A future grad's questions to current KPMG grads!

Hi guys, I’ve just got an offer for KPMG audit (London) and had a few questions I would really appreciate some input on!

1. The grad we had lunch with at the AC said when picking which department you want to work with, it’s good to find out what clients that department has since that will tell you how much travelling there would be. I think the guy was in ICE and said he did not have to leave London much. I don’t mind international travel as much as having to travel within the UK. I’m interested in ICE, Commercial and Industrial, and Infrastructure and Govt, so if any of you know what clients/travel are like for them I’d be very interested! Also, do you know which dept does the Crown Estate/Buckingham Palace audit?

2. Also, is there much chance to specialise within your department, for example could I hint that I’m interested in Media to try and get my workload biased towards that area? And is there much scope for secondments between departments before qualification?

3. Do you know any grads that were travelling the summer before their start date? I want to go to the US between mid-July and mid-August, but don’t know how this would work with form filling in/inductions etc!

4. What percentage of people, roughly, do the ACCA, especially in the London office? I’m down for ACCA atm, and am not that bothered by potential bias, I just don’t want to have no study buddies!

5. How hard is it for auditors to book single/couple days off? Do they get annoyed if you disappear for a day mid-audit?

Thanks to anyone who can help me out! xx

Reply 1

Steffy

1

I can only answer part of Q2 and Q3:

2. Secondments are very much encouraged during your training contract and are often governed by business need but are relatively easy to organise. I am currently on a 3 month secondment to Expat Tax for example! Quite a few Audit students do secondments to Corporate Tax. The cross department knowledge learnt is very valuable.

3. A huge proportion of students travel prior to joining. There are relatively few forms to fill out, I am struggling to remember even doing one actually, I remember them all being online but this may have changed. Even your start date is communicated to you online. The only thing you will want to watch out for is that you know your start date before you go away, as you would not want to be away for it. I think auditors go straight into college too on joining (this I am not 100% sure of though)

Hope this helps!

Reply 2

username144728

OP

Thanks Steffy, that's really helpful! Can you remember when you found out your start date? xx

Reply 3

Steffy

1

I applied in the December and got my offer in the January. I then had my start date confirmed about 8 weeks before I was due to start. However I knew from the January that it would either be starting in September or the March after, just not when in those months.

This was a while ago tho, Tax now only have one intake in September now, and I think Audit only ever had one intake in September. Talk to Grad recruitment, they will give you as much information as they can :smile:

Reply 4

freeagent

Original post by ging.ninj.

Hi guys, I’ve just got an offer for KPMG audit (London) and had a few questions I would really appreciate some input on!

1. The grad we had lunch with at the AC said when picking which department you want to work with, it’s good to find out what clients that department has since that will tell you how much travelling there would be. I think the guy was in ICE and said he did not have to leave London much. I don’t mind international travel as much as having to travel within the UK. I’m interested in ICE, Commercial and Industrial, and Infrastructure and Govt, so if any of you know what clients/travel are like for them I’d be very interested! Also, do you know which dept does the Crown Estate/Buckingham Palace audit?

2. Also, is there much chance to specialise within your department, for example could I hint that I’m interested in Media to try and get my workload biased towards that area? And is there much scope for secondments between departments before qualification?

3. Do you know any grads that were travelling the summer before their start date? I want to go to the US between mid-July and mid-August, but don’t know how this would work with form filling in/inductions etc!

4. What percentage of people, roughly, do the ACCA, especially in the London office? I’m down for ACCA atm, and am not that bothered by potential bias, I just don’t want to have no study buddies!

5. How hard is it for auditors to book single/couple days off? Do they get annoyed if you disappear for a day mid-audit?

Thanks to anyone who can help me out! xx

Hi

I am a third year and currently on a 12 month secondment to Corporate Finance (with the aim of making it a permanent position); lots of people do work within other audit departments and you will get the opportunity to join a team that specifically 'sells' you to other departments both in audit and the wider firm if you choose.

I wouldn't worry about form filling and quite a few of my friends went travelling before starting; might be worth having all correspondance sent to your folks address then they can open any letter from KPMG for you and let you know if there is anything urgent.

