Intern/trainee Review

It involves reviewing the financial statements of a company or organisation to see if they give a true and fair representation of the business. This involved performing stat, non stat and targeted testing to test balances across all areas of the financial statement. Areas I focused on were cash, expenses, depreciation as well as being involved in the calculation of materiality

I have learnt to use a variety of softwares used by my employer. This involved learning how to navigate through them as well as communicating with the client to get the required information. I fell that my excel skills have developed learning how to use formulas as well as day to day excel tips and tricks.

I enjoyed learning how to put my accounting knowledge into practice. Before my placement I knew the theory behind audit but being involved in the process of auditing allowed me to fully understand why we would perform tests and get an appreciation for the level of testing that is performed.

My programme has a structure where we learn theory in university for a term before Christmas and then go on a three month placement and then return to university before the accredited exams. I feel this is beneficial as it pushes you to thoroughly learn the material as you know that you are soon goin to have to put your knowledge into practice

My employee has made it very clear of all of the help that is available to us. We get a weekly wellbeing email informing us of ways to help our wellbeing and also contacts of who to reach out to if we are struggling. Throughout the pandemic they have given clear COVID advise and have offered time of to care for vulnerable which reduces the stress in a stressful year.

The majority of our training for qualifications comes from our university degree. They provide us with the accounting knowledge and exam skills we need for exams, as well as any revision material that helps us test our knowledge. PwC give us the training required to perform our placement to the respective level.

I feel that we get a good depth of knowledge and a great support system to ask any questions on areas we struggle. This helps to sort any problem areas as is one of the most helpful tools that our training provider gives us. All of this knowledge plus the training provided with PwC provided a strong basis for completing tasks, this training was enhanced by team members who gave helpful tips on software used by PwC

Due to COVID and working from home this has been limited. My teams have had weekly coffee break catch ups and Friday evening social drinks to help make it more of an ‘office like’ environment. I always found this to help make me more productive in the day and also helped to build a good relationship with team members

Yes

They are a large firm that offer a variety of jobs and task for you to work on so I feel that you could find out what you enjoy and where you strive. However during busy season if could be quite stressful as you were often working long hours due to high demand and resourcing shortages but this is only for a small period of the year.

Make sure you know the PwC principles and ensure that you have examples of times in your life when you align to them. A good way to structure you answers is using the STAR technique. It is also good to have a knowledge of current business issues and ensure you speak out this in your interview.