A year and a half into audit at PwC, ask me anything

you renting in london if so where abouts and do you plan to get a mortgage soon to avoid renting?

Would either of you mind disclosing what the salary increase was like year-to-year during your training contract?

As a rough percentage?

Do the benefits increase proportionally?

Did anyone receive bonuses?

Big4career answered this well. Personally, I'm not in a hurry with the current house prices.

My own answers in bold below:



I have given an indication above. It's a decent salary for most grads, especially considering that you're getting paid to study and do a lot of training in your first few years, and there's a big jump when you qualify. I wouldn't get too hung up on salaries though - there are far more important factors to consider this early in the career.

you renting in london if so where abouts and do you plan to get a mortgage soon to avoid renting?
Yes I'm renting in London in Clapham. There is a pretty good graduate community here and rent is okay. Still don't get much for your money. I'd love to get a mortgage soon but I'm not earning enough to save anything meaningful at the moment. With rent, living expenses, paying off student loan, saving for a holiday or two each year and going out for dinners or nights out a couple times a month, I'm pretty much down to £zero at the end of each month. I think it'll take 2 or 3 pays rises before I start saving a decent amount.

If climbing up the financial division of a blue chip was the long term goal do you think it would be most advantageous to join their grad scheme or big 4 then jump across at a later date? Also, do regional vs London auditors so a big difference in exit opps ?
I don't have any experience or knowledge from the blue chip grad scheme point of view but I can say that a big 4 grad scheme will give you a really good foundation and the opportunity to learn about a number of businesses rather than immediately focussing on one through their grad scheme. The big 4 name on your CV is very good for jumping after you qualify and I know that it's frequent for big 4 staff to go and work at blue chip companies they have audited or provided client work for because they already have a relationship with the finance staff in these companies and a better understanding of how the company runs.
There isn't a massive difference between regional and London auditors because you get the big 4 name on the CV either way and it is regarded as highly no matter if your London or not. The only difference would be, as mentioned above, you might get more of a chance to actually work with some of these blue chip firms if your based in London rather than the Southampton office for example. That being said, big firms such as Sky, have head offices outside of London to save on rent, so working in a regional office like Uxbridge or Gatwick will still give you the opportunity to work with them.

What would you say was your favourite aspect of the job during your first year?

Variety in work, client exposure, social aspect of being part of a large grad intake.

Variety in work, client exposure, social aspect of being part of a large grad intake.

Would either of you mind disclosing what the salary increase was like year-to-year during your training contract?

As a rough percentage?

Do the benefits increase proportionally?

Did anyone receive bonuses?

Salary increases are small during the training contract. 5-10% roughly. They increase a lot more after qualification.

Hi

As far as I know, the benefits also increase at a similar rate to salary.

Bonuses are low generally but higher for the best performing people.

Bonuses are low generally but higher for the best performing people.

Do PwC organise a fair amount of socials for each intake or do you mainly plan things amongst yourselves?

By 'distressed stiuations' do you mean distressed debt investing? If so, how did you make the transition from audit to that?

Would you say that Audit --> CorpFin --> MM PE is a good route? Or would that be unreasonable?

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