My placement year at accounting firm RSM

This is a guest post from Royal Holloway BSc Accounting and Finance student, Matthew Lappin, who is currently undertaking a placement year at the accounting firm RSM. Matthew attended our Year in Business event in the School of Business and Management on Monday 10th October and talked to younger year YIBs about his placement experience. He has also written this article:

My name is Matthew and I’m a current placement student with RSM and a member of the Private Client Services team in Guildford. I would like to firstly say what a great opportunity that you have here at Royal Holloway with the year in business programme. A large part of this is due to the great work of Katharine and Sonia because they help you a lot to find the right placement for you. 

 

Three top tips of what I believe is important for you to get the placement that you want:

·    Self believing -  believing that you’re good enough to get your dream placement and show this believe within your interview process. You all are smart and intelligent young people and are more than capable of getting your dream placement. You wouldn’t be at Royal Holloway if you weren’t.

·      Positivity - the job market is extremely tough. Very few people get the first placement they apply for. I know this is hard but try to remain positive and ask for feedback if you don’t get your first placement. Take these points onboard and try to improve for your next application.

·     Research- researching a company shows that you are interested to work for them. You can link this to the knowledge you have gained at Royal Holloway and apply this for your business to show you understand the job role. Also, this includes using the career service for practice interview and to review cover letters.

 So here is a brief intro into life at RSM.

If you don’t know who RSM are, we are one of the largest accounting firms in the world. We have around 40 service lines in around 35 offices around the UK. These services lines range from Audit to Corporate finance to Outsourcing.

At RSM you get great exposure to life as an accountant. So far in my short time at RSM, I’ve already spoken to clients as well as having conversations with the head of Private Client Services nationally. This shows that there is great opportunity for your development.

So more on my role, my main job is the preparation of tax returns for our clients. This involves taking all their taxable income for the tax year to work out their tax liability.

There are plenty of other reason to join RSM.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a big part of commitment. Our CSR includes being net carbon by 2030, helping people with a disability take part in sport through EDGA (European Disabled Golf Association) and we have helped 20,000 young people to start their Duke of Edinburgh journey to name just a few.

Also, you could be a part of:

·       Socials- this ranges from meals out to cocktail making to chocolate and wine tasting. It will depend how often based on your team; in my team we have socials every fortnight.

·       Sports day- so each year we, in the southern region, have a day of sports activities against other offices.

·      Volunteering day- this is where you have a paid day off to volunteering in the local community. For my volunteering day in 2023, me and some of the team in Guildford are volunteering at a Horse sanctuary.

And many more.

Please don’t be put off if you are on a course and haven’t done anything to do with accounting. It is assumed that you have no technical knowledge when you join. In the early weeks of the placement there is a residential, online training and with help from your team you will build up this knowledge.

I wish you all the best on finding a placement! If you have any questions about anything, whether it is finding the right placement for you, life as an accountant, working at RSM, or more detail on what I do on a day-to-day basis please feel to message me.

RSM placement vacancies for 2022/23: click on the apply now button found in the following link

 https://www.rsmuk.com/careers/students/work-experience/work-placements