Associate Review

As part of the degree-apprenticeship programme, I spend the majority of my time in the EY Newcastle office engaging in project related work for our client - a global, household Bank. My project is an Anti-Money Laundering engagement - this entails conducting enhanced due diligence on the various business customers of our client. Responsibilities include making a recommendation on whether relationships with said customers should be maintained during formal presentations in front our clients' Board of AML Risk Management Seniors.

An incredible amount! I've learnt how to successfully identify and verify ownership structures, how to identify and verify documentation, how to successfully present recommendations, and how to review transactional activity. This is on top of the abundance of soft skills that you're certain to pick up on during the programme, such as communication skills and how to present yourself as a professional.

I absolutely love the day to day nature of the programme in terms of being on my project engagement. There's so much variety ensuring no two days are ever the same. The University work at Northumbria is really interesting too - learning how businesses operate in detail and how to develop as a leader is truly fascinating stuff (imo).

Very well structured. A full day of University on a Monday gives you a great opportunity to immerse yourself in academic work. Spending the rest of my time in the office enables me to adequately help my team in their project engagements and ensure we don't let our client down.

A great deal. You're allocated a more than generous proportion of study days per year to enable you to focus on your uni work when required. Even during the height of busy season during my project engagement, management were more than happy to allocate me study days to focus on upcoming assignments - in fact encouring me greatly to prioritise uni work in such instances.

Our University provides extensive support in order to aid us in our studies; digital workshops are held whereby we can seek guidance from tutors outside of university for our various assignments. Tutors are very responsive to emails, providing prompt and detailed responses to our queries, and of course, when at University, staff are incredibly supportive too.

Discounted tickets are often provided to EY members of staff for Newcastle United football matches, which I have taken advantage of with fellow school leavers. There are major Christmas and Summer parties to get involved in which are great fun. I had the opportunity to represent EY at a recent school leaver event in Manchester. There's also the formal induction that takes place in London (get to stay in a fancy hotel and chat more with your fellow school leavers) which is a great professional networking opportunity (all Grads/Apprentices invited).

Yes

- Free degree (no debt) - 3 years of experience at a Big Four firm, which will hold you in really good stead in the future. - Very engaging and interesting project work. - Opportunity to make new friends and meet new people. - University work is really interesting. - No two days are the same.

Be confident. When you're at Assessment Centres - you're in control. Presenting yourself in the best manner possible is in your hands. Take comfort in the fact that the only person stopping you from being successful is you. Don't deny others the opportunity to talk. Showing leadership and being vocal is important; but so is teamwork. You wouldn't appreciate someone else taking your opportunity to talk away from you, so don't do that to others. Get your fellow candidates involved and try to bring anyone who isn't being vocal into the conversation.