360 apprentice Review

I am currently placed in Forensic consulting in the I&C team investigating Fraud and AML. My daily acitivities mostly revolve around Excel. I review transactions and upload data onto Excel databases. Currently I am sorting an Excel database, to clarify which transactions are related to an entity of interest. I also help QA memos before they are sent out to a client. I am envolved on the project calls which i always enioy.

As a school leaver, I joined the firm with very limited Excel knowledge (if any). I was only able to perform basic tasks on Excel (eg addition etc). Since joining the firm I have worked on Excel solidly and therefore I have 'learnt on the job'. Upon joining the firm I was enrolled onto a intermediate Excel training course, however I believe for school leavers (who havent done Excel at university), a beginners course would have been more helpful.

I really enjoy the different projects my programme rotation offers. I never imagined I'd be involved on such large confidential cases which is exciting! Occassionally i find certain tasks mundane and repititive, but i believe this is to expected in any role. This was especially the case when i first joined the firm and most of my tasks were very similar. When there is lots of client work to complete I enjoy being busy and feeling I am contributing to the team.

I think on the whole the programme is well structured. I have not experienced large quantities of time unassigned and I have always been busy on projects. Due to government guidelines 20% of our working hours have to contribute to OTJL. On the whole i believe the programme leaves me to track to achive this, however, it mostly depends on the client work at hand. Recently however, disappointingly my programme has recently been changed to involve different rotations. In that aspect i believe the structure could have better.

Working through a pandemic has been a challenging time period for all. Joining a new firm, straight out of school was particularly challenging. I was well supported by the firm. All my colleagues were on hand if needed. As a firm wide initiative i believe the firm has acted well. They frequently send out wellbeing support contacts and have recently implemented a new policy, which means that, if our required working hours have been completed by lunch time on Friday, we can take an early weekend.

On the whole i have had a good experience. Having never done accounting before i initially found the content very challenging. My first tutor was not very supportive, however, for the last few days of our course my group was given a new tutor, which I found more beneficial. Bar my initial bad experience, all the tutors I have had have been very supportive and always helpful when answering my questions. I find the achievement ladder steps very useful. My only area I would suggest coud be improved is the volume of questions provided. I believe I would benefit from having a larger question bank.

I believe that having some basic accounting knowledge has definitely been useful in my role. As one of my daily roles is transaction review I have used the knowledge i was taught in my bookkeeping exam fairly frequently. Athough I havent specifically used what i have been taught for my other exams in my role I think having some background knowledge has been useful.

As I joined the firm during the pandemic I am yet to go to the office, so i think it's been tricker to be involved with social events and meet people. I was have attended a few virtual department social events, for example a quiz at christmas time! I have joined the womens network and attend the talks, but have not been involved in further networking events. I hope to join a sports team when Covid allows!

Yes

Every KPMG employee I have worked with has been extremely helpful and friendly. If I have a question I know I am able to ask anybody and they will be willing to help, despite their role/ how senior they are. I believe the range of departments allows individuals to descover exactly where their passion lies.

To go for it! Apply for all opportunities you think you would be interested in, and most importantly be passionate. It is much better to put yourself out there for new roles, and place yourself out of your comfort zone than to stay in an area you are comfortable in, otherwise you will never develop.