Trainee Associate Review

My role is a trainee associate in the hull office in the accounting services team. Day to day I am carrying out a variety of tasks such as creating financial statements, creating tax computations and returns for llps, working on trust accounts and completing quarterly or monthly management accounts for clients.

Yes, I’ve learnt a variety of technical skills such as increasing my technical ability on excel and other accounting specific software. I’ve developed my teamwork and communication skills by working in a small team that work on a certain set of management accounts quarterly. I’ve also developed independence.

I would say I do enjoy the programme I’m working on and I am glad I chose this career pathway rather than going to university to study accounting. I enjoy the fact that I can learn and qualify whilst earning a salary and getting experience. I also enjoy the job itself

I would say it’s relatively well organised, however the first few weeks wasn’t as well organised as I hoped. We didn’t get told we were going away for the first few weeks until a couple of days before we were due to start so had no idea what was happening prior to that.

I would say I get a lot of support from my employer, they give us self study days to ensure we are prepared for our exams as well as having lots of people in my team who are more than happy to answer any questions I ever have whether that be about exams or something else.

I think we receive quite a lot of support from Kaplan whilst working towards our qualifications. There are numerous ways to get in touch if we have any questions and the extensive e learning programme provides us with a lot of support. Also, when we are in college the tutors are more than happy to sit and answer any questions we have.

I think it really helps. We are currently studying for the accounting exam and the content we are learning to very useful in my day to day role in the accounting services team with content such as double entry book keeping, accruals, prepayments and depreciation are just a few that help.

No, there isn’t any options for extra curricular activities in my work because I work in a very small office in hull with only one team so there isn’t much opportunity for extra curricular. This might change soon though as we are moving to a bigger office at some point.

Yes

If you are trying to get into the accounting industry I think it’s a great alternative to university. It is also a good company to start with as there’s a lot of support and it’s good to have on a cv once you are qualified as it’s one of top four.

I’d say to make sure that you’re prepared for all aspects of the interview process. Make sure you have done all the practice questions that are available before you sit the online tests. Also make sure it’s the route you want to go down as it is quite full on.