Rotational Accounting placement at Menzies LLP

This is a guest post from final year BSc Accounting and Finance student, Muhammad Tayyab Siraj, who has just completed a Rotational Accounting placement in Menzies' LLP's Egham office. This post gives a good indication of the range of practical experiences which students can benefit from on placement. Not only did Muhammad have his placement extended but he has been offered a Graduate position with the company to start after the completion of his degree. We are delighted that Muhammad has also signed up to be a Year in Business Mentor in his final year and will support and guide 2nd year students as they seek their placement positions. 

Muhammad writes: I have just completed my extended placement year at Menzies LLP. My original date to finish was in July 2023 but I was offered an extended contract to continue until mid September. I took this opportunity as I enjoyed working at Menzies.

 I joined Menzies in August 2023 on a rotational placement, switching departments every three months to get an experience in each department. Ultimately, this was perfect for me to see which sector of accountancy I preferred the most and which career path was for me. I started off in the accounts department, here I learnt about the systems they used to make accounts for clients and saw how they set up new clients, maintained working papers and the standard the accounts should be up to. Accounts helped me tremendously understand how Menzies systems work as they were the main department and all the other departments needed a basic understanding of accounts/financial statements.

I then moved onto working for both Private and Business Tax for the next 3 months and learnt about how tax works for businesses and individuals. I made tax computations for a range of businesses in different industries and learnt more about tax regulations. I also made many self assessments for private clients and learnt about how individuals with different sources of income get taxed differently.

For my final 8 months I was in the Not for Profit department (NFP). We focused on charities and not for profit organisations, auditing them and creating accounts too. I learnt how to be part of an auditing team and what goes into ensuring a client has not committed any fraud or misstated their financial statements. I went into client offices and got to meet individuals in a senior position who overlooked many staff and pretty much run a company.

Finally, I really enjoyed the CSR activities provided by Menzies too and all the staff events we had too, including the summer party, Christmas party, and volunteering day.

Muhammad's linkedin contact details are here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/muhammad-tayyab-siraj-a7039a1b9/

Students interested in Menzies LLP can also listen to the video profile of former YIB Sharon who also did a rotational placement with the company http://yibprofile.blogspot.com/2017/11/sharon-menzies-llp-yib.html