A week’s work experience

We were delighted to welcome Grace to Wellden Turnbull for a week’s work experience.  Grace hopes to study Accountancy at university, before embarking on a career as an accountant.

My week on work experience

On the 10TH July 2017, I started my work experience at Wellden Turnbull Chartered Accountants. Coming into the experience, I had no idea what to expect, but was quite excited about it all.

On Monday, I spent most of my day getting to know everyone and learning where everything was. This includes my own desk, the printer and of course the kitchen. I immediately felt welcomed by everyone and was looking forward to getting to know everyone a bit more in the upcoming week. Also on that day, I had my first piece of work. This involved me using excel, which I was not too experienced on. This meant I was able to extend my knowledge, not only with more of an understanding of the business, but also skills on the computer which I will be able to use later in life.

On Tuesday, I spent my first day in one particular department. Here, I was with Ellie, working in Accounts and Audit. My first hour was spent shadowing Ellie. By doing this, I was learning exactly what it’s like being an accountant. This enabled me to gather a real understanding into what goes on, on a day to day basis within the firm. Next, Ellie gave me some work to complete in order to get some accounts started. This work was all on software called Caseware. This, to begin with, was completely alien to me, but after a quick tutorial from Ellie I was on my way to finishing the job she had planned for me. This, again, allowed me to gather knowledge into not only the business, but also the software that I may need in my future career.

The following day I was in the same department, Accounts and Audit, but instead was with Emma. Here, I was looking through spreadsheets and trying to analyse the numbers and bits of data I was given. This required an eye for detail and lots of concentration, areas I usually tend to fall on. However, this seemed more of a challenge and for that reason I actually ended up pushing myself and trying my hardest. All of which are skills I would need when it comes to working in any job, particularly those of an accountant.

Thursday came and I was moved to another department, the Tax department. On this day, I spent my day doing some work for Richard. Coming into work on Thursday, I was beginning to realise just how tiring full time work can be. But due to everyone’s friendly attitude and lively mentality I really was enjoying it. On Thursday I was given the job of looking through bank statements from a particular client of Wellden Turnbull’s and was making sure all the numbers put in, were correct. After going through pages and pages of different amounts of payments, my next step was to put all of this into a spreadsheet. However, due to a typical technical difficulty this was not possible. However, this actually made me realise what exactly can happen in an office and how this can impact the time frame in which you can complete a given task. Due to this Helen then gave me some further work regarding all the graduates who are applying for trainee positions within the firm. This gave me an insight into exactly what kind of grades I would be competing with and what types of degrees are available to me, considering I am coming very close to sending off my personal statement.

My last day arrived and it was actually quite sad to see it start coming to an end. My final day was spent with Bobbi who worked in Credit control. With her, I was working on finding and printing all the invoices which need to be sent off to any clients who currently owe the company money. This allowed me to gather an understanding to yet another piece of software, advance. I then focused on getting everything into a letter, stamped and then sent off. This was done both manually and by hand.

Overall, I have really enjoyed my work experience. My entire week has managed to set me off with skills, that are not only required in what I want my future career path to be, but also in everyday life. I have spent my week with some really lovely people who have been kind enough to spend time with me and help broaden my knowledge of the business. The experience as a whole has taught me a lot and I hope to be able to showcase some of my new skills when I head off to university.