Audit Associate Review

I really enjoyed my year with Grant Thornton. A slow start to begin - some organisational problems, but this was soon resolved and I have subsequently seen that this has been corrected for the future. I have met some truly fantastic people and have learnt a lot during my year.

I felt valued by my colleagues. They were incredibly welcoming and easy to approach whenever I had a query and when working hard they are grateful for any work put in over and above the norm.

I was given a lot of support and guidance by management and supervisors. Due to the nature of the job, you are always working with someone else - in teams mostly out on site (my placement was in audit) - there is a good culture of learning and encouragement to ask questions.

I spent most of my time out on site (audit placement) and I always had tasks to complete. However, it was still possible to maintain a good work-life balance and I did not feel overworked.

I was given a lot of responsibility during my placement. Within my first few weeks I was out on-site at the client, and you are immediately thrown into the deep end speaking to clients. However, with support from the team this is not as scary as it sounds and becomes natural as the weeks go on and your knowledge of the work. Equally, being one on one with the client - at stocktakes, although there is a manager a phone-call away. I had a chance to take ownerships of a whole file on the fieldwork side on a number of occasions.

Although I did not undertake any of the ICAEW exams during my placement year, the time spent on audits still counts towards my ACA, which will put me a good position to time-qualify more quickly. Of course there is an inherent factor of soft skills that are obtained through the job, such as teamwork and professionalism from speaking to clients on a daily basis. In terms of my degree - hands-on experience should put me above my peers and should help me to see how things occur in the 'real world' rather than just the theory. (My degree is accounting and finance).

The atmosphere when spent in the office was good - although the majority of time was spent out on site. People are friendly and easy to approach.

At the start of the placement the organisation wasn't great - post-interview there was very little contact with the office itself and when I first started there were a number of weeks in the office where I was not booked to any jobs and felt forgotten about while the graduates where at college. As someone not from the area of the office I was moving to - there was no real help towards finding somewhere to live or help integrating - I was missed off emails for social events and clubs early on too. However, I believe this has improved since there have been new joiners - they seem to be in contact much more frequently and there are often 'keep warm events' for new starters to go to.

There is a lot of personal training and development during the year. Bradenham Manor - Grant Thornton's national training centre runs many courses that not only help with the training but also other skills. During the placement there were 3 days throughout the year for all the placement students which ranged from developing your business impact to presentation skills.

If you perform well during the placement there are good future employment prospects within the organisation.

There was a good social scene with fellow placement students, graduates and school-leavers - the "intake year" - there were also monthly social events to attend.

The cost of living and socialising in the area was affordable on the placement student salary (below that of a graduate, but above that of a school leaver). I rented during my placement year in Manchester - I paid around £550 per month for my flat, however, I did not have a car and I believe I would have struggled to afford both rent and the price of a car each month (say for example on a leasing scheme).

The nightlife was good. Especially around the area of the office there were many places to go for drinks after work.

There were some opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work - but these were generally sports related - a netball team for the girls and a football team for the boys. However, working in audit it was not always possible to attend these.