Assurance Associate Review

As an assurance associate with minimal experience, I work on a lot of low-judgement areas in an audit engagement. I have covered a lot of planning for audit engagements due to the timing of my placement, including risk analytics, drafting engagement letters and so on. A day-to-day basis is difficult to summarise as every day can change, i.e. in office some days but then being based on a client site interacting with client accounting personnel.

I have learnt a number of skills on multiple platforms such as Excel, Aura Platinum, Connect and Halo. For excel I have learnt a number of keyboard shortcuts, I have also improved my formatting two-fold which makes spreadsheets much easier to manipulate and edit but it also makes it simpler for seniors who review the work that i've completed. Aura Platinum, Connect and Halo are closely linked as the platforms used for Audit Engagements, with Connect being used to request documentation and explanations from audit clients.

I have enjoyed both aspects of my programme as I have a nice balance of both university life and working life, the two can be quite different at times but I haven't struggled with the time spent in work and have completed overtime for a number of my clients to drive engagements forward to the best of my ability.

The balance between working life and university modules are closely linked to each other with my first year modules giving me a brief introduction to the work I was assigned in my placement. The work I have completed during my placement has also built an understanding to accounting framework I will be studying for in future exams.

My employer is very pro-active in ensuring new joiners have numerous points of contact, as an individual I am assigned a Career Coach. I have met with my coach three times accross my placement and he has been very approachable around the office. My peer group is also assigned 'Champions' who are employees who have came through the ranks in the same way we have but are obviously ahead of us.

My training provider gives us introductory lectures for qualifications as well as the official ICAEW study manuals and question banks for us to work through independently and test ourselves on. We also have a number of course tutors to get in contact with for issues and questions we simply cannot comprehend.

The first few professional qualifications I obtained through examinations gave me a solid introduction into the world of assurance, including the assertions that we test for each area of an entity. Without these initial qualifications I would of been fairly stumped with the reason behind the testing I was completing which doesn't provide the best development as understanding the work you are completing is crucial to furthering your experience and ability.

The Milton Keynes office has a very tight knit community with multiple peer groups coming together for events organised by the Social Committee. The office has hosted a range of events including the New-joiner social event held at a bowling alley accompanied with a drink. There was also a new joiner quiz held just after work which introduced me to new people in the office I hadn't met yet. A manager also organised a Monday Night Football event for PwC employees every week and was a great way to develop some good friendships with employees I had worked with.

Yes

PwC is a great place to work, mostly because of the people, they are very welcoming to new joiners and are very understanding of the position we are in as new starters. A lot of work we have done is completely new to us and does require a lot of coaching but seniors see the worth in coaching us as we will be able to contribute much more in the future engagements we work on.

PwC seems to be very concentrated on it's people and the quality of work they produce, working in a team is a crucial part of every client you will work on, despite working in a team you will be given a lot of responsibility at all levels of the firm and you need to take accountability for the work you are assigned to and take pride in even the small tasks as you will progress if you put effort into the smaller tasks as it will translate into the bigger responsibilities you are given.