Associate Review

My day-to-day role is the preparation of financial statements. These can be financial statements that are either unaudited, audited or dormant. I work within the financial reporting team. We tend to receive year-end information from the client, reconcile their figures either against the management accounts that have been provided or by creating our own working papers and comparing against a bank statement etc.

I have developed a few new skills that I have learnt from skills days provided by my college about dealing with difficult people and also about how company's brand themselves. I think that my english and maths skills are also improving by working towards targets that has been set by my college.

I think having 20% away from my desk is quite refreshing because I can go away and focus on a new skill that I have learnt or I can go away and learn something new. I then can use the skills that I have learnt away from my desk in the workplace.

I think that the organisation of the programme is very good. I like the OneFile that we have to fill in because it clearly sets out what targets that we need to hit, it breaks down tasks that we have to do. It is good that we write reflection statements in it.

I receive lots of support from our learning and development department. They help to organise our exams and courses for us so that we can focus more on the apprenticeship targets and soft skills that we can then bring in to the workplace. We are encouraged to complete tasks that can be classed as off the desk.

I receive a lot of support from my provider. They can in for chats with us a lot of times as well as replying quickly to emails. They also provided us to take a cognative test which picks up any learning difficulties that we may have so that they can support us even more to make sure that they are teaching us in ways that we will understand.

I think that some of the exams that we have taken really relate to what we do on a day-to-day basis. The help to expand my knowledge so that I understand better what I am doing everyday. I feel that I am now more competent to complete jobs now and have more of an understanding on what i'm doing.

In July, there is a BDO football tournament where all of the offices from different places play against each other. With Moore Stephens being taken over by BDO, it is a good opportunity to get to know more people who work for BDO as well as playing a bit of football.

Yes

I think that BDO are a very friendly company to work for. They really watch out the health and welbeing of their staff. They are very supportive as a company working towards your exams but they are also very supportive to those who are more interesting in getting qualified by experience.

Just be yourself, the team are very friendly and those that are relaxed and are themselves work better together than those who are trying to be someone else. I think if you enjoy working in a team then working for BDO is a good step forwards to progessing in your career.