Audit Apprentice Review

As you gain experience and seniority, your role starts to become more senior and more involved with day to day client work. You are exposed to senior individuals, given responsibility to move the audit forward as well as ensure that the audit is complete in line with agreed timelines with clients.

Yes, the skills that you learn with this job are really unrivalled. The ACA qualification route that you go into develops your business acumen and financial skills to a way in which I would not have imagined it could have having done Accounting at A-Levels, working at KPMG has allowed me to develop on this skill and knowledge and is allowing me to add value in my day to day role.

I really enjoy my programme because it lets me meet a lot of different people, from different backgrounds and at different levels of experience and seniority. From finance directors to senior engagement individuals - this makes every day varied in a positive way because you are able to expose yourself to individuals who are able to offer insightful advice.

The programme is reasonably well structured. There is a general awareness of programme timetables with there being a designated function in KPMG responsible for making students aware of upcoming examinations although this could be better and more prompt on time to inform students the specific details of upcoming exams and programmes.

There is good support from my employer. Support is given towards flexible working with a hybrid working model in place requiring work from the office/ client site and the possibility to work from home when needed - this allows for a much more varied working experience which ultimately improves productivity and efficiency.

There is great support from our training provider who are tasked with ensuring all students perform well in examinations. The training provider ensures that students take in all of the material and there is specific one to one sessions possible should students need it. Online forums to ask about technical topics are also provided.

I believe my qualification that I am studying for has been core to me performing better in my role. This is because of the difficulty of the qualification but also with respect to how well it allows you to grasp certain business and financial topics which I can then apply to my work role.

Yes, there are social activities such as audit team meals, department team meals and parties. There are also sports club such as 5-a side football, netball, cricket and golf and many other activities. There are also professional networking events such as the ICAEW BADCASS events which allows accounting students the chance to meet and network on a regular basis.

Yes

KPMG is a great place to develop a career. It will set an individual up for their future if they wish to develop and expand on their financial skills but also if they are looking to build a career in accounting and finance. The exposure that is given to you, in terms of meeting with senior individuals of company boards such as finance directors is really unrivalled.

You do not have to be good at maths to be an accountant. Being a good listener is fundamentally important to ensuring you excel in the role but also in terms of making sure you are successful. Having a curious and questioning mind and showing interest is also significantly important.