Students impress top employers during speed meetings

By Sandra J. Holmes MA FCA, Senior Lecturer

Brighton Business School and the Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales (ICAEW) have co-hosted a Speed Meeting event. This was an exciting opportunity for local employers to ‘speed interview’ final year Accounting and Finance BSc(Hons) students who are considering training for their professional Chartered Accountancy examinations.

Aidan Berry, Dean of the Business School, called the event an ‘ideal way to bring employers and potential employees together’, as it offered students the chance to meet several employers for a short time and practise their networking and interview skills.

The accountancy firms were pleased to hear that the students graduate with up to seven ACA examination exemptions and many of them have gained work experience during their placement year.

Comments from students included: ‘Great opportunity to meet local firms. Very insightful and good networking and interview practice. Would highly recommend.’, ‘Good experience, each interview was different.’ and ‘It was really useful to practise my interviewing skills and see what a real interview could possibly be like.’

The accountancy firms were also very positive: ‘It was a great pleasure to spend the evening with so many bright enthusiastic people’.

Several firms are keen to take placement students as well as graduate trainees next year. Also, the ICAEW have asked if a group of students would like to visit their head-quarters in the City for a tour of the historical building, followed by afternoon tea.