Associate Review

On a daily basis you will be working as a team member to audit accounts for various clients from huge PLC's to relatively small Ltd companies. You will gain knowledge of the industry they operate in and be expected to use this when working as it may change the outcomes of the audit.

I have developed my time management skills which are now in a good place for when I work again next year. I will also put in to practice the skill of professional scepticism like I did on this placement but also remaining polite to clients and being welcoming. This is a balance that all auditors have to strike.

I enjoyed this programme as you did get paid for the work you do which is a great financial incentive. It also helped develop me as a professional and I will use what I have learnt in the future of other placements and when the time comes in full time employment.

It is extremely well organised as it is put together by the ICAEW (professional membership organisation that supports chartered accountants). Universities (around five maybe a couple more) the university I go to is Newcastle University and finally the accounting firm PwC. It has been running since just before I was born and therefore is now an established programme regarded highly by those in the field.

There are sources that you can go to if you feel like you need support and help with mental or physical wellbeing. However while on my placement I did not use these services as I did not feel like I needed to so I do not have much knowledge on this front. While virtually we did have an office energiser once a week which I usually went to and this was the extent to which I used these kind of services I did find it helpful just to perk you up and to keep you going.

As you are studying at university for part you get support from this source. You also get support from PwC to help if you need to do any studying however the main source of support for training is from university until you graduate when this will be taken over by PwC should they offer you a job.

Erm from PwC we do not get too much however I do not feel this is needed as we get training from our respective universities and this should be enough with on the job learning to do the job to a high enough quality for PwC to be happy with the output of your work.

They do offer office energisers and some other activities but if I am honest from what I saw these were limited saying that I was working during a pandemic and this would have had an impact but how great the impact was I cannot be sure. So I would say limited as it was my experience but I so accept this might not be the full picture especially in normal times.

Yes

I would recommend PwC as I believe overall the experience has been extremely welcome. I would say the office I was a very nice bunch of people however I did not meet them all as I was working online due to the pandemic. However I would return to this employer in the future.

To look up the PwC professional and the core competencies at PwC these will help. Taken an interest in accounting and business as soon as possible as this will give you a head start compared to the other people that will be applying. Meaning you will be in a better place during the application process.