Trainee Tax Advisor Review

Day - to - day I am responsible for the smooth running of all the engagements I work on. So this means that I montitor all client emails that come in, track this in the internal tracker and flag any urgent emails to seniors. I also am responsible for billing clients and attending client meetings which has allowed me to build my technical knowledge.

As I have joined as a school leaver, I have learnt lots of skills. These being Excel skills which I use almost on a daily basis, communication skills through interacting with clients and my colleagues and most importantly tax technical skills through working on all the engagements I work on.

I feel valued and the work I do does help the firm. However, it is very intense and sometimes challenging to balance both work and college especially with ACA exams. This means I often find myself overworking but the work I do is constantly changing and new to me so I enjoy doing it.

We do have study leave for college and exams but I feel like this is not enough. These are often very short and when you get back to work I often find myself with a massive backload of work. So I think if we had more leave for exams and college that would be helpful.

All my colleagues are really helpful and nice. They are all willing to take time out and answer my questions and my counsellor reaches out to me often to see how I am getting on which I appreciate. But as I said before I do still receive work when I am at college which I am not a fan of.

The training provider is really good. We get access to the physical materials and all the learning videos online around a month before the exams. So this allows us to get a head start which I find useful. All the tutors are really good and helpful. They encourage us to reach out to them individually if needed.

I do not think the ACA qualification is very relevant if at all to my job and the work I do is not related at all. This is because my department is very niche so I never apply what I learn in the exams to my day to day work.

EY has loads of societies such as badminton, football, religious societies and many more that you can be part of and there are loads of charity initiatives you can be a part of. My team occasionally also goes out for lunches and team building exercises which are quite fun and great way to connect with your colleagues.

Yes

Overall, my experience has been great. I enjoy the work I do and feel valued by my colleagues. The ACA and having no student debt is a great bonus. Outside of work there are loads of things I can get involved with. So EY is definitely a place I would like to recommend to my friends.

Be yourself. Don not try be someone else. Just come across as you naturally are, do some research on the background of the firm, make sure you practice plenty of online numerical and situational tests and try be interested in the role that your applying for. I personally did research the SMART technique which helped me answer questions in the interviews.