Bussiness Placement Student Review

I enjoyed the challenge of the job, and the variety of the clients that I worked on during my 11 months in the Leeds office. One of the things I enjoyed most was the interactions with the clients, even as a placement student when you encountered problems with your work it was your responsibility to talk to the client and understand what was happening, with the support of your seniors in the team. I also enjoyed working with different teams of people throughout the 11months. This enabled me to get to know lots of different people in the office and taught me how to flex my working style.

I felt very valued by my colleagues, whether it was on a client where your work was important and you managed to complete a particular piece of work, or I took on a new area of responsibility, to being a vital team member during Yorkshire sports day to ensure our colour group one. There is a real team atmosphere where every individuals performance is valued and essential to making sure that the team is successful.

Whilst on placement you will be assigned a people manager who is your go to contact if you have any problems. However day to day you will be working in teams out on client sites where there will be seniors within the team who are happy to coach you through your work and assist with any queries that you have. At PwC they say there is no such thing as a stupid question and they would rather you were asking lots of questions to clarify your understanding so that the incharge or senior can help you if you are struggling.

Everyday was different. During the time you were in college you would be busy with college work, if you were working in the run up to exams you would have to manage your time effectively to ensure that you could complete the work required from you and also spend time revising. The audit busy season is from January through to March where work will be much more time pressured and therefore you may experience longer working days.

From day one of placement you are treated exactly the same as the graduate intake and you are never made to feel like an intern! Every audit client you work on is a chance for you to take on a new area of the audit file, once you feel confident with the new area you are able to ask for more responsibility on the next client. How much responsibility completely depends on how much you want.

During the 11 month placement year at PwC in Assurance you will complete training for 7/15 ACA examinations. The teaching for these exams is run through a college called Kaplan Financial, with a specific PwC programme of learning. This means that after university there are only 8 more exams left before you qualify. As a Natural Science student the biggest thing I have learnt during placement that is applicable to my studies is time management and levels of productivity.

The Leeds office had a great atmosphere and was very friendly and welcoming to new people. The office also run socials to enable you to get to know everyone.

The placement is run inline with the graduate scheme and you are treated exactly the same form day 1. Due to this I felt that the placement was very well organised.

PwC invested in my collage training for 6 professional accountancy exams. They also provided additional training for the Assurance exam which gave a CPL (credit for prior learning) to the ICAEW.

I was offered a graduate job at the end of my placement!

I was part of a graduate intake of 30 into the Leeds office and joined with previous April starts we made up the AS1's. We often went out for meals, to the cinema, and for drinks.

Leeds is very reasonable for both living costs and socialising.

Leeds has a great nightlife which is enhanced by the fact there are 3 universities within the city and a young working population.

I was involved in the Netball team which played every Thursday as part of a corporate league. I was also a member of the Hockey team which enabled us to travel to Barcelona to take part in a European PwC Hockey Tournament!