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
