UCAS points are no longer required for EY - they just want the 2:1 as the new (from last year) recruitment process is given significantly greater weight. I believe KPMG are doing something similar at the moment as they’re changing their recruitment requirements as well.
Yeyeye no I know that PwC and EY dropped their UCAS requirement and I’ll certainly go for EY when they open up their grad schemes for next year (which I think they will do sometime this month) - I’m on their mailing list either way!
I’d never heard of Glassdoor before seeing this thread. That’s an interesting old site. I had a look at one of my former employers’ pages and found a review from last month, instantly validating my decision to quit all those years ago.
So, next piece of advice.
If the upper echelons of a business seem impenetrable, that’s a bad sign. A firm I worked for was set up by coreligionists of a charismatic Christian sect, but you can have just as much bother in a family business.
Not trying to say that all family run businesses are the same. Just learn to recognise the impenetrable, because that’ll have a massive bearing on not just your career prospects, but can also make day to day stuff hopelessly irrational.
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I’ve worked with two big family businesses and however successful they have become, if you start giving people jobs purely because of their surname rather than their skills, you are on a slippery slope to nowhere.
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Oh man are you in for a treat if you’ve not seen glassdoor before!
And this is the thing pap - tonnes of ‘graduate jobs’ (in that they require a degree for literally no reason) are borderline scams with absolutely no progression on offer. That’s pretty much what Visiongain was (the £17k employer) - a ‘research analyst’ job for grads to put on their CV, a pittance paid and people effortlessly replaced if they left or asked for a salary increase.
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Originally posted by @Rallyboy
I’ve worked with two big family businesses and however successful they have become, if you start giving people jobs purely because of their surname rather than their skills, you are on a slippery slope to nowhere.
Aye, and there is little more frustrating than knowing that’s “the way it is”.
tbf to the Christians, you could attain the higher reaches of the firm if you started speaking in tongues, donated 10% of your income and surrendered all personal authority to its leaders.
I ended up working for one of those ruthless corps that only cares about results.
The funniest thing? When I got uppity about all the in-work proselytising, a couple in particular tried to make out like I was the problem, and that they were doing my unemployable arse a favour by giving it work. At one point, I half-believed them.
I’ve been working nine years at the same place raking in 2.5x what they paid me. On my fifth anniversary, I put a message on Facebook celebrating my achievement.
“Five years service. If this carries on, people will think I’m employable”
They are genuinely no further on. On length of service alone, I was a contract legend at the five year mark. Ten years is in one place is generally accepted as contract god status.
I’ve got one year to go. If I make it, I’ll send a cheeky little message out there, asking if they fancy worshipping me instead.
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We’ve got a 22 yearer where I am! Going to be gutted if the Inland Revenue investigate him under IR35.
I’ve probably mentioned this before, but long contracts are mostly the result of a couple of factors. First and foremost, it’s an accounting trick. Contractors aren’t on the headcount. They’re not a direct cost. They may look like big numbers in the capital expenditure budget, but the accountants get to say “we can get rid of these boys tomorrow if we want to”.
Sometimes, an employer will attempt to bring contractors into the cold. It normally goes down as such. The contractor, knowing that he or she will get a bit of security, paid holiday and company benefits, has lower salary expectations, but generally higher than the paid industry rate. It seems like a total win-win for everyone, but it rarely ends up happening.
There are political problems, such as the salary potentially being larger than people with fancier job titles and dedicated parking spaces, but mostly, it’s about that headcount thing again. The accountant can no longer say you’re instantly-get-riddable.
Most companies would save tens of thousands per year per contractor by bringing known quantities in-house. Many prefer to pay more so that they have the option of saying they could pay less if they wanted to.
Madness, innit?
Happens in the public sector all the time (ie car park attendant earning more than some smeg manager), the fact is the unions fought like fuck for the conditions after years of Victorian working practices.
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The exact same working practices many employers would be happy to reinstate if they could get away with it.
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Contracting is brilliant if you’re not looking for anything permanent - having left uni and spent 2 years travelling the world with contracts every few months (all at the same place) to fund it.
