Associate Review

Most days I do very different tasks, I work in audit and therefore I spend January to March performing year end testing over our clients financial statements. The type of testing would include admin expense testing, prepayments, cash, etc. For the other parts of the year, I will either be working on planning (which is in preparation for the next year end) or interim testing, which is similar to what i do at year end, but at the September balances.

I have developed my excel skills - I had limited before I joined EY. I have a new skill in audit, although I am only part way through my apprenticeship, this is a skill I didn't have before and therefore have learnt during my time here. I would say my 'people' skills have improved, as we have to work in teams all the time and therefore are forced to interact with people that you usually might not.

Personally I do not enjoy it that much, I find the exams extremely difficult and we get very minimal help in comparison to prior years. For example, we have had our college taken away, whereas in previous years they got college time for all of their exams. We also have to work very long hours (50+ hour weeks) which we weren't told about before we started so that is very difficult and it is hard to maintain a social life.

It seems well structured, not sure how organised it is - I would say that the actual apprenticeship is well organised but anything related to the exams is not at all. I think over time it will improve but as it was only introduced last May I feel that it isn't as organised/structured as it should be!

Exam wise - very little! But everything else, I feel I get very good support, especially with mental health and flexible learning! The people I work with also give me a lot of support, but that is not necessarily the employer. I would say the main area they need to improve is the exams and they need to improve the exam team.

Again, relating to exams, this is very minimal - however, I know from speaking to the exam team this is not the training providers fault this is EY's fault as they are the ones who have chosen to limit/remove college time for our exams. The actual help from the training providers is good and they do the best they can considering EY give them less time to teach the topics every year.

I think it gives me better technical knowledge so therefore the quality of my work is improved but overall I do not find that my qualification is that related to Audit itself, except for the Assurance exams. Other than that, I do not find it helps much, and it seems to be better to learn on the job.

I am on the Insurance Social Committee - I have to therefore plan networking events for the department, as well as do the social email that we send out every Friday. Other than that, I attend all events organised by the committee but I do not get involved in any sports!

Yes

This is a difficult one to answer, I would not recommend my specific job because of the disadvantages including: 1) Long hours (busy season) 2) Lack of support over exams 3) Unrealistic expectation to sit exams whilst working full time However, the people are so great that I work with within my department and my teams, therefore it makes it a good company to work for. I would say that if you are a fun person who likes to attend socials then it is definitely a good place to work (as that is the best part about the job), if not then it is definitely not for you and I wouldn't recommend EY.

My advice is... READ UP ON BUSY SEASON! Myself or none of my colleagues were told about it and it really is a big part of this job that is not fun! so i would suggest reading up on it before making the decision of whether you want to commit to it