Corporate Assistant Review

My role is as an auditor. We are employed by clients on a statutory basis in order to confirm that there are no errors or misstatements in their financial statements at their year end. Day to day, this involves discussions with management and detailed testing on different areas within the financial statements. You work closely with the client and gain a detailed understanding of their business.

An important skill when working in Audit is attention to detail, as it is very important to be able to spot mistakes and determine where the assumptions being used by management are incorrect. Another skill that I have developed is the ability to maintain a level of professional scepticism in order to keep questioning managements judgements and determine where they are not inline with requirements.

I enjoy working the likeminded people at Mazars who are sociable and hard working, making the team environment very strong. I also enjoy the opportunities to learn that audit provides, with a high level exposure to high level clients early on in your career and a wide variety of different audit areas to work on.

The structure on my programme is good, with regular trainings and ample time for study towards the ACA exams that you sit alongside the course. The organisation is sometimes lacking however when it comes to scheduling for the programme. I feel like a large amount of this comes from being under resourced staff wise .

Mazars offers fantastic support pastorally and professionally, with good levels of trainings and development opportunities available. The team is always supportive and when the work is particularly demanding the team always comes together in order to help each other get through. The moral in the team is also boosted throughout these times by having a young team who are able to stick together.

The support offered by BPP is mixed, and is very dependent on the tutor you have for the course. I would say the general level of teaching is high, with some tutors offering fantastic support and always being happy to help above and beyond their requirements. The weakest part of the support provided is the marking of mock questions which in most parts is slow and offers no to brief constructive criticism. I would say that marked questions are among the most important part of a course and therefore this requires improvement.

The exams are relevant to the work being completed and I would say their biggest benefit is that they allow me to take a more holistic, higher level view of the work I am doing with more understanding of why I am doing it and what it actually means. it also allows me to be more questioning and sceptical.

There are good amounts of social activities within client teams and as a department as a whole, as well as less formal social events between colleagues. In addition, there are various sporting and other activities to get involved in such as football, running and chess. There are also sponsored activities that you can attend such as the JP Morgan 5k.

Yes

The people at Mazars are supportive and friendly and I feel I am a lot closer with my friends at work than others that I know in other companies. I think the support network is strong and the management pastorally are very keen to ensure people have the best experience they can have.

Mazars is a people based business and it is important to show that you are a personable, sociable person who will fit in to the open and honest environment. In addition, you should make sure to show that you have good attention to detail and enjoy working in a team to solve often complex problems.