What is something you wish you knew when you started?

Hey Sohpia, before I joined EY i wish I knew what to roughly expect as life in Assurance. I had really little experience with accounting so really wish I asked more questions and did more research

Hi Sara, thank you for your reply - do you wish you knew more specifically about how to do the work?

In all honesty not really, because as a new joiner you are given so much support you are literally given one to one support. Your team members on the audit don't expect you to know anything they teach you everything you need to know.

But of course it does help slightly if you do have some insight, however it doesn't really make a massive difference in my opinion

Fantastic! If you don't mind me asking, what was your background prior to Assurance and Accounting? For example what was your university degree?

So I am an apprentice, I jumped into the working world straight out of school. I completed my A-Levels and decided I wanted to do an apprenticeship instead of uni

Hi Sophia!

I thought I would jump in and answer your question about the degrees. I am part of the Forensics team and I have found that there is a variety of backgrounds. For example I did maths for undegrad and data science for masters while my friend on the same position did physics. I found that it is not required to study accounting / finance because you can learn on the job.

Thank you Sara and Kat for your responses - it's certainly reassuring to hear there's a range of different backgrounds and the chance to learn on the job. As a French and Spanish student, is there anything in particular related to maths that you think I should practice? I'm in the process of applying at the moment and have been getting on alright with the numerical test practice so far. Is there anything on top of this I should do?

I wouldn't worry if you have been doing well on the numerical test practice so far! When I was applying I have found that the level of maths expected in the actual test was very similar as in the practice tests. I don't remember the test itself well but I would say make sure you are confident with percentages, fractions, extracting information from graphs, charts and tables.

Thank you very much Kat, the specifics you have listed at the end are particularly helpful - I'll be sure to note them down!