Not sure about London audit, but I would 1/4 of new starters do ACCA you certainly wont be on your own so don't worry about it at all!

If you get your holiday booked well in advance you will have more luck, although jan to march is normally very difficult for auditors to get holiday, they do try and work with you on this sort of stuff though, so if you already have dates in mind let them know as soon as you start.

If you are in a department with media clients I would definately suggest you express an interest in working on them; if managers see you are keen to work on their jobs they will usually work hard to get you working for them.

I cant help with the other question regarding London audit departments as I was from Birmingham, although an now based in the Canada Square office for 60% of my time with CF.

Good luck and if you want to pm me with other questions I would be more than happy to respond.

Freeagent

Reply 5

username144728

OP

Original post by freeagent

Hi

I am a third year and currently on a 12 month secondment to Corporate Finance (with the aim of making it a permanent position); lots of people do work within other audit departments and you will get the opportunity to join a team that specifically 'sells' you to other departments both in audit and the wider firm if you choose.

I wouldn't worry about form filling and quite a few of my friends went travelling before starting; might be worth having all correspondance sent to your folks address then they can open any letter from KPMG for you and let you know if there is anything urgent.

Not sure about London audit, but I would 1/4 of new starters do ACCA you certainly wont be on your own so don't worry about it at all!

If you get your holiday booked well in advance you will have more luck, although jan to march is normally very difficult for auditors to get holiday, they do try and work with you on this sort of stuff though, so if you already have dates in mind let them know as soon as you start.

If you are in a department with media clients I would definately suggest you express an interest in working on them; if managers see you are keen to work on their jobs they will usually work hard to get you working for them.

I cant help with the other question regarding London audit departments as I was from Birmingham, although an now based in the Canada Square office for 60% of my time with CF.

Good luck and if you want to pm me with other questions I would be more than happy to respond.

Freeagent

Thank you! Just to clarify, did you move to CF from audit?

Reply 6

freeagent

Yes, I was in audit for 2 years and then moved to CF.

Reply 7

username266244

18

Original post by freeagent

Yes, I was in audit for 2 years and then moved to CF.

Wow this is interesting, I got a summer intern in audit, but was thinking maybe going into CF for grad. do you think this is common place and would it severely weaken me in the partner interview? (no doubt it would be more straightforward to simply just stick with audit since I would have been doing audit for 8 weeks!

Was the transfer easy and what did you do to get on to that stream? Thanks!

Reply 8

freeagent

I don't think it would weaken your position in a Partner interview, so long as you can justify why you want to go to CF rather than audit. Besides, if you apply for CF, you will be interviewed by a CF partner, so they will be receptive to you wanting to work for them.

I wouldn't worry about 'just sticking with audit'; it is a lot more straightforward to get into CF as a grad (although tougher to get into than audit as the places are much more limited) than moving before you qualify (or even after). Moving around once in the firm is all dependant on how good you are (you get graded against your peers ever 6 months), CF only want the people with the top gradings, so you have to work very ahrd all year round from the outset to get a move.

I found the transfer relatively easy, but I have a good grade so there were not many internal barriers; just a few internal interviews with associate directors and partners.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask or pm.

Freeagent

Reply 9

theis

3

1. FS don't travel that much, ICE can travel quite a bit, CIM probably travel the most I'd guess. But even then there will be people in CIM who never travel and people who spend most of their lives outside London. International travel is rare and only crops up from time to time. We had one job in our department which was based in Switzerland, people tended to find it quite tough as they spent so long away from home.

2. Yes, not quite sure how it works in ICE but in CIM you can ask to specialise in pharma or mining for example.

3. This should be fine as long as you're back in time for your start date. If you're struggling to get confirmation of your start date badger the person responsible for you.

4. I wasn't that aware of many people in the London office doing ACCA. That could of been because I only met people at college doing ACA though.

5. As long as you clear it with your manager/in-charge well in advance they will usually be fine with this (as long as you get all your work done and as long as it doesn't clash too badly with any reporting deadlines).

A future grad's questions to current KPMG grads!

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you