionally, my team are nice to work with and are invested in my development and the progression of my career. However, despite this I am not certain that I will choose to stay in this exact role for the full length of my career.

I feel valued by EY which is assisted by our quarterly feedback cycles where my managers will comment on my performance over the past three months and provide guidance of how I can develop in the future. Additionally, I feel valued as my team members are keen to have me join their projects.

My programme has been fairly well structured however there was quite a gap between some of the qualification courses which made it more difficult to use the past knowledge in the next exam. Furthermore, the qualification is not related to my specific role and so I have not used much of the knowledge gained in my professional qualification in my everyday role.

The training provider gives as much support as you want, they will not necessarily reach out to you directly but if you have any problems or questions they are very willing to help if you reach out to them and are extremely approachable and helpful. In general I have enjoyed this training.

As a large company I think the support from HR is minimal however the support from my team and managers is constant and they are very supportive of me and are always available should I need help or have a problem. Additionally, within the team we are assigned a mentor who we can go to with any problems and will support me in my development.

My salary has increased rapidly for each year that I have been undertaking my apprenticeship and meets my living and travel costs with extra budget for things that I enjoy. Had I lived near the office when I first started the apprenticeship my living costs would have taken up all of my salary however as I lived with my parents at this time my living costs were minimal and met.

There are some opportunities outside of work and the company has partnerships with some art galleries and things like this and there are some sports teams however I have not attended either of these things and I am not aware of any one at the firm who participates in these things either.

Yes

I think EY offers great opportunity for learning and career progression and is a great place to start your career. Further to this EY has a good culture and working environment and the people are generally very supportive of personal development and as long as you are willing to work hard.

Think about why you want to work at EY and as for all interviews do some research about the company and the team you are looking to join before attending any interviews or assessment centres. Ask questions about the day to day running of the business, the qualification you will be taking and the team you will be joining.