Assurance associate Review

My role at EY involves checking corporate company's financial statements and liaising with clients in order to complete an audit. On a daily basis, this involves performing testing procedures in monetary balances using excel and analysis tools to drill down into the numbers and uncover any misstatements in amounts, for example.

I have learnt so many skills since starting at EY, both in terms of technical knowledge and in terms of people/employability skills. Technically, I have learnt how to use lots of analysis tools and I have learnt lots about the audit procedures, but I've also improved my communication skills and teamwork ability.

Overall, I greatly enjoy my program. The work is challenging but not impossible, the work/social life balance is good and, most importantly for me, the people I work with are fantastic and very insightful. The exams and learning side of things has been stressful, but overcoming this has been incredibly rewarding.

My program is very well structured and organized, which is amazing considering its a relatively new one. The systems for progressing my apprenticeship work well, and support for my apprenticeship is always available from multiple different places, both from internal teams and from people in my home office, like peers.

I have received a good amount of support from my employer. Financially, everything has been covered, from exams to materials to courses. Most technical knowledge support for the exams I have received from peers and colleagues, and I have been supported through on-the-job learning through excellent tutoring from seniors too.

I personally didn't use my training provider as a medium of support after my assigned college time, but during college he was very supportive. He also ensured that we knew that we could contact him at any time for support on exam material and content, which was a great thing.

I think it depends on which exam you are doing. For the first general accounting exam, its partially helpful, but maybe more later on than early on. However, other exams, like assurance or tax, are much more role specific and so are more helpful to some people and less helpful to others.

At the minute, due to Covid-19, social activities and opportunities are very limited. However, when the pandemic eases, I look forward to participating in my office sports teams (football and rugby). As well as this, I have been involved in the East Anglian Chartered Accountants Student Society, which involves networking with other accounting firm students and participating in fun events.

Yes

I think that EY, as well as doing a degree apprenticeship overall, is a fantastic opportunity. This is because it gives you a head start in your career, whilst also providing you with work experience, a good salary and a great qualification which is achieved faster than university students. It also gives you a guaranteed job at the end of your program, and the same can't be said for university graduates.

I would suggest to always stay organized and enthusiastic. I applied to 32 similar degree apprenticeship programs and only got two offers, so rejection when applying is almost inevitable. Regardless, a successful applicant is one who keeps their head up even after receiving bad news like this, as they will be able to find themselves a place eventually.