Auditor Review

As an auditor, I am tasked to check the authenticity, reliability and accuracy of the accounts of many clients, specialising with Government, Public Sector work. This involves ensuring details on invoices, on systems, and other pertinent documentation checks back correctly to what the client has input. This also means travel is a requirement.

It has been an onslaught of skills really. Starting with the fact that my interactions with people of much higher seniority has become much more comfortable, and now meetings with directors of finance externally and indeed senior managers and partners internally are something which would once have filled me with dread, but are no longer foreign to me.

I have enjoyed it to the extent that it provides me with disposable income that I otherwise would never have thought I could acquire at this age, allowing me to embark on holidays, and buying a car when both things would never have happened had I gone to university. But it has been tough because hours are appropriately longer than your normal uni day.

It is a tried and tested programme, meaning that as it has been running for many years, EY have developed a process where anyone from any background enrolled onto the course does not find it like they have been thrown into the deep end. Rather, studying and working has been balanced well.

At EY, we have the fortune to not just have your general line manager, but rather a buddy who you are initially assigned with who may have only started at the company recently himself so they would be good for your initial induction, but also, a counsellor who you can go to, be that voicing any worries or requesting a secondment to accelerate your career.

From the ICAEW, administered through Kaplan, we receive a lot of support. We have a designated tutor throughout the process who we can contact whenever we need assistance or guidance through a certain issue for that exam, and the mobile and online portals both help to complete work on the go.

It has helped a lot in my opinion. The first exam itself is very pertinent to the work which we do, i.e. accounting, and you can see the theory directly utilised in the work every day. I do hope that I qualify, and I know if I do , I will attain a much better understanding of the sector.

There are at EY. Each quarter, we have a catch up meeting across the office, where we discuss performance of the company over the last quarter, but more importantly gives us a chance to grab a bite together as a team. also, we have an annual football competition between offices, and there are religious societies open to all who want to be involved.

Yes

In my opinion, EY is one of the most welcoming places I have been. I presumed it would be as daunting as the US coroporate dramas where people are out for themselves, and there is a definitive gap between the associate and the manager, but rather everyones contributions are treated as equal and awards are commonplace.

Preparation is key. Practice as many mock online tests as possible. the assessment day is not a difficult few hours if you read the material sent to you by EY. THe interview is just an hour where you talk about a presentation you should have prepared, and the remainder is about you - so again, not too difficult.