Nadine, Regional Office: Transcript

Why did you apply to a regional PwC office?

I think one of the key benefits of working in a regional office is that you get to work in a broad spectrum of industries, clients, different client sizes, often in smaller companies so you have more opportunity to see the whole company and understand an entire company within one job, and also you work in smaller teams so you may be given more responsibility earlier on so I think that the career development can be slightly quicker in the regions because you have more experience starting very early in your career and also it's a lifestyle difference. I think working in a smaller office, it's a much more open culture- you get to know people on a personal level much more easily and broaden networks, it's not quite so daunting and just managing your life, the work life balance living in a smaller city you can incorporate your business life and have enough time to get around and have your social life and do what ever else you want to do outside of work. In all it just gives you a better balance in your overall life.

How did you find the recruitment process?

It was amazing - it was really good. They were really efficient they communicated with you promptly - they got back to you quickly. They were really interested in who you are; what differentiated PwC from other companies for me was that during the interviewing process wasn't so much they were presenting the job to you, they were trying to find out who you are - let you find out who they are, and find out from a cultural people's perspective whether or not you would fit into the business and whether the business will help you achieve your own personal goals as well as the goals of the business - yeah so they were interested in who you were.

For what qualifications are you studying and what support do you get?

I am studying for the ACA - the accounting qualification and we do that at a financial college nearby to the office. Within the business though we have two key contacts really; I have my coach, my counselling manager who I can go to anytime if I'm having any problems at college with my studies and challenging or with any actual help if I need it with my work load they will kind of provide that help and there is also your professional qualifications manager who actually coordinates the exams and liaises with the college and again if you have any problems directly with the college, that's the person you would go to, any problems in your personal life that might be hindering your studies - all those doors are open and just general managers within your office and colleagues in your office have all been through the process and know how hard it is so they make themselves available for you if you need to go and get some support. So there are quite a few different channels available to you.

What are your clients like?

Most people with in the regions -or within my office are aligned to a specific industry sector. That might be Tax, Financial Services Companies, manufacturing companies or Public Sector companies. The good thing about working in the regions is that even though you might be aligned to one, predominantly, you are often called onto work on different types; I've worked on large banks, an electronics manufacturing company, I did a veterinary site - a vet audit once.. there's a wide range of different companies you can work in: retail - from very large companies to very small so the range is quite wide there.

What is an average day for you?

I think working at PwC there is no average day it depends on what you are doing. If I am working in the office, I tend to have quite a standard working day and manage to get home within a reasonable time, if I'm working on away jobs - maybe working somewhere else within the regions that may require slightly longer working hours, then your stay at a hotel, have dinner with your team - have drinks in the evening so a slightly longer day if you are working away and then if I'm at college again it tends to be a slightly shorter working day - 9 till 4 but there is quite a lot of work to cover again in the evening again and it will be a slightly longer working day so it just depends really what you are doing at the time, but it's quite varied - it's quite mixed throughout the months, so it's quite nice to have that balance.

What is the social life like in your office?

Within my business group they tend to arrange formal, maybe quarterly socials but there is always someone within the office who is organising a night out or a day at the races or a trip to Bath, so there's always something on a weekly basis or fortnightly basis so you can get involved on a social level. There are sports teams I think there is a netball team starting soon which I'm quite excited about getting involved with, so yeah - various different kind of things. It's quite a social atmosphere, it's formal with respect to the work but interpersonally it's quite informal and day to day it's quite a good social environment about the office.