Wealth Advisory Associate Review

I really enjoyed my placement at Grant Thornton; the work I was involved in was varied and interesting and the people I was working alongside made me feel part of the team straight away. I was fortunate enough to get involved in a lot of social activities and team building days which are organised annually for offices and teams which meant I often had an event of some sort to look forward to. My role is quite analysis based which I enjoy and it has helped me to realise what types of work I do and don't enjoy and what I am good at.

My role involved a lot of independent work but managers were very appreciative of my efforts at my interim performance review and my final evaluation. As time went on throughout the placement and I learnt more about the role I was given more responsibility which demonstrated to me that colleagues trusted me and valued my work.

I had a monthly review meeting with my manager to track my progress and measure how I was getting on against my goals that we had set at the beginning of the year. We would discuss what I had done so far and plan what I could do to meet these going forward. My manager would always take the time out to check I was getting on ok and if there was any support I would like. Whenever any issues arose we would sit down and talk through them and he would take the time to explain to me how to fix this going forward. When coming to the end of my placement year my manager went above and beyond to help me discover what graduate role I ideally wanted and helped me get into contact with several people in different roles throughout the firm to find out what it was their roles really entailed. He also helped me to arrange 3 weeks of work experience within another 3 departments during my year which helped me to understand the firm as a whole and see what other opportunities may be out there for me with GT post graduation.

My work schedule was very reasonable. I had plenty of work so that I was busy day to day and my manager would always check what work I was doing and prioritise individual pieces if I became overly busy. Whenever I had spare capacity there would be work for me to pick up from the rest of the team so never really a dull moment!

I was given a lot more responsibility than I initially had anticipated although having taken this on I do not think this is a bad thing. I didn't really notice the responsibility I had been given until I sat down at the end of my placement and looked back at what I had done.

My year in industry has helped me immensely with skills such as time management, forward planning and work scheduling. This will assist me in my final year as I will be able to effectively plan what work I need to do and when I can do it, meaning I will spend less time faffing and have more free time. I will definitely take many of the skills I have learnt forward and apply them not only to my final year but also throughout the duration of my career.

My office was quite quiet at times although I find I get a lot more work done in this kind of environment. Everyone is friendly and welcoming so I don't think anyone would have any problems with settling in. They organise office events which are always good fun and everyone of all ages (and job titles) get involved which really helps to establish as many familiar faces around the office as possible.

My placement was very structured both within my department and by the firm as the whole. My department made sure I had adequate training and this was kept up to date throughout the year. There were several opportunities for me to further my learning too which was helpful for my role. By the firm this was also quite well structured with three training days throughout the year where all the placement students met up and we got to work on our presentation skills which are relevant to any role. They helped us think about our development throughout the year and made us aware of the support and opportunities available to all of us.

The firm supported me in sitting five external exams with the Chartered Insurance Institute and gain my Certificate in Financial Planning which was beyond what I had expected to receive during a placement year.

I would definitely love to work for Grant Thornton again in the future as they are a firm that have a real culture and actually operate by it. My managers took a genuine interest in my own personal development and throughout the year would do all they could to help me.

I was the only placement student in my office but other colleagues were always very social.

I remained living in my student house and commuted everyday so it was the same prices I was used to at university

Still lived in my student house quite a few miles away so only went on a few nights out in the area I worked during the year. Were all good fun though!

Yes, there is a monthly event called OYPS for young professionals that I was encouraged to get involved with and a few other events/clubs.