Senior Auditor Review

Travel to different client sites and work with different teams for each client. Interact with senior client employees such as Finance Directors. Audit material balances on the clients financial statements by obtaining a breakdown, reconciling to the trial balance (which is used to create the financial statements) and vouch amounts to invoices, third party evidence, cash receipts and payments etc.

Develop Excel skills as this is what most of our work is based on. Get to use Data Analytics tools in audit, developed by EY, which you can learn a lot from - such as trends in a company from their revenue to receivables to cash. Get to work on various accounts on the financial statements to develop accounting knowledge. Team management as you progress and manage more junior members of the team including upwards management - providing status updates and reporting potential issues. Time management skills to meet deadlines and juggle work and personal life balances.

You can work with some teams and clients that you may enjoy more than others and this can depend on your personality and preferences which may be different to some of your peers. Overall, I have learnt a lot about audit and accounting and made some great friends along the way across all levels of the firm. When applying to EY, I was really impressed by how approachable everyone was, from junior level right up to partner level. It is a very sociable company with school leavers and graduates (and more senior staff too!) going out often for work drinks. The most challenging part of the programme would be the working hours can sometimes be long and this completely varies depending on what client you are on and how tight the deadlines are and how well resourced the team is - it can range from 5pm finish if you are lucky, right up to 2am finish from my experience.

The programme is very structured with college and exams set at certain times of the year (almost always outside of busy season: Jan - March in audit). The apprenticeship qualification is a little less organised as it is relatively new to the business. In terms of clients you work on - this is organised for you when you join and after a year or two, you can have more say in what you would like/not like to work on. I strongly recommend researching about what the client, team, location, hours and work allocation before joining the client.

There are times when I have felt more like a chess piece than a human being due to resourcing issues due to being moved around clients and my development has not been prioritised or cared about which I have found frustrating. This is starting to improve and client portfolio meetings have been introduced to assist with this. If you work on multiple busy clients consistently, there is a risk of burn out and this did not used to be monitored. The mental health champion has now implemented time sheet reviews so that those consistently charging a high/low number of hours are contacted. In terms of support with your exams, this can depend on how flexible the team you are working with are - some are more understanding than others. The official policy is that you only get time off for college and the day of the exam (no general study leave) and you can leave at 5pm the week before the exam. Most people have found this to be manageable. Overall, there is room for improvement, but the experience you get, the friends you make and the acknowledgement from working at a Big 4 are the strongest benefits.

The training provider, Kaplan, is excellent. Some tutors are better than others but overall they provide good consolidated learning materials, provide online tutorials for tricky areas and there is an online chat to contact tutors for questions. For one subject, I found an area difficult and contacted the tutor that had taught is in college. She then sat with me for an hour until I felt comfortable with the topic. I really recommend Kaplan.

The accounting qualification also covers audit and there are many days in the job where I recognise things from my studies and vice versa.

There are organised events at least a couple of times each quarter but if you are joining the school leaver/graduate programme then you could go out for drinks weekly if you wanted to with the friends you make!

Yes

I would recommend EY but with some advice. You do get great experience but to get the best experience I would recommend speaking to the clients you get booked to beforehand to organise things you want to work on in advance, rather than waiting until the day you start in case you get given something you've already worked on 3 times... If possible, ask around about the clients you get booked to to see what they're like to set your expectations. Speak to your peers to see what are good clients and those you may want to avoid for if you get the opportunity to organise your own portfolio. Your career really is in your hands and although there will be restrictions on what you can do, it is up to you to make the most of what you can and be proactive. Chat to everyone and make friends! One of the things I really like about EY is how approachable people are, regardless of levels. If you are struggling with anything, you get a career counsellor and if you think you may be more suited to a different career counsellor, change them as it's a really important supportive role that you need in your EY career.

Research EY and google interview questions then practice, practice, practice!! Try to be yourself and confident as a lot of the recruitment process is not just assessing your abilities but genuinely just wanting to find out about you as a person!