Financial Crime Analyst Review

I found this year very engaging. I received a months training before I began working on a project. This was broken down into two weeks of general skills for PwC and how to use the the specific systems. I then received further specific training in financial crime and anti money laundering.

I was treated as if I was an associate. Some people only knew that I was a business placement student because I told them. It does not matter about your position as much as your competence. I was rewarded for both the quality of my work and the effort I put in. Based on your performance you get given greater responsibilities.

At any stage of the year you can ask for help via many pathways. You are given an individual career coach as well as the team lead on your specific project. For my role as an analyst I also had a QC that would answer work specific questions on a day to day basis.

The work is cyclical. Sometimes you can be very busy and have deadlines after deadlines. During this time overtime is expected during the week and weekends. This is either paid of given as time in lieu. However, there was a period when I was on the bench for a month and you are required or expected to self study.

This was completely dependant on your ability to produce high quality work and meet targets. I was kept on my project when others were rolled off my work ethic and quality. Essentially you are rewarded for your hard work by being given more opportunities to perform a role above your pay grade.

The main skills gained are professional work place skills. Experience like this invaluable and can not be replicated at university. I also gained a comprehensive knowledge of financial crime and money laundering that I can put onto my CV in the future. Alongside this Business Placements are given a presentation task to prepare and give to managers at PwC.

Most people were pretty happy and lively all the time. When targets were close however, people did get more stressed and the pressure to perform definitely increased. As a business placement you were never under anywhere near as much pressure as the managers of the projects and were not expected too much of yourself.

The work in the specific teams was well organised and well focused. However the communication around different procedures that Business Placement students were required to do was poor. The leaving process was given to us three weeks before we left and you were not allowed to apply for other jobs until you have had your exit interview on the day you leave.

I received expensive training to begin with and also got access to the portal for training and development which had excel courses on amongst other things. Your career coach also advised you to network as much as possible and create links that could be used after you graduate. I got to have a sit down talk with an account about getting my ACA's paid.

I would definitely like to work for PwC again. However I want to transfer back to England. That's just base don personal preferences. PwC is a fantastic company to work for and they made a large focus on marketing yourself as a past PwC employee in the future because it would help with employability.

The social scene was well subsidised. Once a month there is a first Friday which you can get two drinks tokens for £3. This went to charity. The summer barbecue and winter ball were also both free and you received free alcohol and food. All the gatherings were well organised and good fun.

Belfast is very cheap. Accommodation was noticeably cheaper compared to England. The cost of food and alcohol again was cheaper but less so. I spent £40 a week on food and £240 a month on rent. I would recommend Belfast as a good place for your first graduate job. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Bars, clubs and pubs were all in walking distance from the city centre and where I lived. You make friends at work that you can go out with and a night out was always enjoyable, whether it was for the pub, food or clubbing. The nights out again are cheaper than some parts of England but not up North.

This depended on how much you wanted to get involved. There are lots of opportunities on offer though. I ran in part of a team in the Belfast marathon. There were regular football 5 a side events organised also. I thoroughly enjoyed the social aspect at these and will continue to do them if I return.