I’ve been paid about 40% more for the same job as someone who’s been there fifteen years, which is absolutely brilliant when you only want it short term as well as for the CV
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Plasterer, £220 for a fucking 6ish hour day, cash as well, thats more than a brickie, same as spark roughly and chippy but they do fucking 8 hour bastard days.
Take up plastering then Barry
Originally posted by @Saint-or-sinner
Originally posted by @Barry-Sanchez
Plasterer, £220 for a fucking 6ish hour day, cash as well, thats more than a brickie, same as spark roughly and chippy but they do fucking 8 hour bastard days.
Take up plastering then Barry
I took up getting plastered years ago, very skilled job to be fair.
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Whole thing sounds pretty ugly to me.
I can’t add to the useful specific advice you have received on this thread, Mr Trampoline, but best wishes for whatever you decide to do. The following are just general comments that aren’t aimed at you personally.
I agree with those posters who have highlighted the value of prioritising a good life-balance. Yes, we all need money, and it’s great if we can find a way to earn it by doing something that we enjoy; but, imo, it’s also important that we continue to appreciate the high value of good family relationships, friendships and interests outside of work.
Also, in my experience, whilst it can be good to keep setting ourselves new workplace challenges, sometimes it pays to acknowledge our limitations. "Bollocks, there are no limits!", some will say. Good for them. It’s true that some people have no problem climbing the greasy pole and end up in high-achieving and fulfilling careers. But, on the other side of the coin, I have watched too many self-assured, happy work-colleagues overreach themselves only to metamorphose into stressed-out miserable people; and, sadly, some have paid a very high price, in terms of their health, well-being and relationships, in exchange for their increased wages, power and status.
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Thanks for the advice everyone.
Incidentally I’ve made a bit of a u-turn (for the umpteenth time) with this Preqin lot. Looking at the Glassdoor reviews (and the company has very clearly had HR write some phoney-baloney ones to boot) I don’t think its worthwhile.
Given that I’ve made it to the AC with PwC, my CV is at least good enough to get onto an accountancy/finance graduate scheme in that I’m not getting ruled out at the application form phase. So I guess I’m on the stepping stone already and don’t need another one.
Furthermore, there’s just the nitty-gritty of the fact that its fairly easy to take days off where I’m working at the moment, as you can easily work from home on the odd day each week without too much fuss. Plus the workload & work/life balance is just generally fairly relaxed.
So ultimately the difference is an extra £150 per month thanks to the slightly higher salary in return for the inconvenience and moderate increase in the awkwardness and inconvenience of applying for proper graduate schemes. Possibly also makes my CV look too jumpy and could ring alarm bells for an employer in that sense.
Always reluctant to step away from what feels like the more ‘active’ option but I guess ultimately, I should be applying for jobs that I actually want.
Okeydoke. Tomorrows the day. I’ve been hammering away at the practice tests on https://www.assessmentday.co.uk and so far things are looking pretty good. Recently I’ve been finishing in the 90+ percentile on both numerical and inductive so I’ve definitely got it in the tank.
Can’t promise anything as nerves will be an issue and obviously if panic (just the worst emotion ever) sets in then that can screw you up pretty well, but as long as I can walk away from the AC with no regrets i’ll be happy. The tests used to be my big nemesis so even if I don’t make it with PwC I should hopefully be able to make it through to at least a phone interview with the likes of EY and KPMG (if the latter are happy to overlook my fairly naff A-level results).
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If anxiety starts to get your attention, remember that it’s just your caveman brain telling your higher brain that it needs to be more worried. It actually wants you to flee because it thinks you might die.
I know, right?
That caveman brain, eh?
Just get your higher brain to tell your caveman brain that it’s got everything in hand, that you’re as prepared as you can be and that you know that you’re not* going to die whilst doing the test.
Then breath in slowly for a count of 5, breath out slowly for a count of 5 and do this 5 times.
You’ll be fine.
Good luck Tramp’.
*Our lawyers “Holland and Holland and Lamont Dozier” have asked me to point out that Bletch and sotonians are not registered fortune tellers and as such we cannot guarantee that you will survive the test.
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If I was picking my favourite number to count to, I like the three, and the seven, but the four tops the lot.
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