西瓜视频

I really enjoyed my placement year at PwC. I worked in the Forensics department - which is a specialist accountancy division. A large percentage of the work that I completed was in relation to investigations into rogue accountancy; whether it be corruption, bribery, fraud, accounting manipulation etc. The work that I did was (more often than not) really interesting, and extremely rewarding with a number of projects leading to legal procedures. The best thing about working at PwC - specifically Forensics - is the people that you work with. No matter what department you go into, there are people from every degree background and people with a range of industrial experiences. As a result, there are always people that are in - or have been in - the same situation that you find yourself in; they are always happy to support you in finding your best path. As a placement 西瓜视频, you are surrounded by helpful colleagues; in Forensics, you are assigned a Buddy (a graduate or 2nd year), a people manager (deals with goal setting and career development), and a placement team (normally made up of 2 senior associates or managers). Due to the wealth in support, there is always someone to go with. Depending on the formality of the issue you can choose to approach the most appropriate person. This is certainly a better support structure than that made available to a number of friends on placements at other firms.

As mentioned above, there are always people willing to support you; for me, with this support comes a sense of compassion. I felt like colleagues were always willing to discuss feedback with me - both during projects, and after they finished - and to help me to carry out work effectively. Everyone is aware that you are new to the firm and the line of work, and by providing and explaining feedback they know that it will enable you to do a better job in the future. This atmosphere made me feel valued as a member of the team. The work you do, and the interaction you have with colleagues will depend on those that you work with. On the majority of projects that I was involved in, the senior team members made a real effort to offer praise when I did good work, and to offer constructive criticism where appropriate. This process was really helpful in helping me to get the most out of the placement year.

As stated above, feedback and support were readily available and you are encouraged to seek this feedback when working for PwC. In terms of support, the staff I worked with were very generous in the amount of time that they gave prior to commencing work. I think that people are willing to give as much time as you demand, and therefore, when starting new projects I would urge you to sit down with colleagues to get context and to agree upon a methodology. They are more than willing to give up this time if they are assured that you will do a better job.

My working day was 9:30-5:30. However, like with all placements you go through both busy periods and less busy periods. Unlike my friends on placements at other firms, I felt like PwC were very aware of the need to reward hard work. During quiet periods, I would work the hours required to complete tasks. Once these tasks were complete, I would offer to support other staff that may have a heavier workload. If they didn't require support, I was able to leave slightly early. During busy periods I would work for more than the seven hours, but never drastically so. I was never asked to work weekends or bank holidays - despite hearing that this was common at other firms.

PwC appear to pride themselves on employing the best employee; and thus, are happy to give them responsibility. When you first arrive, there are compulsory support sessions to teach you how to use certain software and how to go about daily work. However, after this induction, you are given responsibility to seek out opportunities where appropriate. There is a resourcing team who find appropriate staff to work on certain projects; however, that is not to say that you can't try to find work that you are interested in and ask to join the team. Your working day is very flexible and self-managed. You decide when you want to take a lunch break, when you arrive, when you leave, and how much time to dedicate to each project. It is important to have good time management skills when working at PwC, as you are likely to be working on a number of engagements at one given time. At first, this responsibility was daunting; yet, as the year went on I really enjoyed this flexibility.

Firstly, with PwC being the leading graduate employee (13 years running), it is hard not to state that this placement has drastically strengthened my future employability. In addition, the placement scheme is a really good stepping stone onto future placements at PwC/graduate roles. I - along with a number of other placement 西瓜视频s - have been offered a graduate role as a result of my feedback from the placement scheme. On return to university, it has surprised me how much I have changed since being out in industry. I'm not going to pretend like I now work 9 hours a day, and manage to get up at 6:30 in the morning. But there is a clear change in my work ethic and ability to concentrate on work and complete tasks in an efficient way. Tasks that would have been daunting a year ago are no longer daunting, and are just tasks that I need to - and will - complete. The biggest benefit of a placement - aside from a job offer, meaning that you don't need to apply to places in finals - are your soft skill developments: time management, interpersonal skills, confidence... etc. I'm sure that if you speak to anyone that has done a placement they will agree that soft skill developments are so valuable because they are transferable. Often technical skills - no matter how beneficial for the role that you are in - are less transferable.

