Graduate Blog

Kate – Assurance Cork

Hi everyone,

So all has been pretty busy here since my last blog, we are now back in the office as we completed all our work required to be done out at the client site on Thursday last! This week I have been mostly chasing up out-standings with the client and completing documentation of work performed so as management can review the audit file. The job itself was really interesting as we were dealing mainly with their finance team who are based in India.

Lectures also started back this weekend so now it’s a case of getting all our notes printed off and getting folders sorted as the material will come thick and fast from the Institute!

This Friday I’m scheduled to attend a stocktake in Middleton so once again I’ll be out of the office for the day! We are also all looking forward to the bank holiday weekend and can’t wait to hear how the associates have been getting on in training as they’ve just started this week. I find it hard to believe that this date 12 months ago we started, the year has just gone by so quickly!

Talk soon,

Kate

Sarah – Consulting Dublin

Hi all,

Since my first blog, I have been very busy working on a large change project for an Irish Authority.

Over the past couple of weeks, I assisted our client in the facilitation of ‘Voice of the Customer’ exercises with the aim to determine what the public think about the changes we are proposing. The exercises gave the public the chance to voice any of their concerns and to offer any suggestions that they had. In the last two weeks I travelled to Ballina, Sligo, Galway, Portlaoise, Waterford and Dublin to assist with these exercises and I am currently analysing the feedback we received. My next deliverable on this project will involve stakeholder analysis and the development of a communications plan.

Moving on from work, just over a week ago we had our yearly Away Day where the Consulting and RAS teams went to Kildare and spent the day doing activities from blind driving to giant volleyball, though the human foosball table was definitely the highlight for me! Everyone had a great night in the hotel afterward! Another event that took place recently was the yearly table quiz – which is the only event to involve the entire firm. This took place in the Convention Centre and again everyone had a brilliant night out!

I’ll be back soon with updates on everything that’s going on and thanks for reading my blog.

Catherine – Assurance South East

Hi all,

It’s been a couple of weeks since my last blog, I’ve been busy in the office during that time working on a set of accounts for a partnership and as our new associates haven’t started yet I’ve also been busy helping managers with drafting various letters of engagement and setting up new files as we prepare for our next busy season of audits ahead in January.

It’s hard to believe it’s been 12 months since I started my training with PwC. The realisation hit earlier this week when a box arrived with my FAE course books! So it looks like lectures are only just around the corner. It will be a very busy time again when the lectures start as I will have to try balance work, weekend lectures and some time to relax! But it’s also exciting because this will be my last set of exams to qualify as a chartered accountant.

Look forward to chatting to you again soon.

Catherine

Oliver - Risk Assurance Solutions

Hi everyone,

I thought I would let you know what I am currently working on. I am on a client secondment in the internal team of a large financial institution for the next few months. Working in an internal audit team within a different firm has given me a whole new perspective on how I approach the job and what the client expects. I have full access to their systems and have been given opportunities to work on many cases, lending practices and branch audits throughout the country. Taking what I have already learned from my time within PwC has allowed me to pass on ideas for control testing and give an independent view point.

Luckily it hasn't all been work. We had our annual Advisory away day last Friday in Kilashee house. The whole department got together for a day of activities including hovercraft's, human table football and movie making. The day was finished off with an Oscar night where we got to see our blockbuster attempts. Everyone, from the associates to the partners, had a great time.

I will keep you updated on my secondment and future jobs and let you know how I manage to combine them with my FAE classes beginning soon.

Ollie

Brian – Tax Dublin

Hi all,

I am in the middle of our busy season at the moment so things are pretty hectic with lots of tax returns to prepare in order to meet the Income Tax filing deadlines of 31 October and 15 November (if filing online via Revenue’s Online Service). So many people leave it to the last minute to send back their documents which makes things a bit more stressful! There’s plenty of other work to be done apart from tax returns and I am currently engaged in a large redundancy project. We are staying back late a few evenings a week but there are lots of sweets to keep the energy levels up!

