Building career success with PwC

PwC was delighted to take home the Most Popular Graduate Recruiter in Accountancy and Professional Services category at last week’s gradireland awards along with an award for their internship programme. Susan Kilty, PwC people partner, says: “Our graduate programme is something that we are hugely proud of and it was a great achievement to see the students recognising this with their votes.”

“Our graduate programme had the highest ever volume of applications this year with over 2,500 applications and we have over 330 graduates joining us this year across the firm. Each of these graduates will start their career journey in PwC with a tailored learning and development plan, a career coach and a ‘buddy’. We ensure that all of our graduate joiners have access to our world class facilities along with really strong exam support and learning throughout their graduate programme.

Joining PwC means becoming part of a truly global network and our graduates get opportunities to travel throughout the globe. This could be on a secondment to another PwC office, working with an international client or transferring to one of the 157 offices in our network.”

PwC’s internship programme has been consistently growing and developing over the past number of years and this year will have over 400 interns joining the firm either throughout the summer as part of their summer internship programme or through college placements. Susan Kilty commented: “We see an internship as an excellent way for students to decide if a career in professional services is right for them and also for them to gain transferrable skills to bring back to college for their final year. The training and development aspect of our programme is aimed at developing employability skills for students, skills that they can use no matter what career they chose in the future. Social events are also a big part of life in PwC and this is no different throughout our internship programme, there are barbecues, tag rugby, quiz nights, race nights to name a few. Across the firm we champion diversity and inclusion along with corporate social responsibility activities and these are two areas we see our interns really engage in throughout their time in PwC.”

Says Susan Kilty: “Winning these awards was a great testament to our exceptional graduate and undergraduate programmes and the vast array of opportunities that PwC offers. We are looking forward to the next year ahead and building on our success.”

One of PwC’s recent graduates, Sarah Bradley, speaks about her experience on PwC’s graduate programme so far. Sarah, working in the PwC tax practice, joined the firm as a graduate following completing two workplace experiences with PwC. While at NUIG studying commerce, Sarah spent a few weeks as an intern with PwC in summer 2014. She then completed a co-op placement with the firm from January to June 2015.

Sarah says: “This was a really good way for me to know if I would like to work in a professional services firm, what the work would be like, the people and the office environment. I liked what I experienced and I pursued a three year training contract on completion of my studies at NUIG. I was very impressed with the interviewers, who took a personal interest in me. I really wanted to work in tax and PwC was very open for me to explore a career in tax. While I am only with the firm seven months, I have worked with several clients, and have been given lots of responsibility from day one. For example, I work as part of a team on complex corporate structuring.”

PwC offers all of its graduates superb training and development and for Sarah so far this has been very beneficial. There is also the on-the-ground training. Sarah says: “There are always lots of people to ask questions, it is a very friendly and supportive environment. I work on teams and the variety of the work makes it interesting. I was given a ‘buddy’ from day one, and I’m never on my own.” Sarah is now well on the way to completing her Chartered Accountancy and Tax Institute exams. She says: “The firm also has plenty of social activities, days away ... etc, where you can get to know the people you work with in an informal setting.” And with the great variety of experience and the fantastic training, Sarah feels that she will be very well positioned for a career in business, wherever life takes her. ”

For more, see pwc.ie/student