Words by Medeya Junusova
1. How did you find the training contract application process at EY?
I began as a paralegal at EY, which involved completing an online application and two interviews. Following a successful time as a paralegal, I was offered a Training Contract eighteen months later. The overall process was well-structured and easy to follow.
2. Has working at EY exceeded your initial expectations?
Yes. I have been involved in many interesting cross-border projects along with colleagues from other sub-service lines. Working at EY means being part of a multidisciplinary firm and being able to work together with people from other teams such as consulting, advisory, pensions, tax, and others – which means you can learn additional skills on top of your legal knowledge and see how other teams work differently.
3. What has been your favourite seat so far?
The Regulatory and Commercial seats, both of which provided me with a variety of work experiences. I was involved in challenging work from day one and given responsibility at an early stage. My work involved a wide range of tasks and I felt like I was learning a lot.
4. Why EY?
EY has a multidisciplinary setting and global reach – and its fantastic people that make it a great place to work’ as that corresponds to our branding.
5. What is your day-to-day routine?
This will largely depend on what project I’m working on. For example, right now, I’m involved in assisting in a commercial workstream in relation to a large divestment of the majority of businesses and operations. As part of this, I assist in project managing various activities, drafting legal documents, sending updates to the client, and making sure that key deadlines are met. Generally, as a trainee, I help on client engagement processes, billing and fee updates, preparing client call notes, presenting legal updates to the team and assisting in business development-related work.
6. How much responsibility are you trusted with?
As a more experienced trainee, I have extra responsibilities and I’m able to make decisions more independently and take the lead in some of the projects that I work on. This is exciting and motivating and enables my learning to a high standard.
7. If you could give one piece of advice to law students that are unsure about their next step, what would it be?
If you struggle to think of a role, then I would recommend actively trying different things out. Look for one or two week internships at different types of companies to understand what you might like. From that experience you’ll be able to understand roughly where you might want to be heading.
8. How would you describe the EY culture?
Friendly, professional, understanding, fun, considerate.
9. What are the main challenges of working at EY?
As with any large organisation, there can be a lot of internal stakeholders to deal with – which can be tricky when you have a short deadline. But these challenges can be resolved with good communication, proactiveness and teams working closely together.
10. How do you deal with challenging situations?
I take a pause, or a break away from the screen to gather my thoughts and write down initial ideas about how to deal with a tricky situation and then try to put these into practice. The key is not to rush things: in an attempt to resolve a situation ‘quickly’ you can actually end up making more mistakes. Although I am still learning to follow this rule myself more often!
11. What are the biggest challenges facing the way legal businesses operate?
How has EY adapted to these challenges? – The pandemic has raised the profile of flexible working and different parts of the legal sector are responding in different ways. EY has moved towards a hybrid working approach and we have the flexibility to work from home or the office on different days. I’ve found this has been really helpful for colleagues, whether because of family commitments, private appointments, commuting challenges and many other reasons.
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