Associate (Industrial Placement) - Audit Review

There are not many placement roles where I think you could get so much exposure to such a variety of work. Throughout the 12 months I always felt as though I was learning new skills and taking on new tasks within the role. The work can be challenging at times but overall the positives definitely outweigh the negatives

The nature of the job involves a lot of teamwork and people of all levels generally acknowledge what it is that others are bringing to the team. I feel as though your work ethic partly determines how colleagues value you. If you can show that you are willing to learn and have potential, then others will help you to fulfil that.

As you are working in small teams on different clients a lot of the time you are managed by lots of different people. You are also assigned someone to look after you personal development but, due to what I have just mentioned, you do not meet face to face often. It it therefore up to you to reach out in order to get the help you need

This really depends on the time of year. January and February are the busiest months as this is when most large companies have their year ends. As a result it is expected that you work longer than contracted hours in order to help the team. During the rest of the year, while you are still busy, the workload is generally lower.

As a placement student you are given certain sections of audit testing which are your responsibility to complete. While these are generally the less risky parts of the audit they still need to be done to the same standard and past the same reviews as the other pieces of work.

In terms of the technical skills I feel as though what I have learned is already benefitting my studies as I am now being taught theory/skills which I’ve already encountered during my placement. The role also helps develop softer skills such as managing workloads and how best to interact with clients

There always seemed to be a very good atmosphere in the office. As you are mostly working in locations other than the office, when you do return everyone is in a good mood as they are able to catch up with their colleagues. Even when you are not in the office the atmosphere in individual engagement teams is very good

One of the few areas I think could have been improved. Placement students at the company are not that common, and so it was quite hard to find out information from people about whether I needed to do anything in perpetration for joining the firm. Once I had completed my initial training it also took about 1 month before I was assigned to any client work.

My rating here is quite low, but that is only because a placement is about trying to gain as much practical experience as possible in the tine period you are with the firm. If I had joined as a graduate then my rating would have been a lot higher as I would have been completing my professional accounting qualifications.

At the end of my placement year I was offered a graduate job with the firm. I accepted this as I feel as though this is the best place you can train as an accountant thanks to the experience and exposure you get to a wide variety of companies and industries.

I was the the only placement student in the office, but I joined at the same time as about 20 other graduates. I would have liked to have done the placement with at least one other person, but I was still able to make good contacts with the other people in my intake.

The south of England is not cheap. A positive of working at Deloitte though is that you are able to claim expenses when you have to travel to a location that is not your normal office, so that meant I was able to save quite a bit on the cost of commuting.

The office had good transport links into London so this is where quite a few of the office socials would occur. Where the office was located also had a good number of bars and restaurants so there was a good amount of options as to where any office socials could be held

The company are involved in quite a few external activities, from charity work to engaging with local schools. During my placement year I was able to get involved with career fairs and insight days at local schools where I was able to inform people about the opportunities available with the firm