The atmosphere in the London office was very friendly. From day 1 to the last day I worked there I was meeting new people. Whether I was working with them, or just meeting them through other people, I was surprised at how diverse the office was. This was so important in making my placement enjoyable as I was always meeting new interesting people, all with different strengths - and with a number of them helping to develop my strengths in new ways. The department was surprisingly sociable. Prior to working at PwC, I saw them as a corporate body - just like any other big company. I had gone in expecting to work there and then go home to enjoy my evenings. I was pleasantly surprised when developing relationships with other colleagues. I am now living with one colleague at university, and went skiing with another whilst on placement. I am also still in communication with a number of people still at the firm, and make an effort to meet up with them when back in London. Aside from the money (which is why people work, right?) the people that you work with is the most important factor. At times, work will become tiresome and repetitive, but having interesting and friendly colleagues will help make these times more bearable.

Exceptional. From the support team, to the induction, to resourcing, to socials, to charity work, to communication with universities, to exiting the firm.... every process was well communicated, well documented - to refer to if you forgot - and then re-communicated. This foresight made planning easy and helped the placement to go by without serious problems. I couldn't praise the scheme more highly for organisation and communication.

For the entirety of week 1, I was grouped with a number of other placement 西瓜视频s and we were asked to attend a number of compulsory induction sessions. These sessions taught us PwC specific information that we needed for the rest of the year - including laptop setup, phone setup, department inductions, typical project structures etc. Post induction, there were lots of optional trainings made available to all staff - including placement 西瓜视频s. For example, I attended an advanced Excel training session; given that I worked on Excel almost every day, learning tips on how to improve your speed and presentation on excel was really valuable. In addition, I attended a Strengths 西瓜视频er course - to identify key strengths and ways to develop them further. There were lots of compulsory courses too - focussing on the ethics and legal procedures surrounding the line of work that I was doing. These ranged from e-learns, to discussions, to tests etc. There are lots of training sessions offered to placement 西瓜视频s; the extent to which you develop your soft and technical skills is dependent upon your desire to sign up and attend optional sessions (in addition to the compulsory courses).

The Forensics department appears to promote both experienced hire and internal promotion. The process of promotion sounds daunting; yet, in reality it seems very achievable. The necessary criteria required for promotion appears to come around naturally along with some hard work. The initial promotion stage is subject to passing your ACA exams - done with PwC. In terms of future employment prospects, PwC is a consistent employer. Even during the Financial Crisis PwC maintained the number of graduate employees hired. Having said that, as with any company, future employment prospects will be down to company performance and the environment of the industry - I presume. This question is probably one you should ask to the HR team.

As stated in previous questions, there are a number of social opportunities. In Forensics there is a social on the last Thursday of each month, where drinks are provided for the department. In addition to that, there are always people going out for dinner or drinks after work on a regular basis. Once you have settled in, you are bound to find a group of friends that you enjoy socialising with. As with all social circles, you get out what you put in. So long as it doesn't affect your work, then the company is very supportive of socialising. As stated previously, you do a lot of courses throughout the year with a number of other placement 西瓜视频s and new grads. I now live with one other placement 西瓜视频 back at university, and went skiing with another last year whilst on placement.

It was London... so of course it was expensive. However, I lived at home and commuted in, making it affordable. The salary is competitive, and if you are good at managing a budget then it is more than sufficient to fund a good year - with enough left over for final year at uni. There are infinite places to eat and drink around the Embankment office, and some are really good value. If you are ever tight for cash (Christmas and Summer) then I suggest making lunch at home and bringing it in. This will save you a fortune over the space of a few weeks.

Again, like above, it is London. There are abundant choices of nights out, bars, restaurants, comedy clubs, theatres etc. They can be pricey, but are well worth exploring on a placement year. As the year goes on, I urge you to venture a little further than The Bullfrog (30 seconds from the office, and the standard choice of venue). The value the other side of the river is better, so if you are willing to walk across the bridge (all of 5 minutes) then that can make for a good night. A favourite of mine was The Bullfrog, then Top Secret Comedy Club (Covent Garden), then out after that.

Loads. Just like at university, there are loads of 'societies' at PwC. I put that in quotation marks because they aren't advertised as societies. There are lots of sports teams - for pretty much every sport - which often play against other companies that you will have heard of. There are baking groups, language classes, yoga sessions... you name it and there will probably be a society already developed. In addition to societies there are a number of charity and volunteering efforts that PwC encourage employees to get involved with. During my placement I volunteered for Bow food bank - helping to provide food and water to the homeless. This was a really rewarding addition to my placement year.