Trainee Associate Review

Day to day, I perform audit procedures to gain assurance over how true and fair the financial statements of different companies are. My role currently involves being allocated tasks and tests to complete, discussing strategies with other members of the team, communicating with clients, and producing high quality audit work papers.

My knowledge of accounting and the presentation of financial statements has undoubtedly improved during my time with EY, as has my understanding of audit procedures and goals. As most of my work is completed on Microsoft Excel, my knowledge of this application and some of its more complex functions have improved massively.

In the audit profession, during busy times of the year, working hours can be very long, and deadlines can be tight. Couple this with trying to find time to revise for exams outside of these long hours makes for a stressful working experience that is not always pleasant and can leave you feeling overwhelmed.

The structure of the programme is usually strong. Dates for studying and teaching for your professional qualification are scheduled well in advance, enabling you to easily plan around them. An aspect of the structure that could be improved is allowing more time to complete the other elements of your professional qualification file than exams.

Support is offered to all employees upon request from professional providers, however I feel the best support in this role has come from other members of your audit teams. Most of the people you work with are friendly and approachable and I have found offer the best support in busy times.

Course notes and question banks are provided by my training provider. The quality of the teaching is good and involves a good mix of learning the content, and question practice. The teaching is quite condensed and fast for the amount of content there is to learn but tutors are always available to help on request.

Whilst I am studying for an accounting qualification, the first few years of my role needed little accounting knowledge and more knowledge of audit, so I often found my studies felt unrelated to my job. However, as I have progressed to look at more complex areas in audits, I have needed to rely on knowledge from studies more and more.

EY has a dedicated socials team who are really proactive in arranging regular social events on an office wide level. They are really welcomed by teams as a break to the hard work we do in audit. However, I do feel there are a lack of sports teams or similar at EY.

Yes

Despite the fact that workloads and hours tend to be high at EY, I would recommend working there to a friend as the experience you gain will be really valuable later in your career. The firm is really reputable and so having experience there puts you ahead of other applicants in the accounting field.

Be yourself during the application process as there is not such thing as a perfect candidate. EY employee a wide variety of people so just being yourself gives you the best chance of success. Also, come to interviews prepared and really know yourself why you want the position you are applying to.