Flying start associate Review

Interacting with the firm's clients Doing work at an associate level Giving feedback to managers and getting feedback from them Working in a team with other associates and managers. These teams change throughout different engagements so you are never working with the same people. Over the course of the placements, I gained more and more experience and was given more responsibility to coach people below me.

I now know how to use excel as a level I didnt before. Being able to perform Vlookup's and pivot tables on top of normal functions like concat and sum. I have been taught a lot about the audit world and how to look at a business' financials with scrutiny.

I enjoy the poeple that I work with most of the time but due to changing teams there are sometimes managers who I dont like working with because they are overbearing and have expectations too high compared to others despite the work still getting done. But a benefit of this job is that you are never working with the exact same team twice so I get to meet lots of people and get away from those managers I dont like.

The programme is so well organised. Over the course of the 4 year programme there are 3 placements that are spread out over the final 3 years. Over these placements I have more and more responsibility and given the opportunity to coach people below me who are in the position that I was at the start of my placement.

I was given lots of feedback throughout the placement which helped me improve. I was also given a career coach as a first point of call if I have questions about the business and how to act proffessionally. In my first year I also had a buddy and then became a buddy myself in my final year.

The lecturers who teach us our course content are really helpful and respond to emails with questions on course content quickly and mark mocks for us. They also organise discussion points and are available for emails during our placements if we decide we want to work. There is also support for those who fail thier first attempt.

Each time I leave placement work to go back to university to learn more towards my qualifications it helps when I go back. I have learnt the basics of audit which was invaluable when understanding the audit qualities that go into different tasks performed during my job. I found this useful.

There is a netball team at my office which I participated in a few times during my second placement but found that I was often too tired from the days work or working too late to be able to attend. There are running clubs and football and regular office socials so I felt really involved in the wider office even those I wasnt on a team with

Yes

It can be really stressful and the expectation particularly to give up your spare time in overtime can be really high. And sometimes if feels like this isnt reimbursed properly in the form of pay. But the friends I have met here and how working at PwC for such a long time looks is worth it. Especially for the short term while I get qualified.

Be honest in your applications about the kind of person you are. Make sure you have done some work experience before hand in the audit sector or in accounting as this will set you apart from other applicants. Also, you dont have to keep fully up to date with every financial news story. Just pick one story that youre interest in and follow it for a few weeks before your interview. Check on the day for any audit world changes and any big financial closures.