Finance and Commercial Graduate Review

On a daily basis I tend to do some forecasting, budgeting, reconciling and dealing with general finance queries and issues. As well as this, I will have various meetings throughout the day both online and in person. Finally, I will also do some studying towards my accounting qualification.

I have taken part in various training courses covering topics such as accounting, project management and for specific software I need to conduct my day to day work. This includes a 3 day course to obtain a Prince2 qualification. I have developed my both my written and verbal communication skills.

I enjoy the programme a lot. Its great to be a part of such a large intake of grads so we learn and develop together as well as making friends along the way. The company invest a lot of time in our development in order for us to achieve our full potential.

It is well structured but a lot of it is in our own hands. This tends to be good as we can be flexible with our studies around our work and vice versa. However, perhaps there could be more activities in the diary for graduates to take part in to further build relationships.

The employer is very supportive in helping us achieve our goals. For example they offer a generous amount of paid study leave for our exams to try ensure we have plenty of time to prepare! Managers tend to be good and listening to us and giving us any extra support we need on a case by case basis.

As previously mentioned, they are very generous with this. I believe we get up to 15 days leave (including days off for the exams) for each level of CIMA. Therefore there is plenty of time leading up to an exam to study for a best chance of passing it first time.

The qualification helps to understand more about the role and the ethical thought process behind decision making. I would say that the qualification will have more of an impact on certain people, dependant on their role, but generally it will have a positive impact on those who are studying and working.

The company put on a few things for those on the scheme, however I believe that this area could be improved. So far, I have only experienced a handful of small events organised for us. I think that the employees on the scheme could help organise their own activities and have a yearly budget to spend on these.

Yes

There is a good work life balance and a great career prospect in the long term. It works well if you are trying to get the exams and qualifications done due to the generous study leave package. The large volume of other graduates/apprentices make it quite sociable and fun too.

Make sure you research the company well. What it does, where it operates and its competitors. This might make assessments easier later down the line. Do plenty of research on CIMA and make sure it is what you want to do if thats whats on offer! Most importantly, be yourself.