Assistant Senior Review

The job mainly involves going to client sites, and auditing their financial statements. It also involves having daily interactions with the client and meetings. Furthermore, you are expected to be able to work as a team and lead a team in your third year on the programme. You tend to travel a lot in auditing, and may also find that you stay away a lot

You do learn a lot of skills in auditing, such as being able to work in a team, organisation, leadership, time-management and confidence. You also learn client speaking skills, and accounting/analytics skills. In audit you massively improve your skills and will find that you are a different person to when you first joined.

The programme is actually very stressful, and so I do not enjoy it very much. You are often working extremely long hours (can be until 12 on large audits), and travelling far distances. You also work away a lot meaning that is difficult to maintain a work-life balance. Furthermore, the office has a very bad atmosphere due to everyone being stressed, which greatly impacts my enjoyment

My year's programme was not very organised, as they are still unsure of a lot of things and the focus seems to be on graduates. Not many people know what the differences are for school leavers, however I have seen that the programme for the years below me are much more structured/organised.

You really have to shout in my office if you want support. I have seen multiple people (including me) go to the directors in the office if they are struggling at work due to stress, however there is often no solution and this drives people to leave EY. My intake has more than halved since we joined due to the lack of support received

Kaplan is very very good at providing support during the ACA qualification. They have an online website which you can use, and the study material they provide is very helpful. They really know what they are doing and only provide you with the information you need to pass. Furthermore, the college tutors are always available to help with questions

The ACA does help with the day to day job of auditing as you learn a lot of accounting in the accounting and FAR modules. However, I would say for school leavers that the exams are set apart a lot so it is difficult at work when you get rated against the graduates who have done almost double the exams you have

There is lots to get involved with at EY. There are numerous social groups, and events. My office tends to let the employees organise all events and therefore you get a lot of exposure and it can be a nice change from auditing. However, with these extra-curricular events you have to fit it on top of your day to day job, which can be challenging and mean you end up working late nights.

No

The company is really facing a lot of difficulties and struggle to maintain their employees. This is the worst year I have seen with staff turnover, however I do not find that the company does lots to keep their employees and therefore this makes me think that they do not care about their employees. I think it is only helpful to join EY if you are looking for a training provider to study the ACA

Just be yourself in the interview process, as they really want to see if you would be able to get along with clients. Often people try to be someone they are not and the interviewers often pick up on this. Also be very prepared and research the company before applying