Audit Graduate Trainee - Privately Owned Business - Milton Keynes - September 2024

At Mazars we have a wide range of opportunities for you to gain experience in a firm that truly cares about your aspirations. Our business is an engine for rapid and consistent career progression, and we are known for giving ambitious people early responsibility and exposure.

Are you a graduate with strong interpersonal skills with a keen interest in technical excellence? Are you an effective communicator keen on adding value to your client's day? If you are an analytical thinker and have a commitment to self-development and learning, this is a great opportunity for you.

About the role

At Mazars, we believe audit is essential to the economic foundations of a fair and prosperous world. Audit has been, and remains, a profession at the heart of our business. Our auditors support the public interest and, by caring about the organisations we audit and their stakeholders, we help to build sustainable businesses for the benefit of society as a whole.

If you join our Audit Service Line, you will be part of a growing team of around 1,400 people who are committed to quality, to technical excellence and to adding value to our clients daily. In the fast-moving world of business, comprehensive, and robust auditing continues to be invaluable, and our teams provide audit and assurance services which are vital to our clients' business control and credibility.

We offer a distinctive, human-centric approach that goes beyond compliance, with an integrated structure that allows us to work together as one team. We serve regional, national and international companies of all sizes and structures, and you'll have the opportunity to work on a variety of client engagements in interesting sectors.

Job purpose

The role of an auditor is to ensure financial statements produced by audited entities are ‘true and fair' and an accurate representation of the transactions and balances they claim to represent. In the audit service line, you can expect to be part of highly engaged teams, working together to deliver high quality audits in line with expectations and deadlines.

We are now operating a hybrid working model, so as a trainee you will split your time between working from home, visiting the office, client sites when required or studying for your professional exams.

We are looking for candidates with a strong desire to learn and progress, and we give increasing responsibility when an individual is ready rather than at pre-determined times. However, our broad expectation of roles and responsibilities during the three-year training contract is set out below.

During your first year you will:

• Work with various audited entities, building a strong understanding of their business or organisation;
• Learn how to prepare professional audit documents in line with our audit methodology using audit software and systems;
• Develop a thorough understanding of financial statements; and
• Be able to obtain relevant information from key stakeholders whilst building effective and professional relationships.
• During your second year you will:
• Build and develop audit skills in increasingly complex and technical areas;
• Be able to take ownership for sections allocated to you in an audit file;
• Self-review your own work, ensuring minimal review points are raised by managers; and
• Be able to coach and support less experienced and new team members.

In your final year you will be expected to take on significantly more responsibility. Depending on the audited entity, this may involve taking the lead on a technical area or a team and ensuring the entire audit file is completed. This will include a combination of working to stated deadlines, managing the work of other team members, taking responsibility for the budget, and presenting in both team and audited entities meetings.

About Privately-Owned Business

At Mazars, we passionately support privately owned businesses in achieving their goals. In the UK, we work with over 13,000, family-owned, private equity backed and privately owned businesses. If you join Privately-Owned Business, you will be part of a dynamic team whose client base covers the full range of businesses from entrepreneurial start-ups to multi hundred million pound turnover international groups.

The person

• Interpersonal skills - the ability to build client and colleague relationships with a foundation of trust and responsibility;
• Analytical skills - the ability to think critically, research and solve problems;
• Excellent business writing skills;
• Deep curiosity of business;
• Proactiveness and enthusiasm;
• Commitment to self-development & learning;
• Affinity with our values; in particular, respect for individuals, diversity, and integrity; and
• A willingness to travel.

Strong academic performance is important; however, we understand that things don't always go to plan. Our recruitment process looks at your whole self – academic achievements as well as other experiences in which you have grown and developed. We balance your academic results alongside the aptitude assessment within our recruitment process to ensure that you will be successful in your role with us.