Deloitte Bright start

[bluebadgehelp101]

Dd is in year 12 and is thinking to apply for this. The money seems to be a bit incentive Does anyone have any experience of advice?

Sorry for the typos

Anyone? Or just general advice re any of the apprentice degrees.

I do know about this and won’t explain why but it is excellent and I would encourage her to go for it. By age 22 she will be a fully qualified professional earning 40K per annum. It is a brilliant and rewarding scheme.

Thank you @makingmyway10. Is it a concern that most of the pathways end up with the same degree? Most of them seem to lead to a BSc in Digital Technology or something like that.

I was referring specifically to the Deloitte scheme. This one does not involve getting a degree but a profession qualification.

From personal experience I wouldn't recommend this or any big 4 accountant companies at all!

@dobbyssoc can I ask why that is?

The first year is normally ok. You are worked hard but you expect that. You get encouraging feedback etc and it honestly is a lot of fun. Especially with the money coming in etc.
From the second year it is horrendous. There is no such thing as work/life balance, you are expected to know much more than you will, you start getting more brutal feedback, at busy periods of the year you are likely to be working 60+ hours a week, for some trying to get time off for personal reasons is non existent (e.g funerals for family members you can pretty much forget it!). You won't be paid normally for any overtime at all and you will be expected to travel ridiculous distances to work and if you question this you will be treated even worse!
What you need to focus on is how many people actually complete the training period and the answer is very very little. The pressure you are put under is awful.
Of course there are exceptions to this and some people love it but the vast majority have hated it and you will find they are treated quite frankly like shit by senior managers etc.
Out of the whole year group that came in at the same time (around 10 people) only 2 completed their training the rest have moved onto completely different sectors!
University in my opinion would've been much much better and given a better prospect in work life. If you pull out of the training contract you have nothing to fall back on!

However those who came into the company already as a graduate were treated much better and with a lot more respect than the school leavers!

Well I work for one of the Big 4 (not
Deloitte) and if your DS knows he wants to go into that area of work then I couldn't recommend higher apprenticeships more strongly. I work with 2 at the moment... one is 22 and will be promoted to manager (c.40k) in probably a year's time, the other is 26 and will be senior manager (c.60k) in a year or two. Neither of them are treated any less favourably than the graduates, nor do they often have to do the stupid hours someone else has referred to. Stupid hours are occasionally required, yes, but that's probably true of most professionals (and when I say occasionally, I really do mean once or twice a year).
In saying all that, I do think Deloitte has the worst reputation for success being measured by hours. I've not worked there so can't personally comment, but certainly in my Firm the whole concept of work life balance is paramount - and they have been utterly fantastic during COVID about understanding there are other commitments that people have to balance such as childcare.

Sorry, DD!

@heyfrog as I said some people flourish but that has not been my experience or my peer groups experience at all!
We received no regard for work life balance at all and I mean at all. We were expected from the months of jan to April then July till September then October till start of December to work like dogs!
Guess it also depends on what part you go into.

dobby what area did you go in to?

@bluebadgehelp101
Audit
My best friend did tax (same company)
Both were hellish

Two family members went to Deloitte and did audit and found it to have a really bad work life balance and left in year 2

The only friend I have that had stayed on was in HR!

@dobbyssoc were / are you Deloitte?

I'm a senior manager at another of the big 4 and there is no way I'd put up with one of my team being told they couldn't go to a funeral, or doing excessive hours on a long term basis. At our Firm junior grades do qualify for paid overtime once it gets to a certain point, too

@heyfrog thanks, that sounds very promising. Do you think there is any difference between the Deloitte Bright Start and PwC Flying Start?

@heyfrog EY

@bluebadgehelp101 I've heard slightly better things about PWC!

@bluebadgehelp101 I'm PwC so biased!!

So sorry to jump on this thread but can anyone here tell me if there’s any way for someone with a couple of years experience in an accountancy firm but no degree to get into one of these training programmes the big 4 offer? I feel like because I’m not a graduate and I’m late 20s I don’t stand a chance.

Deloitte is a very friendly employer (but from what I understand the London office is a bit different). If I’m not mistaken the brightstart people are all in audit which is a bit different. Due to the nature of the work audit people are treated as expendable (these firms don’t want people in audit to hang around for too long). If your DD is ambitious and able there’s no reason why should couldn’t move across to consultancy and then elbow her way to the top, it’s not unheard of. But if she’s going into thus expecting a career for life in Deloitte audit she’s likely to be sorely disappointed.

I'm a Director at Deloitte. Bright start is a great programme - I am in the Tax side of the business and I can assure you that we treat our Bright Starts with the same level of respect as graduates. Some of our most talented recruits in recent years joined us via the Bright Start scheme and have enjoyed accelerated progression.

Incidentally i used to work at EY and was regularly working 14 hour days - left as soon as I could to join Deloitte where I've had a much better work life balance ever since.

I would suggest your child look at the school leaver programmes for all the Big 4 (Deloitte EY PwC and KPMG) along with BDO and Grant Thornton. See which one they most like the sound of, but apply for more than one.

Thank you very much for all of the replies. @Aquicknamechange2019 can I ask if there is any particular pathway that is more useful to start in than others? The choice seems to be audit, technology, tax or personnel.

What is your DD interested in? An audit qualification is useful for moving into more mainstream finance roles post-qualification but if she hates numbers, for example, she probably won't enjoy it so much. Technology is very fast paced and would be a good route into consulting if that's where her interest lies. Personally I enjoy my Tax role as it's a great blend of numbers and consulting, so I feel I get the best of both!

@Aquicknamechange2019

What is your DD interested in? An audit qualification is useful for moving into more mainstream finance roles post-qualification but if she hates numbers, for example, she probably won't enjoy it so much. Technology is very fast paced and would be a good route into consulting if that's where her interest lies. Personally I enjoy my Tax role as it's a great blend of numbers and consulting, so I feel I get the best of both!

Ha, I'm tax too... agree it's the perfect balance of everything!