Audit Trainee Review

Part of an audit team engaging in statutory audit of mostly medium sized companies. You'll be working on different clients with completely different audit teams throughout the year, and each client booking can last anywhere between a day to 3 months. You'll typically start with auditing simple sections such as cash, share cap and expenses where majority of the tasks were to agree clients' nominal ledger entries to supporting documents such as bank statements, invoices and some statutory information. Then after 6-9 months you'll be involved in tasks such as audit planning, test of controls and more complex sections. Lots of interactions with other team members and also with clients' finance teams.

You'll learn quite a lot in terms of not only accounting and audit techniques but also understandings of different client's operations, internal controls and financial reporting procedures. You'll also develop skills in communication, team-working, time management etc. Importantly you'll have a concrete professional qualification after 3 years which opens lots of possibilities. However, if you're not from an accounting background you could well struggle especially in the first year with exams and works etc.

Not brilliant but not too bad. Learned quite a lot which will definitely help your future career but audit is audit and not something to get you excited for. I studied accounting in university which made my life easier as I don't need to worry too much about exams but I saw quite a few colleagues struggling with them. I had a fairly decent work-life balance except for about 2 months a year during busy season (between Feb - April). The day-to-day works aren't too difficult but can be repetitive at times. Everyone of us is rotating between different audit projects / teams every a few weeks so expect good ones and bad ones.

There's a set time scale for the programme. Based on my experience I took my first 2 exams one month after joining and even before I went on clients' work. I completed all 6 ACA certificate level papers within the first 9 months and will complete all professional level papers within the first 2 years. The schedule for exams is pre-set but there's room for negotiation if you feel you couldn't cope with the pace. Typically I spent 25% of my time on studying for exams, 65% on actual client works and 10% on staring at your laptop with nothing to do during low season in the summer. The programme is organised okay in general but the dedicated professional qualification team can make things confusing at times.

We had a week-long training course in a fairly nice but extremely remote hotel when first joined which was quite fun. There should have been a second one 4 months after joining but got moved online due to Covid and it was just meh. I learned the most not from formal trainings but from on-job guidance provided by senior colleagues. Most senior colleagues I worked with are quite supportive and willing to give you very detailed briefings and guidance. But I've also once of twice being told to do something I've never had any training on and was given vague / confusing instructions. The level of your on-job support you received hugely depend on which senior / assistant manager you got for that specific job. Luckily majority of them are quite supportive.

For 2 of my ACA certificate level papers (The rest are self-study only) and all professional level ones I was booked to attend courses provided by BPP. For 2 certificate level papers (accounting & assurance) I attended 2 weeks course at BPP which was just fine. For each professional level paper you'll typically attend 5 days training courses 3 month before your exam, 2 days recap 2 months before your exam and 3-5 days revision courses just before your exam. The quality of the courses didn't look too bad but couldn't comment further, as I didn't actually pay full attention nor follow their schedule because I've learned all those at university while doing my ACCA and all I needed was just a revision on my own pace.

Studying for qualification certainly helped me to recap my knowledge and understand the fundamentals needed for my work. I guess it provided the theory bits but as I said before, most of my learnings come from on-job trainings rather than formal courses. Once you completed the qualification, however, I do expect it to open up lots of other job opportunities for me so I'm not regretting doing it at all.

There used to be frequent socials and sports teams as well. Couldn't comment on them though as Covid came 3 months after I joined so I've had no real chance to experience too much. At the beginning of lockdown my sector tried to organise online socials and events but gradually gave up after a couple of months.

Yes

In general, not a bad option to start a career in accounting, audit or finance, and the qualification will open up many opportunities. I had largely positive experience with most colleagues and the working culture in general. Down sides are that things can be a bit unorganised at times, busy seasons can be really busy and audit aren't something to get you excited on a daily basis

I heard the application process has changed compare with the one I went through so can't comment. On the assessment day, make sure you take part in the group activity in a confident, yet calm and considerate manner. It's more about how you communicate and work with each other than how brilliant your ideas are. In the individual interview with a manager, try to treat it as a genuine chat about you and your career, rather than giving out robotic answers from a pre-written script. You'll be fine. If you are from a non-accounting background, it might be a good idea to get some study material for ACA accounting and assurance modules about one month or so before joining. You'll take the two exams one month after joining which could be stressful for some.