Apprentice Review

I am tax technician dealing with EU reclaims. Day to day involves performing Cost Benefit Analysis for clients on whether they have claims worth pursuing with overseas tax authorities. Communicating with clients and other member firms to gather the correct documentation and ensure that all tax calculations have been made correctly.

Microsoft excel is one program that sees constant development in terms of my personal skills. Cost Benefit Analysis involves the construction of complicated tables, often referring to multiple files and worksheets with advanced use of formulae. Constructing these tables ensures you have a solid understanding of the tax processes involved, in terms of knowing which numbers need to go where, which relate to each other and which need to be combined.

I enjoy the programme as a whole. The early stages where rotations between placements was allowed was a brilliant opportunity to learn which areas of the business I preferred working in. The current advanced level has given me the chance to settle into a team long term and I've been enjoying the greater sense of purpose that has brought.

The early few years of the programme are very well organised. There is constant communication with the apprenticeship team and plenty of guidance is available. This seems to have tailed off once the more advanced stages of the apprenticeship have been reached, part of this is simply down to not needing as much guidance, but there is a feeling that we're being left on our own.

Wellbeing and health support is absolutely top notch. Any issues I have had have been met with great sympathy and understanding. They've ranged from time off to recover, special work arrangements and extra support if needed. My experience of this has been excellent and I have been very well taken care of.

Tolley offers us two courses for each exam. A primary one to learn the majority of the material and a later revision course to act as a refresher and tackle more difficult questions. I would say the support from these courses is excellent, with tutors willing to stay behind and help answer questions and explain tough areas in greater detail.

I feel that it helps create a base of background knowledge that occasionally helps me understand the bigger picture that my small niche of tax falls into. Working with such a specialised team means that much of the material is not relevant to me, though I can't really fault the programme for not covering a fairly small specialism.

The truth of this is "not really", especially in a post-covid office environment. Societies appear to be largely culture-based, sports teams are small or non-existent. About twice a year I am invited to a lunch or breakfast where there is the opportunity for junior members of staff to chat to partners etc. Personally I don't see much value in these. The one brilliant exception was the 2019 charity fundraiser Wheely Big Cycle, which was a cycling adventure across all of the offices in the UK spanning just over a week. While not only being a tough challenge, it was accidentally the best networking event I have ever attended - bringing people from all over the business together. I learnt about all sorts of roles I had no clue existed, met colleagues from all over the country and got to spend time chatting with senior staff somewhere that didn't feel contrived or awkward.

Yes

Obviously there is the prestige of Big Four. Though the support given to colleagues is absolutely second to none. I was amazed by how far people were willing to bend over backwards to help me, with no pressure and expectation for my recovery to be speeded up to get me back working as soon as possible.

Be prepared to think a bit differently if you've reached the interview day stage. My recruitment involved drafting several tasks and it was clear afterwards that a willing to explore outside the norm was appreciated where it was otherwise easy to list out something rather generic. The most important thing to demonstrate your potential rather than relying on your past achievements to show it for you.