Associate Review

Working in the audit department for banking and capital markets sector. I am required to audit financial statements of companies we have as clients and to test the financial statement lines. This includes a whole variety of items and relates mainly to areas included within the banking and capital market sectors.

Yes I have developed many skills. Such as managing expectations, client interactions, time management, organisational skills. In addition to this I have learnt about many things, including how businesses operate, accounting technical knowledge and auditing knowledge. There is still lots more to learn and I will be given the opportunity to manage others in the coming weeks.

The experience has been enjoyable but very challenging. Many people whom I originally started with have left due to the pressure of exams and working simultaneously. Due to the nature of the work there are also very long working hours from Jan - March which can be difficult. There are god rewards for this though.

It is very well structured with a lot of the training and support being provided to us at the same time as the graduate hires. We have multiple support functions to support different aspects of the program, including the exams/revision side, working and general support should it be needed.

Support is available should I need it. However I have not had to utilize much since starting. The support functions will reach out to us on a regular basis should we have anything that is concerning us. On the actual work my teams' are always very supportive and I can always ask them should I need any help.

Support is very good since it is with Kaplan which is a tuition provider. The qualification is difficult (ACA) but they are very able and we have good interaction with them when studying. They also have an employee assigned to only EY employees who will help us when we are studying.

The qualification is needed for this role. Since we are working very closely with the finance department (Financial controllers, head of finance etc) and using accounting concepts to audit the financial statements. I have seen things I am learning from the qualification come up in my day to day job which I have had to apply.

Yes, there is many social events. EY will have their Christmas Party and Summer Party as standard every year. There will also be plenty of socials throughout the year for many different occasions and events. There's also lots of sport, religious, general hobby groups to get involved with at EY.

Yes

From my time here I have overall had a very good time. It is very challenging but worthwhile and I have made some of my best friends whilst working here. The culture is very good and so are the people I work with. It is on my opinion one of the best programs around.

Prepare a significant amount of work before any of the stages of the interview process. It is a very relaxed process however which means you will be at ease but still be required to perform highly. The atmosphere that the recruiters create though will help to calm any nerves. EY will be very quick at responding to you which is good.