Kate Leshcheva
MA International Management, 2005
RBS London provided me with the perfect backdrop for an amazing
time as a student. If you are there, you are proactive,
self-motivated and believe in your future career success. You face
a great choice of national and international companies offering you
lots of opportunities to enter the business world and realise your
ambitions.
Ernst & Young's Graduate Training Programme
I have always been eager for a career in finance and
accountancy, and determined to make it into one of the “Big 4”
(Deloitte & Touche, PwC, Ernst & Young, and KPMG). And
after a long and challenging interview process I made it into the
training programme of Ernst & Young! In Ernst& Young’s
programme all graduates are assigned for three years, and if you
think that upon leaving university your studies (at last!) are
over, you are completely mistaken.
In the first year all graduates are enrolled in the first step
of the training programme – the Test of Competence (TC). It is an
intensive theoretical course combined with working at the office,
plus exams in all studied subjects. The second and third years of
the course are to monitor in-depth professional skills and, as well
as TC, comprise lectures, class exercises, group discussions and
focused exam practice. This is a tough path but leads to a great
reward – a professional accountancy degree.
When applying for certain departments (you can make a
preferential choice of different job designations), I was concerned
whether my general knowledge and restricted work experience were
enough for a particular position such as, for example, a tax
consultant or assurance advisor. To my great surprise I learnt that
I was not expected to have it! In your training you start from
scratch with every subject. However, do not relax! You will
discover a great number of new things during your training, even if
you have been studying accountancy for three years at university or
have been awarded first class degree in management! In addition to
the specific subjects, you are taught other relevant business
disciplines such as law and corporate finance, and are trained to
be conscientious, possess general knowledge and be fluent in all
kinds of business terminologies.
Graduates training programmes are fascinating, and aim to create
a “life-work-balance”. In addition to your classes you are involved
in a number of leisure activities, including informal dinners with
the company’s gurus, and new colleagues you learn to consider as
friends. You are also expected to manage an extremely fast-paced
learning schedule, and do some hours of homework every week.
However, this is very different from school learning – the highly
qualified teachers look upon you as a colleague, and expect you to
contribute your own experiences and thoughts.