Corporate Assistant Review

My role is working on the external financial audits of my firms clients. I work as a junior member with senior colleagues of varying team sizes depending on the engagement. On a day-to-day basis I am working on different audit areas, which could involve the planning stage, the fieldwork stage, or completion procedures. I am working on Excel mainly and I am being coached by my senior members as part of my on the job training.

One of the new skills I have learned is communication and relationship building with clients. This is important and is ever developing since much of my working time is spent communicating with clients and understanding the financial processes. Existing skills that have been further developed in my role include my time/project management skills as I need to balance different tasks as well as working and studying, and attention to detail as I am working with large amounts of data and its important to investigate this thoroughly.

So far I have really enjoyed the different aspects of my programme, both working and studying. The daily job has given me a strong start to my early career in audit and my teammates have been both friendly and helpful. My studies have been structured effectively with support and coordination between both my firm and training provider.

I feel my programmes are very well structured in respect to the goals it aims to achieve. I have a 3 year programme where I am working and learning on the job, as well completing the ACA qualification with different exams being taken throughout the year. I am given the usual college and self learning days to study for these exams, as well as additional study days available in the year. The support available from the firm is very helpful and they take care to ensure success in both exams and work. The training provider has a very well organised system to ensure apprentices are able to study and pass the exams effectively.

There is a lot of support given from my employer through different channels. There is the early careers development team who are dedicated to answering questions and solving problems related to the apprenticeship and exams. There are regular opportunities to receive and provide feedback, and this is highly encouraged throughout the firm. We are also assigned people managers and buddies that we can reach out to.

My training provider has many resources we can use for support. As well as the usual study materials, they provide extra practice questions and a steps system which guides to exam success and helps to be more confident in required knowledge. There are also online forums where students can ask questions. There are regular progress review calls as well.

My qualification covers many of the aspects that I find in my daily role in audit. Concepts specific to audit are covered in depth and this gives insight and understanding in to the tasks I am asked to perform and why I am doing what I am doing. The accounting modules also help to understand the clients work which helps my own work.

There are many extra-curricular activities available. There are always some form of work socials happening, and this could be based on office or service line. There are sports activities and charity events. There are also firm wide diversity networks and that anyone can join. Other social activities are also available and promoted, such as the chess club.

Yes

Mazars really has a strong employee focus, and particularly early career employees. There are many avenues available to get support, and the office culture is friendly and teamwork focused. There is a emphasis on downwards and upwards feedback and all levels of employees, not matter how senior, are involved with the day to day work, so you feel comfortable communicating with more experienced colleagues.

Really do your research into the firm and the specific role you want to apply to. This will help make your decision and allow you to show your genuine interest and research when answering questions in the application or interviews. Technical skills are important, but so are personal and soft skills, so think about your development in these areas.