We had twelve new graduates join my department last week – each new graduate is assigned a buddy to assist and mentor them for the year to help ensure a smooth transition into the Firm and also to answer as many questions as possible. This year over 40 graduates joined the Tax practice with half sitting the tax exams only. I’m a buddy to Sinéad and she completed a Degree and Masters in Law so has no business or tax background. This year a large portion of the intake come from a non Accounting/ Business background such as Engineering and Law Graduates which illustrates that there are graduate opportunities for people of all degree backgrounds within PwC.

We had two social nights out last week to welcome the new intake with one involving going to the Comedy Club on Friday night. It was a great opportunity to meet all of the new graduates and it was a great night too!

I was out in the RDS this week at the gradireland Careers Fair – it’s great to get out of the office and away from the desk now and again. It’s also surprising how quick the time goes as it seems like only yesterday that I was at those same graduate fairs as a student!

Next week the annual PwC quiz will take place next door in the Convention Centre. Realistically our team will have a better chance of coming last than actually winning but it’s good fun all the same!

Chat again soon!

Adam – Consulting Dublin

Hi all,

I have had a busy couple of days since we spoke last. The current job I am on at the moment is finishing up and we are working hard to try and get the final report delivered on schedule. With so many different aspects of the project to tie up before the report can be submitted it feels a bit like being back in college! The skills I learned in college from project work have definitely been of great benefit to me since starting in PwC. I have used skills such as planning, task prioritising and time management in every project so far and my experiences from college have really stood to me.

I suppose if anyone is worried about making the transition from college to the workforce, don’t be, you will surprise yourself with how much you have already picked up in college from working in teams and trying to meet deadlines!

This Friday we have our departments annual away day. Last year both the Consulting and RAS departments went down on an overnight trip to Kilkenny for a day of team bonding! We spent the day competing as teams in orienteering, rock climbing, abseiling and archery. In the evening we had a big BBQ and finished up the night going out in Kilkenny. It was a fantastic day and it was a great opportunity to meet people from across the different areas of Consulting and RAS that you might never have dealt with before and even being able to catch up with people that you haven’t seen in a while if your out of the office!

Well this Friday we are going to Kildare and by all accounts it promises to be even better than last year. I shall provide you with all the details (well maybe not all!) next time we talk!

That’s all from me for now guys. I hope you’re not all too stressed at the moment as I do remember it being a tough time with your applications and then college thrown on top as that as well! The main advice I have for you is to just try and be yourself with your answers, try to write what you actually feel rather than what you think they want to hear!

Best of luck with it all and I shall talk to you soon!

Kate – Assurance Cork

Hi everyone,

Since my last blog, I’ve been back in UCC on graduate recruitment duty. I attended along with some others from the office the ‘PwC Experience’ event on campus. It was a great day as I hadn’t been back in UCC since my graduation so it was nice to be back in familiar surroundings. It was also great to get the chance to chat with some under-graduates who were keen to know about the PwC graduate programme and all that it has to offer. Next Wednesday I’ll be attending the UCC Graduate Recruitment Fair where we’ll be there to chat to those who are interested in applying, so already I’m looking forward to that!

In the same week I worked on my first job whereby I was out on a client site by myself; the manager on the job attended my first meeting with the client out on site and gave me clear instructions on the testing that was required and the work to be done. I actually really enjoyed working on this job as the client was very co-operative and in the end it was a great sense of achievement to have conducted the work by myself.

I’ve now moved on to my next job, where we are performing the interim audit of a large multinational pharmaceutical corporation, it’s only our second day out on site and this will be my first ever interim audit so I’m looking forward to getting into the swing of things over the next few days!

I’ll be sure in my next blog to let ye know how I get on!

Talk soon,

Kate

Aoife – Tax Dublin

Hi All

It's been a very busy few weeks in the corporation tax department. The 23rd September was the corporation tax filing deadline for many of the clients so the run-up to this date is always a busy time of year for us. The clients that I have been working on recently range from small Irish branches to large multinational plcs, therefore the tax compliance issues associated with each can be very diverse. There is a sense of relief around the office on the evening of 23rd September when all of the returns have been filed with Revenue on time.

