Finance Graduate Review

My current role is an accounting operations analyst in the accounting operations team under financial services. On the scheme, I will rotate roles and teams and potentially locations each year. Currently the role is 50/50 work from home and office. My main tasks are Excel-based and use systems such as magnitude and SAP. Our role as a team is to report accurate information and provide insights which will influence decision making.

My Excel skills have definitely developed. I only had basic Excel usage before but now I feel a lot more confident in using formulas and pívot tables. I have learnt lots of new technical skills using expert systems and a lot of accounting specialist rules and regulations which need to be applied in the workplace.

I love the graduate scheme. I think it provided an excellent opportunity to rotate around different finance teams and gain a really broad view of the company as a whole. It gives me a breadth of opportunity to figure out which part of finance I might want to work in off scheme and allows me to study towards my accounting apprenticeship too.

The structure is fantastic. We have a learning champ who discusses options for your development each rotation and has monthly check ins to see how you are getting on or what could be improved. Each rotation is really different as you totally move teams and maybe locations so you get the best possible overview of opportunities.

Support is fantastic and there is plenty of extra support for apprentices especially. You have a finance champ who will guide you along the way and the staff at Kaplan help a lot with your apprenticeship. We get support to study alongside our work and fully achieve our accounting qualifications.

Kaplan is our training provider and they are great. They have a wide variety of teams who are equipped well to deal with any questions you may have. The resources they provide are wonderful and definitely a great help to support passing exams. You have monthly meetings with a Kaplan coach who helps advise you on how to keep progress and how to update your learning tracker.

My qualification and my role are directly linked. I am training to become a fully qualified accountant with CIMA and my current role is in accounting operations where all of the team are either fully qualified or are working towards completing their exams. It’s great to be with them and learn from those who have done this before.

I am part of the finance sustainability group and the Nestle gender equity network. These are both topics I feel passionately about and the company allows me to work on these alongside my role. We arrange volunteering days in the local community. Also, there has been an annual whole UK and Ireland finance event in London which was a great networking opportunity and a chance to meet people you would usually only see over the screen or on the phone.

Yes

They have been good to work for. Everyone is very friendly and welcoming. The culture is positive and forward looking. They have the power to make change in the world and it feels good to work somewhere that your work has an impact. I also like the office environment, there’s always events going on and the opportunity to try out new products or help as a taste tester!

The application process is difficult so be prepared. Take time in preparation. Be yourself because they don’t necessarily want someone that will fit in already. They want someone that can bring new ideas and come up with new ways of doing things to make them more efficient and modern.