Finance Associate Review

I felt very privilege to be working in the finance department of Egress, as the placement programme that Egress offers is fantastic. You are treated as an actual employee of the company rather than as a placement student which is perfect as you receive excellent work exposure. The placement offers plenty of opportunity for you to develop and learn new skills. I would highly recommend the financial placement scheme, along with the other placement schemes that Egress offers.

You are made to feel like a full-time employee at Egress from the first day; unlike most work placements where you feel like a student. Everyone you work with, both from your own department and other departments, are extremely helpful and will go out of their way to help you. Praise is also given when you work hard or when you have gone above and beyond.

My managers have been faultless; they are extremely approachable and freely offer help and advice and they will go out of their way to do what they can to help you. I could not have asked for better.

On a day to day basis you can expect to be fairly busy. There are routine daily tasks which you can expect to be doing such as the global invoicing for the company, credit control, handling supplier invoices etc. but you will also be given various projects to do from your manager, which can range from customer industry analysis to producing pipeline analysis reports. Also, the end of quarter is always hectic which is an experience in its self.

Working for a small team I felt I was given a fair amount of responsibility during my time at Egress. I was happy with the work load and I felt it offered a very good balance.

I learnt and developed a great amount during my time at Egress and the skills acquired here have provided me with a great platform moving into my third year at uni. My manager was the CFO of the company and this was an ideal opportunity to shadow and learn from someone very senior and experienced. Not a lot of places will have you reporting and working directly with the CFO of a company. One skill you will develop a lot on this placement are you Excels skills, you will be using this on a daily basis. The placement gave me a real understanding of the financial/accounting aspects of a company and what steps a company takes in order to be successful and financially thrive. An ongoing project you will be involved in is the company’s KPI (key performance indicator) tracker. You will see how many different aspects of the company is tracked, ranging from employee headcount to CAC payback ratios.

Egress had a very good atmosphere. I enjoyed the work I was given and enjoyed working with my colleagues. As you walk around the office you’ll notice it’s a young company and everyone is very social. Also, you’d notice there aren’t individual offices for the managers, they sit with their teams. For example, you’ll often see the CEO sitting with the sales team and working alongside them which, in my opinion, is one of the best things about Egress.

The programme Egress offered was very well organised, I was their 3rd placement student for the finance department, so as you would expect, there was a very good plan in place. The induction on your first day is effective, comprehensive and does not take very long, only about half the day which is a plus, a lot of places have a full day or two of induction which can get tiresome.

I think Egress invested a good amount of time into me, especially my manager. We would often have weekly sit downs/de-briefs for roughly 15 minutes. My manager took time out of his day to go over the tasks that I’ve completed and offer me advice on how I could improve; this also gave me an opportunity to ask any questions I might have had.

I would be very happy working here and would definitely be excited about the prospect of future employment at Egress. Hopefully, once I’ve completed my university degree and have started work towards the various accounting qualifications, I will be in a good position to apply for open jobs that Egress may have. I would definitely consider applying for future job openings since I have already learnt some skills that are directly linked to Egress and know many of the employees.

The social scene at Egress is very good, as mentioned above it’s a young company so everyone is very social and are up for regular socials. There are a few pubs within walking distant and the office is close to a lot of different underground lines so it’s pretty easy to commute. Every month HR organise company socials where the whole company get together and do various things ranging from pub quizzes and bingo to playing mini golf and rounders in the park to going to the oxygen trampoline park. They’re always good fun.

The cost of living is fairly high as it is in London. I think the salary is decent for the area, I was lucky enough to be able to live at home during my year at Egress. If I wasn’t I’d mostly likely have had to get a flat to share which could’ve been pricy.

As mentioned above, there are a few pubs within walking distance which are pretty good. Transport links are good so it is not hard to get about. A lot of the socials are in central London so after we’ve finished the social a lot of people go out into town.

There were many opportunities for socialising and activities outside of work. On Tuesdays we rent out a badminton court and anyone can turn up and play which is always great fun. We’ve also recently started up a football league for the company. Plenty of opportunities to get involved with and socialise outside of work.