Flying Start Degree programme - Trainee - Birmingham Review

My role would involve working on engagements to help out on the audits we were carrying out for clients. This often included having calls with the client and conducting a walkthrough, where we would look into their business processes. There would be several meetings held as we would look at their business procedures. For example, there may be a walkthrough held to look at how they go about administering a new employee into their systems, how they'd effectively remove employees from their system and so on. I would also perform testing to make sure that what we were being told by the client, matches what their actual process is. If this wasn't the case, we would note this down as and get back to the client to see if there was a reason as to why the relevant discrepancy had occurred.

Whilst working on placement, one of the new skills I learned was how to effectively use Vlookups on excel. This has been extremely useful for extracting information out of two lists, especially when performing testing. This would make it extremely easy to figure out which employees were present in last year's list but not in the current year list to identify leavers and vice versa for when trying to identify new joiners. Another skill I learned was how to effectively use Tableau. This can be really useful for when presenting data to clients to make the raw data more understandable and to add further insights.

On a whole, I found the programme to be very enjoyable. Seeing the processes and procedures that different clients had to take depending on their industry, was very intriguing. As well as this, it allowed me to gain a thorough understanding of the basic procedures that more or less all businesses would have to undertake when undergoing an audit, which really helped me to understand the reasoning behind it and how it's useful. However, there were times where I'd find myself bored as we'd be waiting for the client to get back to us so we could continue on with work. This would sometimes make it hard to engage fully in the work once we had received the relevant information back as I'd be constantly stopping and starting work. The work would also feel repetitive at times due to undergoing the same processes over and over again for different clients in such a short space of time. I feel like it made it hard to engage completely at times due to not learning anything new.

I would say the programme is well structured for the most part as engagement teams are decided behind the scenes so there's no real hassle when it comes to figuring out who should be working on what client. However, it can be quite challenging when working an several clients at the same time as there may be quite a lot of crossovers for when certain client work needs to be performed, especially if there's a tight deadline. The only other thing that I would say that makes it not as organised as it could be is that if you run out of work for the engagements you're working on, it can be hard to find alternative work, especially when having to wait for people to get back to you and for file access.

I received a lot of support all around during my placement. Those who I was working with always made time to answer any questions I had and would always make sure emphasise that I'm more than welcome to reach out to them if need be. I also had a career coach who would help me set goals and would meet with me regularly to assess how I was doing. As well as this, I also had a 'buddy' who I could freely message at any time if there was anything I needed support with. Although I didn't personally reach out to my buddy often, I think it's a nice option to have. The only thing I think could improve this would be if our buddy was to reach out randomly to see how we were doing.

We receive a fair bit of support from our training providers. We were given a revision guide, a question bank and had access to the ISA standard book as well as detailed and tailored videos to help us study for our exams. This has been really helpeful as it's meant we have had more than enough resources around us to help study towards our qualifications. As well as this, we've been given to opportunity to join video calls in order to ask any questions related to our exams which has helped give further insight.

I feel that this has helped quite a lot as it has also made the training aspect of performing my role a lot easier. Due to there being a fair bit of overlap between what's required for my role and the information relevant to my exams, it has meant that what's expected of me within my role isn't anything new and has helped ensure that I keep these expectations in mind which allows me to ensure that I am fully adhering to the rules and regulations associated with my role.

Yes, there are a fair few extra-curricular activities within the firm. For example, every week there's a Wednesday night social where we can all get together and have a relaxing time with our colleagues. There's also been occasions where we were encouraged to go on runs and could log our progress as a firm in order to hit our firmwide goal. There are also regular calls during the work day that help us develop as individuals. These have ranged from networking to mindfulness talks.

Yes

It's a great place to work where everyone wants to see the best in others. Everyone is very friendly and more than happy to help out. The overall atmosphere is great and there's support provided at all levels across the firm. As well as this, there are a bunch of benefits from working at PwC. For example, we get full paid access to Headspace, which can be very useful, especially in the unprecedented times we're in currently.

Read up on the key values at PwC. Not only will it help in the future for if you do come to work for PwC, but you could also show ways in which you've demonstrated these value in your day to day life. You could also do research about the industry and modern affairs which may be related to the industry. This can be really useful as often, real world affairs may help in our daily practice as a firm and having that extra bit of information could be crucial to the audit. It'll also make your audit work a lot more understandable - so where you can demonstrate this, let it show!