Audit Industrial Placement Review

On a day-to-day basis, I would be working as part of a team auditing a company. This involved, reaching out to a client to understanding their financial balances and then we would test that these are accurate by checking samples against their payment information to check that the balances are true and accurate. Sometimes I would attend client stock counts to check that their inventory recording is accurate. The job involved usual audit practices.

I have learned many audit specific skills, and how to use audit specific software. I am more efficient with excel as a result of my placement. My team work and communication skills have also massively improved and I feel much more confident as an individual. Completing two modules of an ICAEW qualification has also given me insight into auditing and accounting which I would not have gained otherwise.

My responsibility increased as the year progressed. By the end of the placement I was working a lot more independently and was having frequent client calls unsupervised. I also found myself helping less experienced colleagues as a result of joining the firm before graduates. However, I always felt responsible as since the beginning of the placement I was interacting with clients individually on stock counts.

I received a lot of support and the teams I worked with were usually happy to breakdown more complicated tasks and information and explain them to me. On some projects I found that this would vary, but any there was always someone available to talk to if I had issues with the work.

The company culture is very friendly and always happy to make adjustments in terms of work hours and working from home, but on a few occasions I felt the pressure that I needed to be doing more work past my usual hours. This was always well communicated that this may be the case during busy periods, but over the course of the year this was not really an issue as work load balanced itself out.

I really enjoyed my placement. I learnt a lot of audit specific content and feel confident in pursuing this line of work after I graduate. I would recommend this placement for anyone interested in working in a large accounting firm. My colleagues were friendly and always happy to help, I travelled UK and made a lot of new experiences and I made many friends on the placement.

Yes

During the application process, try to emphasise team work and working logically to reach a goal. Its important that you recognise a healthy team environment and aim to work together to reach a common goal while still showing you are capable of working independently and using initiative if you have to.