associate 1 Review

my role was auditing different companies, learning how to and then completing ega's. i received a lot of coaching from people on my team about how to go about work each day, doing different tasks. i was working on a company with both property investment and maritime funds. it was office based so i never needed to go to client site throughout my placement.

This placement has greatly enhanced my technical capabilities in terms of accounting, due to my new found knowledge now of being able to complete multiple different EGA's within most FSLI's. It has also improved my communication skills as i have had to keep in close contact with my team working remotely to make sure we all know what we are doing.

I really enjoy my programme! It has been a great experience and i have loved the diversity this course gives me, as i am able to study at university for one term, so not missing out on the university experience all of my friends are getting, but also being able to apply skills and knowledge i have learnt in real life which is really rewarding and useful to see how it all works!

My programme is very well structured and organised. It is broken up to be equal each year more or less, so its consistent every year when i am studying and when i am working. i think this is very good as it gives me a change, rather than just working for a whole year, then just studying for the other 3!

my employer has been absolutely fantastic! I was a bit worried about being dropped in the deep end before coming here with work i didn't know how to do piling up in front of me. this has been the opposite of how it has been. my employer has a very sophisticated buddy and career coach system, as well as coaching framework within each job, so i always had lots of support from a broad range of places.

my university runs lectures and seminary and workshops, for me in the first term to learn the accounting material each year. i think the two weeks intense study sessions before exams, once i come back will be very helpful and much needed! However i think that we could have more contact time and teaching time during the first term

I am really excited to carry on learning and work towards my ICAEW qualification! I believe this will be an invaluable qualification anywhere in my career so i strongly want to work towards it. My university tapers its exams to get me exemptions in the accounting exams for 12 out of the 15 which is absolutely amazing and the only thing that could be improved is to do the last 3 at uni too. nevertheless this opportunity to study and work and gain a very valuable, useful qualification i think is absolutely great and i am very grateful for being able to get on the course.

there aren't really a lot of extra curricular activities at work or on my course that i have come across. this could definitely be improved upon however i have heard that this is better at regional offices that are smaller rather than being in London. also given my short time here, i can see it would be difficult to plan and play for only 3 months (especially being in busy season) so i think there will be a bigger opportunity to take part in possible activities once i am full time here. in addition i think it also depends a lot how big your team is or social group as to what opportunities may come across your way.

Yes

This is a fantastic course to be on which i would recommend time after time to anyone interested in gaining the qualification. The employer is great with absolutely loads of extras like O2 priorities, healthcare and tastecards. the office is great and it has such a lovely working environment to be in.

research before hand about the business as they will definitely like to see that you take an interest in their business, how it works and how they add value to clients. prepare yourself in terms of answers you can give in interviews as well and write them down as there is nothing wrong with taking a piece of paper into the interview