Year 12 Virtual Insight Week Review

I attended a series of webinars and training courses which taught me about multiple different topics such as audit specifically (the stream that I applied to), personal branding, BDO's culture, personal devlopment and more. I also took part in a group CSR project and an interview with a partner as part of the assessment towards a apprenticeship which were really rewarding. There was also a networking session with other attendees of the week, opportunities to talk with current trainees and members of your team as well as a social activity halfway through the week.

I received training in the basics of accounting and in my case auditing as that is the stream I applied to. This was really rewarding for me because I had never had any training in audit and so I really enjoyed starting to learn more about it. We also received training in personal brand devlopment, personal development of weaknesses and strengths as well as talks developing our knowledge of the firm as a whole, its apprenticeship programme and its culture.

I absolutely loved it. I learnt such an incredible amount of new things and it really made me excited to enter in the world of accounting and pursue it as a career. Every single one of the people were very approachable and friendly and their passion for BDO and its culture and clients was really infectious. The virtual social activity was good fun and a nice rest before the assessment section of the week. The networking session was also really fun and I really enjoyed the sociable aspect of the week through my interactions with other attendees on the group CSR project and the networking session.

Very well organised and run. We had set contacts we could always rely on to reach out to if we had any problems, technical or otherwise, but I didnt have any problems with the setup of the week anyway. I did have to call my buddy seperately due to technical issues but that worked out in my favour anyway and I had people to contact who very efficiently found a way around the problem so it wasnt issue at all.

I already knew a bit about the culture due to prior research but this week really brought it into focus. All of the speakers and trainees who I spoke to about this had a really infectious passion for BDO's culture and I learnt a lot about what it means to all of the people and I could feel a very positive atmosphere surroudnign the concept of that culture.

I knew i was really interested in accounting before this but the stream-specific training sessions really highlighted the exact things I would be doing as an auditor which helped me to picture myself as part of the audit team. The week also helped me to decide that I specifically wnated to pursue accounting with BDO because of their culture.

Due to being virtual, the normal food and travel expenses were not applicable. This is also an unpaid experince and isnt an apprenticeship programme but I learnt so many useful things that it will definitely help me with my future. I'm sure that had this been an in-person experience, all expenses would've been paid.

Yes. On the first day, we had anetworking session in which we were randomly placed in short calls with different attendees of the insight week and were able to chat and get to know eachother a bit. The group CSR project also provided the opportunity to get to know your team members well.

Yes

This was a phenomenal experience which I gained so much from and is a far more insightful prgramme than other firms are offering. I learnt so much and felt so supported by all of the people from BDO present such as my buddy and 2 members of the Early In Career team who were present throughout the week for anything we needed.

Make sure to understand the firm's culture and how people-centric it is as the culture is so key to what makes it stand out from its competitors and why so many of its people are so happy to be there everyday. Understand the central concept of how BDO really does want to help people succeed and demonstrate that you know that and want to succeed yourself