Q4 Industrial Placement Review

My role was analogous to that of a first-year audit analyst. As such, my role involved performing account balance/class of transaction testing, along with completing/assisting with other audit documentation. In my role, I worked across the whole audit period, performing risk assessments, control design assessments and process walkthroughs for the planning phase of the audit, year-end testing during the year-end phase, followed by concluding procedures during the concluding period of the audit.

Yes. Over time, I felt that I was given greater autonomy, and a greater breadth of responsibilities. Initially, I was tasked with just performing account balance testing, with decisions about the type of testing to be performed, sample selection and audit evidence requirements already being pre-determined for me. After the first 6 months, I then became more involved in the decisions made during the planning phase of the audit, where I could then give my input as to the design of audit procedures, selection of the testing methodology for a given account balance, determining the most suitable form of audit evidence to satisfy the assertions associated with the balance being tested etc. I also began working on a wider range of audit documentation, such as controls testing, journals documentation.

I have done both. In terms of new skills, I would say that the ones developed centre more around interpersonal/soft skills. Whilst I had experience with working in teams from group projects completed throughout my degree, this time made up a very small fraction of my overall university experience, which was largely based on independent working. My placement year has been the complete reverse of this, where every day I am working in a team with different people of varying ages, backgrounds and experience levels. As such, I feel that I have developed my interpersonal skills as I have learned how to develop professional working relationships that help me work collaboratively with a diverse team. In terms of developing existing skills, I had already become accustomed to analytical type work through my degree, where I regularly handled large data sets/quantities of information, so having more time to develop methods and tools to help with transforming data into formats that can be used in risk assessments has been fruitful.

I received a great deal of support throughout my placement, which is a credit to everyone I worked with in the department I was in, as well as Deloitte's firm-wide ethos of fostering inclusion. My People Leader (line manager equivalent) has been amazing throughout my placement year, and has always been willing to take time to help me with any questions I had (audit and non-audit related). They have taken a keen interest in my development, actively encouraging me to collect regular feedback from assistant managers and managers that I have worked with on a given audit, and took the time to review my feedback to provide suggestions for improvements I could integrate within my work. They also helped me keep on top of any ICAEW training file requirements that I had to meet, such as the ICAEW Ethics reviews. For these, they were always willing to take the time necessary to review my scenario reviews prior to submission on my training file. More generally, I found that all of the audit teams that I worked on were very supportive and accommodating, with there always being someone who was willing to help provide guidance and support when I needed it.

Deloitte has a highly inclusive and friendly workplace culture. During my time at the firm, I always felt comfortable speaking to any colleague within the department, whether they be of a similar grade or much higher, even up to the directors and partners. At all times, I felt that I could be myself at work, and never felt that I was treated differently or denied opportunities based on my experience level, background or ethnicity. Everyone I came across left me with the impression that the people working at Deloitte deeply care about the wellbeing of one another. The general atmosphere is quite calm and relaxed.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my placement. The opportunity to work at one of the largest professional services firms in the world at a relatively young age has been a privilege and an honour, and I feel so fortunate to have been able to work with such a diverse array of talented, kind and caring professionals who have all been incredibly supportive of me from day 1. I am also incredibly appreciative of the breadth of activities that I have been able to get involved with, helping me have the most fulfilling and enriching experience possible.

Yes