What is the most interesting and the most challenging part of working in Assurance?

Hi Monica! For me the most interesting part is getting to see work with of different companies and seeing (from an inside perspective) how they work and operate! We get to talk to lots of Senior Finance directors at FTSE companies which is very interesting in my opinion. The most challenging part for me would be some of the longer hours from January - March after lots of financial year ends. However, you are always working in a team which is really nice and working together makes it not seem as daunting!

Hi Issy! Thank you for your answer. I also wanted to ask, what made you choose assurance?

And can you explain the difference between UK&I and FSO as well as how to decide which one to choose? Thanks!

Hi Monica! I studied Economics at university so knew I wanted to have a financial career and liked the idea of being able to work with lots of different companies on their financial statements, which underpin a lot of companies and their share prices!

FSO focuses on Banking & Capital Markets, Insurance and Wealth Management. UK&I splits into various other sectors (Energy, Oil, Technology) so depends what sort of clients you would like to work on!

Thank you Issy, this has helped me a lot too on deciding which area to apply for

Thank you! Very useful answers :)

What responsibilities do you have in your day to day? How much individual or collaborative work do you usually have?

Also, do you know where I can find which clients EY Assurance FSO works for? Thank you!

No worries!

I would say day-to-day varies a lot which is nice! It depends on what clients you have but in your first year you will often be responsible for lots of the cash, expenses, overall audit procedures and financial statement checks! I would say the seniors give you a lot of responsibility straight off (I was speaking to clients by Day 2 of my job!). You have lots of individual tasks to complete but the team ultimately work together to complete the whole audit!

I'm not sure there's an ultimate list of every client list in EY FSO but we do a lot of the big banks and wealth managers and insurance companies!