Rachel P.

Associate
Happy to mentor
Happy to be contacted

About me

Rachel P.
Politics, Economics and Philosophy
Philosophy, Politics and Economics
Undergraduate
Alcuin
2007
United Kingdom

My employment

Associate
Ernst & Young LLP
United Kingdom
2008
£32500~7500
£32500~7500

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A day in the life of a Associate in the United Kingdom

How I found out about the job

Already worked there

Courses taken since graduation

N/A

Where I hope to be in 5 years

Undecided at present, though I will qualify as a Chartered Accountant in April 2011.

My advice to students considering work

Get involved with activities outside your degree, get as much interview practice as possible, get some work experience or volunteering experience, and speak to people doing the jobs you are thinking of applying for.

What I do

My work involves working within an audit team to meet clients’ needs. It involves getting an understanding of how a business works, analysing their accounts and verifying that their accounts are a true and fair representation of their activities during the year.
The nature of the work varies according to the time of year. We usually spend the summer months updating our understanding of how their business processes work, through talking to the client, whereas at the start of the year, we will be going through the detail of their accounts.
My work also involves managing the first and second years on my team, updating my seniors on the progress of our work and liaising with the client to ensure we are on track. A large part of the job is training to get our charted accountancy qualification. This involves spending large amount of time in college studying and take exams.

Skills I use and how I developed them



Extracurricular skills:
Working with people and problem solving developed through my involvement with YUSU societies.

What I like most

I like the variety auditing provides, I work at different clients with different audit teams. This means a different location, different issues to understand, and different people to work with. I am never in the same place for more than 2 weeks.
I enjoy seeing how different businesses work and getting an overview of the company and I like working in teams which means there is always someone to ask for help! I appreciate the other opportunities that my firm provide, including secondments, helping out in recruitment, training and corporate social responsibility. I also like the career progression which means you will not be doing the same thing each year.

What I like least

It can be boring at times. There are often long hours, and the travelling can be tough!

Next steps...

If you like the look of Rachel’s profile, the next steps are down to you! You can send Rachel a message to find out more about their career journey.

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