Accountant Review

I receive financial data from the client and I validate the data and gain an understanding of it in order to audit the financial statements that the client will be publically posting. I routinely converse with the client with back and forth questions and spend a lot of time on a laptop looking at data sets.

My confidence in talking to new people and adapting my style of speaking in order to accommodate different environments has increased significantly. I have also become more punctual and have taken a lot more personal responsibilities such as budgeting finances, managing my time more effectively and finding a work life balance.

I enjoy my programme to a large extent due to the many opportunities it presents, as well as the diverse range of people I have worked with. I consider many of my new work colleagues as friends due to the immensely people focused culture at the firm which I enjoy thoroughly.

The firm itself is extremely well organised, however the apprenticeship programme is quite limited in its organisation. This is mostly due to the many clunky and clumsy portals and platforms that is required to log into and document learning. This combined with the tedious nature of logging things such as off the job learning and learned skills makes the certain aspects of the apprenticeship an inconvenience rather than a learning experience.

I receive constant support in terms of regular feedback, both formal and informal and access to a counsellor who is very supportive and approachable whom I can talk to at any time regarding any problems I have. This is paired with informal "buddies" or mentors that are extremely useful and supportive.

I receive regular feedback sessions and emails detailing instructions on how to complete required apprenticeship documentation. For my chartered accountancy qualification the support is limited to a few days in a Kaplan college, other than that the work towards my qualifications is completely self taught and independent to the firm.

I honestly do not believe my qualification has any benefit at all to my job role as their is little correlation between the two. The qualification is mostly just logging hours that have no relevance to my day to day job and the skills and behaviours work is not really helpful to my job role.

There is nearly unlimited extra curricular activities to get involved in at the firm. There are multiple sports teams and networking programs which are open to everyone. Even if there is a niche group that you belong to that doesn't have a network at the firm, there is opportunities to create it yourself.

Yes

Overall it is a very good firm to work for with great people and a lot of good learning opportunities as well as opportunities that arise after you complete the qualification. The only down side of the poor work life balance which can be quite harsh especially for a school leaver.

EY is the best of the big 4 to work for. You just need to work hard which you should expect working for such a large firm. The people are very friendly so if you ever have any issues simply ask anyone around for help and they will sort you out.