Jersey assurance associate profile - April 2011

So, what are you waiting for?

Ellie Duley, trainee accountant with PwC, says that her chosen profession has such a lot to offer, whether university features in your plans for after school or not

Whether you’re looking for a career after university or want to get started straight out of school, I think coming to PwC is a great option, and certainly one of the smartest career decisions I could have made. 

I started training as an accountant with PwC Jersey CI in September.

In many ways joining PwC was like starting university; all the new starters did an induction, found somewhere to live, lots of us living together, and set about getting to know each other.  In our ‘year group’ there’s a pretty even split between people moving over from the UK and Jersey beans. The beans took us round the island we played football, swam at St. Brelade and went for lunch at the Wayside before joining the guys in the year above for a big dinner at Domingoes. If you’ve ever been you’ll know it’s quite an icebreaker as a dining experience! PwC’s renowned for employing personable, interesting people and we all hit it off really well. This really helped when we got into the office, because there were plenty of friendly faces to help us settle in.

PwC as a firm really invests in its staff and clients. They focus on quality and building relationships, so invest a lot of time and resources in their employee’s development and training. As new starters we spent two weeks on an induction programme, training with our Guernsey counterparts. We learnt a lot about our trade, what was going to be expected of us and PwC’s methods. We completed case studies and workshops to prepare us for our first audit engagements.

Before the induction programme, we had our first professional qualification college sessions at BPP, PwC’s current education service providers. We share these classes with members of other firms; it was interesting to see who had ended up at the different practices as they all seem to go for a different vibe of person. After these college sessions the ACA students take a few steps towards being professionally qualified by sitting two computer based multiple choice exams.

PwC offer ACA and ACCA qualification routes, both are internationally recognised, so once you’re qualified the world literally is your oyster particularly with a company like PwC who has a huge global presence. 

There are training positions at PwC Jersey CI in assurance and tax (if you start in one you can transfer to the other, if you want a change). As an employee of PwC there are options to do secondments to other departments and firms in Australia, America, the UK, Dubai etc. In assurance, a lot of the work is performed at the clients’ offices, which is why it’s important to be friendly and approachable with new people. These offices are usually in Jersey. However, on my first job I spent a week in London and I will be spending 3 weeks in Edinburgh in May for the audit of some retail parks there, other people in the office have had away jobs all over Europe including Madrid, Barcelona and Paris.

In Jersey there is a wide range of industries and PwC have a huge variety of clients involved in Private Equity , banking, retail and property funds, to name a few. During your training contract, work periods are broken up with college sessions and a revision courses before the written exams. It is important to factor in revision when you are not at college but there is no denying the respect, opportunities and financial rewards which a professional qualification brings. So it’s worth the effort and there is still plenty of time for enjoying yourself too.

Last month one of my flatmates and I went on a great weekend trip to Guernsey, with the firm. PwC have a number of sports teams including golf, football, netball and cricket. Kate and I play netball on PwC‘s team and we went over to Guernsey to play a match against the PwC Guernsey office. 

Our match preceded the annual ‘PwC vs. clients of the Finance industry’ rugby match which was followed by lunch, awards and drinks with the clients. We watched the Guernsey vs. Twickenham rugby match before heading into town to continue the merriment.

Hopefully you’ve got a taste of what life could be like for you if you choose to build your career around an ACA/ACCA qualification gained with PwC. However you don’t need to take my word for it. PwC offers work placements from a week to 6 months long. So if you’re interested in finding out if accountancy and PwC are for you, send in a CV and come and see for yourself.