Trainee Review

I quite enjoyed my placement. I got a taste of working in audit and was able to develop both my personal and professional skills throughout the year. People at work have been very helpful, and I felt like there was always someone I could talk to if I had an issue. This placement has given me practical experience in dealing with clients of different companies and industries.

My colleagues have been very helpful throughout the year. During audits, my seniors have given me work based on my experience and have been very open to teaching me about the testing required for specific types of entities. They also explained wherever I needed to change something or what I should keep in mind on future audits through the appraisal system. Overall, I did feel like I was able to contribute to the audits.

I think I was given ample support during my placement. There were several points of contact within the firm who I could speak to, such as my allocated buddy, line manager, desk director and placement supervisor. I had regular meetings with my line manager to discuss any issues and several informal meetings with my buddy.

Work generally depends on the months (for example January-April are usually quite busy) as well as how many jobs you are booked to. The jobs that were on client site have been quite busy. Some jobs are done in office itself and those depend on how much work there is to be completed. During periods when I hadn't been booked to anything, I would ask around the office and help if anyone needed assistance with anything.

I was given training along with the graduate intake for the year, and the responsibilities given to me were roughly the same as what they got as well. As I was just starting out in audit, there were specific sections within audit packs that I was tasked with. As I did more audits, I got to work on other sections as well. In the end, I did have responsibility of the working papers that I was assigned with.

I definitely feel more confident with several skills which I feel I've developed. Working on client site has improved my communication skills and due to the number of working papers and documents I've had to keep track of on audits, my organizational and time-manegements skills have improved. I think this will definitely help me with the coursework at uni, as well as professionally in the future.

I'd say that the office generally has quite a friendly atmosphere. There is a 'hot-desk' system, which meant that during the time I was in the office, I would be sitting with different people. Everyone is in the open, so even the Directors don't have an office for themselves.

My placement started with training in the initial weeks before slowly getting eased into jobs. Due to the fact that audit is largely client-dependent, it's not possible to get a proper structure as such throughout the year. The work depends on what jobs you get booked to, and this means you have a different experience with each client.

I was given the same training as the graduate intake for the year. The first week mainly involved introduction to audit, bookkeeping basics, and other practical aspects like excel training. I even had a day of shipping-specific training which I found to be helpful as I worked on shipping clients. The only difference between myself and the graduate intake in terms of training was that they went to college as part of the ACA qualification and I didn't.

I think future employment prospects within the firm are quite appealing. As I was included as part of the year's graduate intake, I now know what graduate employment within Moore Stephens entails, in terms of training as well as general structure.

I think the social scene was good within the firm. Everyone is assigned to a trading desk when they join and there are several fun social events organized within the desks throughout the year. Moreover, there are always other frequent informal after-work events with colleagues.

I was living in student accommodation during my placement year, so that was expensive, especially as it was in central London. I wouldn't describe the costs of socializing as that cheap either, but at least there are lots of options!

Since the office is in Barbican, its very close to areas like Bank and Farringdon, and they are known to have a good nightlife.

I think there were many opportunities for social activities outside of work. Although I didn't participate in these, I know that there were sports related (netball, cricket) competitions that employees could participate in.