Audit Trainee Review

As an audit trainee your role is to perform certain tests to check whether a company's profit & loss and balance sheet figures are true and fair. On a day to day basis I perform various checks like; agreeing share issues to RNS announcements, agree expenses to invoices/evidence, assisting with the valuation of investments and much more. Responsibilities and interaction varies a lot from project to project, in smaller teams I work relatively independently with not much client facing work but larger teams can be the opposite. I rotate projects every 2-4 weeks.

I have learnt lots of new skills whilst working at BDO. Firstly being excel, 99% of my day is spent using excel which has pushed me to test my abilities regarding the available functionalities. I have also attended multiple excel workshops to assist with my development. Before BDO I struggled to articulate myself in a working environment, I have since developed skills in communicating with clients effectively, whether that be via email or on a call.

I thoroughly enjoy my job, I think you can get a lot out of it and personally I love the variety of the work I do. I'm in the asset management and capital markets sector so I find it really interesting to learn about how different clients operate. Despite the difficulty of juggling exams and work, I find the exams really useful and they give a deeper understanding of the daily work you perform.

I would say it is fairly well structured, I enjoy how BPP have some exams self-study and some in person in college as I am suited to this blended approach. Some exams are harder than others and it is convenient to have an in person tutor to assist with queries. They break down each exam into steps that you need to complete before exam day and I like the structure of knowing what is necessary to complete and at what point in time things are due.

BDO have been very supportive in my apprenticeship. We are given days of study leave for self-study and college and the rest of revision is in our own time. In my personal experience when I have exams managers have been very understanding and have not forced any overtime on me.

BPP are very useful in providing notes for us to work through and online videos. For exams that require college in person, the tutors have mostly been great and are very keen to help you succeed. If you have any questions you can upload them to the forums online which are great for when you aren't in college.

The knowledge I have gained from doing the ACA has been invaluable. It has greatly assisted with my everyday work, although often I find I have touched on the topic in a practical work environment before I have actually learnt the logistics behind it in class. Either way it still ends up helping me later down the line.

There is lots of extra-curricular at BDO. Although I am not part of any, there are netball and football teams, pub quiz teams and probably more I am not familiar with. There are also lots of societies for different religions/ethnic backgrounds/sexuality/gender. I am part of the women's network and they host lots of interesting talks and networking events. There are also a lot of paid drinking events which is great! We even had an FS ball last year which was a great occasion to be part of.

Yes

I love working at BDO, the culture here is unmatched. Everyone is very friendly and there are lots of people to meet and socials to go to. I rarely feel like I'm at work as the managers are so nice and understanding and I rarely feel under pressure. I personally have not had to work any overtime but if you do you are entitled to extra holiday or pay (and this is quite rare in the finance world). I enjoy that I rotate projects often unlike larger firms where you may be assigned one client for the year. Audit work can sometimes be repetitive but anytime I've felt this I have discussed with managers and been able to push for more difficult work.

Be yourself! I can't emphasise this enough, there will be hundreds of applicants and if you want to stand out be personable. Good grades can only take you so far but having the ability to be an effective worker involves other traits like good communication, being a problem solver, working well in a team etc.