Associate Review

As an associate I act as a supportive member of the audit team, usually working to test the validity of a companies financial statements before they're published. This includes many different sections of work and happens with all manner of clients so no two days are he same. I may be ticking through some tests or investigating differences in the year or working to understand how a company runs their payroll.

My client facing skills have developed a lot on this job, Saturday jobs don't give this level of professional experience. My skills on Excel have really increased and general understanding of what I'm doing continues to grow every day.

The people are lovely and the company culture is really excellent. I didn't expect to be out of our own office as much as I am but that provides some nice changes. The work itself can become tedious or boring sometimes.

You'll have different managers on different jobs and depending on what role you've been given they'll really take an interest. They're supportive no matter what. We have some excellent internal reward schemes.

There is a lot of training in the beginning which slows down as you continue. On the job training is constant and college for exam is something I'd hoped would be progressing quicker. When we do have exams we may have 3 in a day which I feel is not well done as it puts you under a lot of pressure. Interim meetings with people managers are well timed as they don't need to happen more often if not needed.

At college we are given all kinds of access, online tools, textbooks and we can contact our tutors whenever we need. On the job our training is more flexible, everyone has their own limits but you can always call another member of the team if you're unsure of the answer. We have online guidance but speaking directly to someone else is usually the fastest option.

Our HR team is really wonderful, I don't see a lot of my manager but am always happy to talk to the manager on the job I'm working on. We're provided with a buddy in our first year which can be really supportive. Questions are never ridiculed.

Straight out of college/sixth form I haven't moved out to be paying too much rent! Travel costs further than the commute to the office and expenses for staying away are all covered by the business (credit card score ahoy!) I've got plenty of money to save for the future.

Loads, we're involved in lots of different charity work as an office, runs etc. We have a volunteering day which you can do yourself or as part of an office day. Office dinners too.

Yes

For the type of business to go in to, there is less stress than attempting a larger firm. Especially whilst studying for the qualification.

Remember the CLEARR values for all the interviews, apply them! That means the written application and the digital interview. Plan ahead and recall some scenarios! Be yourself at the assessment day and show you can work as part of a team but shine as an individual as well.