I am also a member of the Stamp Duty team and have been involved in a lot of stamp duty work recently. The majority of my work in this area relates to relief claims which we make on behalf of clients. The stamp duty team is comprised of representatives from the various departments. We meet once a week to discuss the various stamp duty issues which have arisen within our departments. The meetings are a good way to share information and keep up to date with stamp duty work being carried out across the firm.

I have been involved in some targeting work recently which is something new for me. We were informed that a potential new client was putting its tax and audit work out to tender and a fee quote for both services was requested. We are often encouraged to go out and meet with clients so a Director and I visited the potential client's premises to obtain a better understanding of the type of business they are involved in. We found this face to face meeting very beneficial. I then prepared a proposal paper to which our audit colleagues also contributed. We hope that the potential client will be impressed with the range of services we can offer and hopefully we will hear back from them shortly once a decision has been made.

The new intake arrived in the office last week. They had a few days of training and have joined their respective departments. Each new Assistant has a Buddy who sits near them. The job of the Buddy is to introduce the Assistant to their new colleagues and 'show them the ropes'. I remember when I was an Assistant, I was very grateful to have a Buddy who I could ask questions to at any time.

We are hoping to have a department night out soon so everyone is looking forward to that, they are always fun nights out.

Until next time,

Catherine – Assurance South East

Hi all,

It’s been another busy while in the office since my last blog. I spent the last week preparing accounts for a limited partnership and a general partnership. I really enjoy this side of my work because I get great satisfaction from bringing a folder of invoices and draft trial balances to a set of Financial Statements. I also find that this work helps to build my technical knowledge of accountancy as you have to think about the accounting entries for every item you want to include in the accounts. I was also exposed to Relevant Contract Tax in one of the partnerships which is something that I had never dealt with before but I found it really interesting to be learning about different taxes. As always my colleagues were only too willing to answer all of my questions on the topic!

We also had a late “Summer Nite Out” last week with work. We all went for dinner after work and it was great to chill out and catch up with people who had been away on holidays and those that were just back from study leave. Plenty of fun was had by all and I’m sure I can speak for everone we’re looking forward to the next one!

Until next time...

Evgeniya - Risk Assurance Solutions (RAS)

Hi all, my name is Evgeniya and I'm Assistant Manager in Risk Assurance Solutions (RAS) group. This is my first blog so I thought I'd begin with introducing myself.

I joined PwC just over three years ago, after completing an Economics and Finance degree in UCD and Masters of Accounting in Smurfit School of Business. I've always been interested in business, finance and maths. However back to the 2nd year in college, when I applied for Summer Internship in PwC, I wasn't quite sure what I want to do with my career.

The PwC Summer Internship looked very appealing and the work experience in the RAS group seemed like a good opportunity to check out what would work in PwC would be like. My Summer Internship ran for approximately three months and I loved every minute of it! Our department is very friendly and even when I joined as an intern, I didn't feel lonely or left out. Everybody helped and assisted me with various tasks. The work itself was very interesting and I got to work with people from all levels in the Firm. So it came as no surprise that when I received an offer of a graduate contract from PwC, I gladly accepted it. As part of the contract, PwC gave me a choice to complete Masters of Accounting and I was happy to take it.

It's hard to believe it's been three years since I joined the Firm! I'm now senior on most of the audits and most of the time, I have a team of juniors to look after. Together with Managers on my jobs, I'm responsible for looking after the scope of the audit (i.e. outline of work to be performed), budgets and file review, as well as for completing my own work. It can be very challenging at times, but managers and partners are always willing to help. I think teamwork and constant assistance from your seniors is one of the best aspects of working in PwC. No matter what level you're at, there is always someone to support you. Since I've joined the Firm, I've received various training courses to assist me with my professional and personal development. One of the training courses I undertook was offered by PwC Amsterdam and it was great! I got to meet my colleagues from PwC in Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Belgium and had an amazing few days...

I've also been very lucky to get an opportunity to travel with PwC. Over the last three years I've been working all over Ireland (Kerry, Limerick, Waterford - you name it!) as well as travelling to the Netherlands, England, Scotland and America (Texas).

Thanks for taking time to read my blog and I hope you enjoyed it. I will be back soon with updates on my life and experience in PwC!