Assurance Senior Review

I work on a wide variety of clients in multiple sectors which gives me a good insight to the world of business. Essentially, a lot of my work is with Excel and spreadsheets but within that I spend a good portion of my time conversing with clients about their business so that I can verify the accuracy of it.

I've learned a range of new skills during my apprenticeship. The most notable I would say are business etiquette and adapting to the business environment; communication skills by way of speaking to new people constantly and in a professional manner; time management and also more accounting specific knowledge and skills.

I enjoy my programme in a lot of senses. I get the chance to see a lot of businesses and sectors which I find interesting to get that exposure. The people are also very friendly and I like working with them. I would say that the work life balance could be better though.

The programme is well structured as there is a fairly clear path set out from start to finish which has been adjusted as the programme has run over the years. Exams are set at particular times so as to try to balance the workload as well as possible. It is a busy structure however.

I receive a good amount of support from my employer from a multitude of levels. Firstly, everyone is assigned a 'counsellour' who we have between monthly and quarterly meetings with to discuss progress, any issues and feedback. We also have dedicated exam support staff, the relevant manager on your job and friends in our peer groups and peer groups above.

There is a reasonably good amount of support from the training provider. Our exams are taught by an outsourced financial college so we have both our tutors support and support from the exam team personnel within EY. The exams follow a particular structure year on year so the system is effective and you can always ask colleagues in the year above or your counselor for any assistance.

I have noticed a substantial benefit to the professional exam qualifications that I have sat in performing my job role. Having begun my role with no accounting knowledge I found initially I struggled to know what was going on all the time but having done my exams I am learning a lot about it which is filling in the gaps.

There an an abundance of extra curricular activities to partake in at EY. We have an annual football match and cricket game against the Luton office, monthly smaller social events and quarterly big social events, CSR days in which we get 2 days a year to use on any volunteering/fundraising/charity driven activity of our own choosing.

Yes

Overall, I would say EY is a good place to work. Although there are downsides likes the work life balance and the intensity of work, I believe that the upsides outweigh these. There are a lot of benefits such as in future employment, salary, perks, great staff, good business insight etc. that I feel are definitely worth doing for the extent of the apprenticeship.

My biggest piece of advice is to be prepared to work hard and a lot. Throughout this course I've noticed a vast amount more hours and workload than my friends have in their full time apprenticeships which I think is something not outlined enough in the application process. Also, there will be a quite large amount of travel involved but as you get higher in the ranks you can make more decisions over your portfolio so can manage the travel accordingly.