Business Analyst Review

Our team is working towards developing an online platform to improve the working lives of tax and law professionals. We work with an agile mindset and I've been working as a business analyst within a scrum team. I conduct user research, design wireframes, write user stories, perform tests and present product demos.

I would say that roughly 90% of the work I do now is from newly learned skills at EY. I was not even aware of Agile methodology prior to working here, so it was all new to me. I've learnt how to use new software such as Jira, Whimsical and Trello. I've also been able to expand my skills in MS PowerPoint, Excel, Word; and expand my teaming and communication skills.

Pros: I really enjoy having a learning structure that everyone in my team respects, during term time, we get Fridays as study days which breaks the week nicely for me. I feel my day to day role has expanded my understanding of working in tech and has helped me to understand my future career path. Cons: BPP have been running two modules simultaneously, managing my studies alongside work duties has been massively challenging.

As I mentioned earlier, in our team, we get Fridays off as study days during term time. In addition to this, there are a few online workshops per module that usually run for half a day. Managing deadlines with work responsibilities has always been a challenge, however I have often found myself using up my annual leave to meet these deadlines. BPP are very strict with extensions and only provide additional 5 days in any circumstance.

EY and more specifically, members from my team have always been extremely supportive both professionally and in terms of my studies. As EY employees, we all have a designated counsellor whom we can speak to about any issues or challenges we face, I have found this to be very helpful when it came to asking for help with work or challenges with my deadlines etc.

At BPP, we are all assigned to a skills coach who becomes our first point of contact, this has been quite useful when I needed to get in touch with BPP. However, it has not always been clear where to go if I am in need of help, the tutors have not been very vocal about reaching out to them

The agile and scrum module was the most enjoyable and directly relatable to my role at EY, so I really enjoyed seeing the parallels between what I'm learning and translating them to my actual work. The work based portfolio module helped me build my soft skills and ability to reflect which is needed as a professional. Other modules have been too technical and not applicable to my role.

This has been difficult as we have been in a pandemic and working from home for over two years now. However, our team used to organise virtual gatherings such as 'Fun Fridays' where we'd meet online to play games or puzzles. As offices reopen, there are frequent after work socials and games such as foosball, table tennis and puzzles that we have access to.

Yes

Working at EY, you will be amongst some of the brightest and most talented individuals, you can learn a lot just by socialising with colleagues. EY work with top tier clients and you'll be doing cutting edge work that is very satisfying and rewarding. They have flexible working, great counsellor programme and good stepping stone if you want to build your career.

Firstly, ensure you have done thorough research about the company goals, ethos and culture - do these align with your personal beliefs and aspirations? Learn more about the team you want to work for and reach out to specific members on LinkedIn, you can mention this in your interviews and will show your proactive mindset. Practice assessment days online or YouTube guides.