Sarah Winship
- Tell us a bit about your personal background
I come from a family of five including two sisters (so my dad is massively outnumbered by girls!) and was brought up in Chester-le-Street just outside of Durham in the north east of England.
- What is your educational background?
Before University in Newcastle I went to Park View Community School in Chester-le-Street where I took my GCSEs then I took A-levels in Maths, Business, German and General Studies, and an additional AS level in Geography.
- Did you enjoy your time on the programme?
I loved my time at University and made a lot of friends, both on the course and also at work during the placements. The workload was challenging but manageable, and the opportunity to work in London for a few months for each placement was fantastic.
- Did the degree help you develop your personal skills?
The degree definitely helped with personal skills both through the University side (meeting and living with new people, time management when studying and general organisation) and also on the work side. That gave me the opportunity to be in contact with senior members of organisations, and again helped with the organisation and management of time in a work sense. I also became much more confident during my time at University in terms of presenting to others and also speaking to clients and new people at work. And I also became more patient through living with new people and also dealing with clients who can sometimes be difficult!
- What are you doing now?
I am still working at PwC as a Senior Associate, having recently returned from a six month secondment. I spent three months working in PwC Sydney and then had three months off (part holiday, part unpaid leave) to travel. I had an amazing time working and enjoying the lifestyle over there, and the weather was obviously a vast improvement from the UK!
My travels were also amazing, exploring as much of Australia and New Zealand as I could fit into three months. I'm now deciding what my next move could be: whether to continue in audit or to try and get involved in some other areas of the firm, such as Business Recovery Services, which would be a very topical and interesting place to be in at present.
- How has your programme helped develop your career?
The programme has definitely helped me to progress more quickly due to its structure, so I qualified as an accountant at an earlier age than most other people. The programme offered a fairly structured career path at first, i.e. Chartered Accountancy. However, PwC offers a wide range of opportunities to take advantage of after qualification. The placements also helped me get to know many people in PwC before I started as a graduate - which helped in terms of building relationships and particularly in getting my secondment to Sydney. PwC is also a great name to have on my CV if I choose to move on in the future.
- How easy was the transition from the degree to full-time working life?
Given I had worked in London during my placements, I had a good idea of what to expect after graduation. I moved to London to work in the same department as I had been in during my placements so it was relatively easy to settle in to work. I already had a group of friends in the office, and also friends from the course who had also done their placements in London and were also now moving south so this also helped with the transition. PwC is full of young people in that the company takes on a large group of new graduates each year. That means there are always drinks or social activities going on to help break up the work side and make it a fun environment to work in. Having said that, I am always jealous when the new Flying Start year groups come to London on placement, then get to leave in a few months and return to university life!
- Describe a typical day now.
It is difficult to describe a typical day now. I am now more senior, so my days are slightly more varied than when I was on placement and just dealing with one client at a time. I now often have meetings with various clients in a week and spend more time in the office, planning upcoming audits, reviewing other people's work and dealing with client issues/queries, rather than full weeks working on one audit at the client site (though I do still do this at times too).
