BDO or Grant Thornton Apprenticeship

[ByBlueEagle]

My dd has 2 offers for an audit apprenticeship at BDO and GT this September and is struggling to decide. Anyone have any experience at these firms?

Both offer the same qualification route and pay similar - £800 p/a in the difference.

I trained at GT audit ten years ago, and it was some of the best days of my life. However, it’s recently take on private equity backing and that might see quite a cultural shift in the ways of working (although it may also present opportunity in terms of being able to make more money long term by getting shares in the company). I speak only highly of the GT I worked at.

Audit is really hard slog though. Long hours, not great pay at first and unless you look for the interesting bits it can feel a bit like a boring slog. I strongly recommend it as a department to train in though.

I will say, I have had non-audit colleagues move to BDO and say how surprised they’ve been to see that their auditors are happy rather than martyrs to the workload.

But BDO have seen a significant decline in audit quality recently, but this will probably mean they are trying harder to teach trainees properly and do better in future.

On balance, with everything I know now, I’d probably choose BDO in the scenario in your OP. But if I had the choice where I am in my career I’d pick GT.

I don’t think there’s a wrong choice.

Firstly, huge congratulations to your DD! They’re much of a muchness as similarly sized and each will offer very similar experiences in audit. Her actual teaching will be outsourced to Kaplan or someone similar and follow the ICAEW format (assuming the apprenticeship is for Chartered Accountant/ ACA). Did she have any preferences during the recruitment process? I’m assuming they’re in the same city but Is one easier to get to than the other?

I agree they'll be fairly similar, is there anything to distinguish the two offices? Was one newer / nicer / warmer / had free parking?! Was one interview process better?

Toss a coin and see if she's disappointed with the result then she'll know her gut feeling.