Flying Start Degree Programme - Associate, More London Office Review

As an audit associate, you are resourced to various audit engagement teams across the course of the placement. Being in the Banking & Capital Markets department, my clients were all within this industry. There was an even split of working from home and in the office/on client site. Work involved various audit testing over client accounts, administrative activities concerning planning and completion of audits, and working effectively within a team.

With this being my third and final placement of the Flying Start Degree Programme, I was already familiar with most activities and expectations for an associate at PwC, however this time I did learn more skills over testing new balances, such as hedge accounting transactions, as well as having exposure to more applications such as Document Bot.

For me, enjoyment of the programme is hugely dependent on what team and client you are placed on. For example, being placed on a first-year client with a small team who is busy and not greatly communicative can make it a stressful and difficult experience. However, for the majority of my time this placement, I was on great teams who I enjoyed working with.

The programme is well structured, with mostly clear instructions communicated to you via the University, the Company, and most importantly, the Flying Start Liaison Officer/Talent Engagement Manager. The only areas on disorganisation can appear on the engagement teams themselves, where communication/organisation within the team can be poor, but again this is majorly dependent on the team.

We receive a lot of support from the employer, mainly through the aforementioned Flying Start Liaison Officer/Talent Engagement Manager, who are always available to answer queries and help with problems. Additionally, everyone has a Career Coach, who is also available to help, and is the person who approves your passing of placements, and has regular contact with you.

We receive some support from the University while on placement. Usually, your personal tutor contacts you to have regular (bi-monthly or so) calls to chat about progress and wellbeing, however this is majorly dependent on who your personal tutor is. In prior years, we also received a 'Placement Pack' which was a document outlining what to expect and what to do while during placement.

Generally, the knowledge gained while on my Accountancy degree programme aids greatly in understanding the industry of finance and accounting, however the placement is 100% audit, and there is only one module specific to audit while on the course - other modules cover financial reporting, tax, etc. Therefore more focus could be given to audit, to be relevant to our role while on placement.

There are extra-curricular activities to get involved with while at work - there are various sports teams that if you speak to the right people you can get involved with. Also, the audit teams themselves can regularly go out for a drink after work, team lunches, and also end of audit socials, which are evenings out with the team doing an activity and having dinner and drinks.

Yes

PwC is a large and great firm which tries to account for their employees wellbeing, by accommodating working from home and having various contacts to communicate with if you have any problems - the only downside is that the workload can get stressful at busy times of the year, where long hours may be expected. There are good opportunities for promotion, transfers to other departments, as well as secondments abroad.

PwC can be a difficult firm to be successful getting into, after discussions with other graduates applying for a role. The Flying Start Degree Programme is the perfect way to get into to firm, through your placements over the timeline of the course, therefore I would consider enrolling on such a course if possible (entry grades are usually AAB at A-Level). Once at the firm, the most important thing is to always ask questions if unsure, and develop good contacts who can help you out while on jobs.