Uptree

Abdul is in year 12 and passionate about the finance and insurance industries. Abdul learnt about Uptree through a LinkedIn post a student made talking about an online event they attended and went on to apply to events with multiple employers. After honing his application technique, Abdul was successful in being selected to take part in the exclusive KPMG One+1 Programme.

“The reason why I chose to apply to the KPMG placement was because I hadn’t seen events held by KPMG for year 12s. They recently did one but that was for year 13s so I thought it would be really cool to put on my LinkedIn or CV that I’d been to KPMG in year 12. Also the fact that it is a work shadowing experience makes it really unique.”

Abdul stated how the KPMG One+1 placement was unique to any of the experiences he had already completed.

“I found this [experience] really different as I was shadowing a real person who works there and you’re actually seeing their day to day life and what goes on for an employer at one of the Big 4.”

“A highlight for me was being in an internal client call. The Director I was shadowing was on a client call with his team and they were discussing what they could do, how many available hours they were going to give that client. They were basically touching base about the client they were working on.”

“Another highlight was being on the team call. The partners had a team call with all the offices around the world, with India and Manchester. I found that really cool as you’re getting to see what it’s like to be an employee there and experiencing something that I don’t think you get really anywhere else for work experience.”

Attending the programme also helped Abdul narrow down KPMG as one of his dream employers.

“KPMG is definitely at the top of my list now. Before I was kind of scared of the Big 4 as I had heard stories about them being mean to you but now that I’ve been there and I’ve seen how people communicate with the people they work with and the teams they work with, I think I’d probably want to apply to one of the Big 4 now.”

Abdul found that Uptree events triumphed over the events run by other work experience organisations.

“Uptree’s better than their competitors… with Uptree, you’ve got real insights, real days where you get to travel to a company and meet real people.”

Abdul is planning on continuing to get experience and research different organisations whilst he finishes his studies. He’s hoping to “follow [his] passion” for finance and insurance.