I was studying economics and maths at university in Leeds, which included a placement year in business. I started looking at different finance related roles and wanted to keep my options open. Some family and friends recommended Deloitte, because I’d get to learn about lots of different organisations. The placement year was very structured with lots of training. Once I joined, I knew I’d made the right choice. I really liked the other people in my year, and we even had the chance to sit some exams at the same time. There was lots of development and support during the year, and my managers were proactive with feedback. You have responsibility from the start, which helped me to learn. When I was finishing the placement, I knew I wanted to apply to come back to the firm full time. I was offered a position on the graduate programme in my final week of the placement, which was really nice. It was so good going back to university knowing that I had a job secured.

While studying for my professional qualification exams, I’ve had lots of in-person tuition, and the teachers are extremely helpful and invested. You need to dedicate time to revising, but you can join study groups with the rest of your cohort to help you do that. That’s made a massive difference. You don’t need to be a maths whizz to do well, but it’s important to balance your time and start studying relatively early on. Being at college is fun, and we go to training days where external people will come in to teach soft skills alongside this, through role play and seminars. We practice presenting too, and we get the opportunity to facilitate sessions. It’s a really great starting block for kicking off your career, and from there you can then tailor your future your own way.