Flying Starts Degree programme - Reading P1 Review

Involved the basic introduction to Audit. We had 2 weeks of training followed by 3 months of work auditing clients accounts. This involved testing simple areas of financial statements, for example I worked on testing payroll and operating expenses. Also had the opportunity to talk to clients and go onto client site. Given the little experience I went in with, there were sometimes moments where I had not much to do, however on the whole, the coaching was good and people found good work for me to attempt.

We were given an introduction into working in a professional audit firm. In particular, the skills around audit were developed, and understanding of companies financial and how they actual keep their books. In addition, due to the nature of the work, my excel skills have been improved massively. Lastly, my people skills and relationship building was developed working in lathe teams and having to co-ordinate.

I enjoyed my experience most of the time. As mentioned earlier, I learnt a lot and on the whole I received good support and coaching to help me improve. However, there were points in the process where I was without work and or people moire senior were too busy to give me support - at these few points across the placement I found it frustrating and enjoyed it much less. However on the whole I enjoyed it.

At first it seemed poorly organised. The first few days after training I was not assigned to a team/job. I spent the first few days reaching out to resourcing/managers I hadn't met to see if they knew what I should be doing. However after this initial hurdle, everyone was helpful. Career coaches didn't quite seem to know what was going on either which didn't make it easy as they were meant to be our first point of contact.

I feel like I leaned a lot. The placement sort of throws you in at the deep end, which at first id daunting but I think its the best way to learn by far. You are treated as an employee rather than a placement student, which gives the opportunity to get a real insight into the company and its culture.

It did to some extent. As my point mentions above, you are treated like an employee not a placement student. This helped me see how it would actually be working in audit. It teaches you the responsibility and doesn't sugar coat things (you get a real experience of what the full time job would be like).

yes we were paid a monthly salary. The pay was good for the job, and also I was provided with accomodation. In addition to this, they give us a bursary for the time we spend out of uni, and pay us for overtime if we are required to work any. Expenses to client site ect were reimbursed.

Yes lots of opportunity. They invited us to peer group meetings with included a social activity and a meal paid for which gave us opportunity to learn more about the work we were doing as well as network and meet people of similar ages to us. ALso there was a summer ball while i was on placement which gave an opportunity to network with all levels of seniority.

Yes

Lots of great people to meet, and a large cohort of young people similar ages. Also the skills I have learnt on my 4 month placement are super transferable - even if you just take the excel skills ive learnt these can help me with future uni work and when I return to PwC i think Ill learn even more.

Do some research on the PwC offices and why you would like to work for the company. Also have an understanding of what audit is and why its important. Other than that be honest and polite and try to be friendly. Lastly maybe practice excel skills as it will be super useful if you mange to get onto the course.