Flying Start Degree Programme - Stage 1 - Manchester Review

The role of a first year flying start in the audit team is to complete audit testing on particular FSLI's such as Cash, PPE, Prepayments, Equity and others for different clients over the course of the placement. This involves building close relationships with your team and the clients in order to deliver efficiently and effectively.

Throughout my placement, I have learnt and developed many valuable skills. The most important being effective communication. At the start of my placement I was extremely nervous interacting with clients and even my team - being new is always very intimidating. This placement also gave me a deeper understanding of audit and developed my knowledge which will be vital when taking my exams. By having a real insight into the job, I am now able to apply my knowledge to real life situations. My clients and the jobs which I was working on throughout placement provided me knowledge which spreads across a wide range of FSLI's. I have also learnt testing methods which will come in useful during my other placements on this degree.

I thoroughly enjoy the corporate culture within the PwC office. Everyone is so welcoming and there are plenty of activities for us all to get involved in, this has especially been shown during the WFH period, as partners are giving us an insight into their days, along with the toilet paper challenge and Mad's Motivation. It is also reassuring to know that many of the associates/managers/directors within the office were flying starts themselves, knowing this makes them more approachable as they know how we are feeling on our first placement. However, I must include that during the first week of our placement - everything seemed very unorganised, almost as if no one was expecting us! Many of us were not booked to any jobs, so we were just sat in the office not knowing what to do.

We had a week of induction sessions before our placement started, this was as helpful as it could get as much of the content is easier to learn whilst on the job. Whilst learning on the job, i believe i had a range of support to help me, such as my career coach, other AS1/2's, flying start champions and my buddy.

My career coach always let me know that she was there for me if i needed anything sorting out. For example, if I felt I was being assigned too much work or not enough coaching, she was happy to step in and correct this. Through my contacts at the University, I felt comfortable to address any issues which I felt during my placement - in confidence that they would be put right.

The teaching at the university is great, as the classes are so small I am able to build tight relationships with my mentors which I didn't think was possible at University. Having a good relationship with the mentors is vital to be able to deeply engage in the learning. It also helps when it comes to asking for support with anything as I feel comfortable asking questions.

By learning the basics of audit before December (before placement starts) at University, this helps me deeper understand my job role. For example, it has helped me understand why we test certain FSLI's and also gave me an insight on the best ways to test them. I have thoroughly applied what I learnt during first semester to my job role. I believe that engaging in a placement alongside learning for my exams really helps me understand the context.

There were flying start socials which were well organised and frequent. These were extremely fun as I was able to get to know my colleagues on a friendly basis, not just a professional one. There are other social events organised in the engagement teams such as debrief meals which are also good to get to know your colleagues.

Yes

I would recommend PwC to a friend as I believe the workplace itself is a fun and exciting place to work. Working within audit can be challenging for you and your team however the harder times brings you closer together, and you can make some great friends out of it. The work itself is interesting and as each entity is different, there are more things to uncover with every engagement.

Throughout the assessment days, i would recommend to be yourself! Although the interviewer will be looking at your technical capabilities, they are also looking for outgoing and well-rounded people that will fit in well with the corporate culture within PwC. As many people applying for this role have no experience in accounting, they are looking to make sure you have good values and traits which can be applied to the role once you're in it.