Assurance Associate Review

On a day-to-day basis, I Primarily work within the Audit Service Line for EY. This involves attending client site frequently, and helping to provide an audit opinion over both Group and Statutory Accounts published every year on companies house. Specifically, I help to plan and execute the audit procedures when testing the client's account figures in the trial balance.

I have learnt an array of new skills during my 6 months at EY, which I like to think could not have been learnt whilst attending university. From IT Skills, to people communication, EY has provided constant opportunities to develop my new and existing skills/. They have also provided numerous opportunities to take-on responsibility.

I have so far thoroughly enjoyed the programme. Accounting is a profession that is highly regarded, and to be a part of a multinational firm gives me plenty of doors to open in the future. From the start, EY has implemented it's trust in the school leavers, which is deeply empowering. It allows me to make a mark on the work I do, and provides me a sense of achievement when I do a good job. There is also plenty of autonomy in the workplace too, which allows myself to boost my confidence when doing independent work.

The programme is fairly well structured. EY has developed an online platform to record our on-the-job learning, specific for school leavers. EY has also provide numerous webinars to ensure that we are on track for meeting the apprenticeship requirements. However, one point that could be improved is that they offer more face-tp-face support with the scheme. We have to currently rely on older school leavers to help us day-to-day.

We receive a good level of support from the employer. For example we are assigned counsellors to help us with any non-work related matters that impact are work performance, as well as help us receive feedback every quarter about our job performance. However, it would be better if the feedback sessions were more frequent, and also have an online service where we could discuss any work admin related matters.

We receive a god level of support from Kaplan. They provide online support throughout the week, and have all resource materials readily available online to download. The actual college course was very intense, with not much time to answer questions though. Furthermore, the time between the exams and when we received college tuition was 8 months. It is therefore hard to retain any information that was learnt in lesson.

The qualification definitely provides the building blocks in understanding the deeper purpose of your work. Throughout the on-the-job engagements I make reference back to college, which helps to further understand why I am doing this task, as well as improving my knowledge on the process for accounting. For example, learning how client depreciate their assets, or how they prepare a set of financial statements

EY offers various extra-curricular activities in the evenings, of which I am part of EY FC (football club). This is an inter-company 5-a-side league in Bristol. There are other activities in the evening as well such as Yoga and fitness; however these are less well defined. I would say the demanding hours do affect the turnout of people to a large extent, and therefore accumulating a larger group can be difficult

Yes

I would recommend a friend to work for EY because they place a deep level of emphasise on the people within the organisation. The company is centralised around asking better questions to people, and therefore are vey welcoming when you don't know something about accounting or anything else in general. EY has a global presence, and I would argue is the nicest of the big 4 to work for in terms of the relationships you have with colleagues and managers.

Be prepared. The application can be very demanding of your skillset, and will require you to be focused throughout the process. Be sure to practice for the online skills-assessment and ensure you have confidence in yourself to work with a team, and present ideas individually as well. Also, be yourself. Don't pretend to be somebody else in the interview, as this can be quickly overseen by your interviewer. Those who research well, and give a smile on the day will be successful for the later stages of the application. Don't be worried about the maths element of accounting. This is something nowadays that is done for you in software. However, do practice your quick-thinking arithmetic skills, as this will prove invaluable in the future