Sarthak is a Computer Science graduate from the University of Southampton. He secured an Audit Graduate role at Deloitte in London through Bright Network.
First, please tell us a little bit about yourself.
“I’m someone who’s interested in a range of areas and like to try my hand at lots of different things. I feel like a career in audit is a great fit for someone like me, due to the immense exposure to a range of different industries.
When I was growing up, I wanted to be an astronaut, a fireman and a pilot. I have ended up pretty far from any of those, but I guess that's what's fun about starting your career, you don't know where you'll end up!”
What motivated you to apply for your role?
“The market reputation of the company is very good and I thought it'd be a great place to learn and build a solid foundation for my career. Alongside that, the opportunity to pursue a professional qualification motivated me to apply for the role.”
What was the application process like?
“The application process was pretty simple! It consisted of four stages and the whole process took around 2 months from start to end.
I’d done a similar process before when applying for internships, so it was less daunting this time around. I applied early, kept realistic expectations about my success rate and ensured I was making progress consistently in terms of completing assessments and interviews.”
How did Bright Network help you secure your role?
“Bright Network provided me with good opportunities to network with individuals from the industry and helped me to keep my applications streamlined.”
What are you most proud of about your journey?
“I’m most proud of being able to secure a competitive role in a Big 4 firm. It’s a really great feeling, especially since it’s in a field where I don’t have much educational experience.”
What have you learnt from going through the process?
“The process was shorter than I expected and less daunting too!
The biggest thing I learnt, was the importance of starting early and balancing my application journey with university work. It was tough, but manageable as I started early.”
What are your tips for people looking to follow in your footsteps?
“My advice would be to apply early and ensure you have a personal application tracker. I found a tracker really helpful in managing my time and also being able to see when deadlines for online assessments and interviews are approaching.”
Tell us about the future. What’s next?
“I'm hoping to learn a lot and network with many different people.
As it's a completely different field to my educational background, I'm excited to see how I draw from my past learning to optimise my future work.”
Find insight schemes, graduate jobs, training contracts and more at Bright Network.
