Senior Associate Review

I have been given the chance to learn lots of skills varying from soft skills such as communication, organisation, working in a team etc to technical skills. The technical skills being in the area of the business I am specifically in as well as the technical areas you learn as part of the ACA qualification that you are put through.

I really enjoy the programme as alongside studying you are doing actual client work for the company and you feel like you are part of the team from the moment you join. There are times where you are out of office studying at college but then you do have work available when you are in the office working.

The programme is well structured. There is a dedicated team at PwC that supports the professional qualification routes that are offered at PwC and you get sent a timetable that shows you when and where you have college days and the upcoming exams. College classes tend to only be made up with other people within PwC.

The employer pays for all the exams/college etc so you are not out of pocket in any way. They provide the support you need and you are given study days to work towards the exams. There are also lots of internal training opportunities to develop your learning in areas that are related to the team you are in.

The training provider gives you study materials ahead of the college time for each of the exams you are taking. The classes you are in are just PwC classes. There are a mixture of self study days and teacher taught days. There are also progress tests and mock exams to help you prepare for the real exams.

The qualification helps teach you some of the technical skills that are required on your role. In that sense it is good as it means you are more up to speed on topics ahead of working on them and it requires less time for someone to teach you something as you have already learned about it. The qualification I feel also helps make you more open to learning new material in other areas too.

There are different networks within PwC that you can join based on interests that you have (like societies at universities). Some are office based and some are based across all of PwC UK. Some of the larger offices also have sports teams that you can join. There are always lots of networking events on that you can go to in order to get to know people in your team as well as other teams.

Yes

I would recommend PwC to a friend as it is a great place to start your career and learn about the world of accounting or other specific areas that the firm works in. There is a culture of helping others to learn so as a junior member of the team I feel well supported and there are plenty of people that are more than happy to help whenever I have any issues (work and non-work related).

Practice the style of questions and types of interviews that are used in the recruitment process as there is a big focus on employing the right people for the firm without you needing to have a big technical or relevant background. If you started working here then the best advice is to try and get to know everyone in your team early on as then you'll get an idea of who does what type of work and can begin to get involved in work that interests you.