Career progression
Aston University
(2016 - 2020) BSc Finance - First Class Honours (with business placement)
My finance degree was mostly asset management/investment banking related although it had a lot of accounting and tax modules too. Although I did a placement year, I opted out of applying for summer internships, because I wanted to enjoy my summers breaks off!
Extra Curricular Activities:
I was part of the Aston trading and investment society as well as the islamic and chess societies, though I didn't get much time to take part after the first year.
I used to get involved with the ISOC 5-a-side football games and tournaments. This definitely helped develop my teamwork skills, something employers look out!
Placement Year: Commercial Operations Intern - General Electric Healthcare:
From 2018-2019, I interned under the GE Medical Systems Rentals Manager for UK&I. This involved working in a two-man team to grow the new rental business for GE Healthcare. I Managed entire rentals inventory both physically and virtually and developed specialised inventory sheets for GE rentals
I handled negotiation and logistics for all rental contracts working closely with hospital staff, sales/apps specialists and engineers to ensure smooth and reliable flow of systems. Because of this I was able to build strong relationships with all stakeholders.
I even took over from the Rentals Manager following his departure 6 months into the internship, managing GE rentals single-handedly for remaining 7 months, building relationships with existing and new customers to negotiate and secure deals.
NHS
(2021) Screening Coordinator – Cannock Chase Hospital
I was struggling to find work after graduating as Covid had just hit, but after about 4 months of applying to different jobs I managed to land an admin role in the NHS.
My responsibilities included: handling telephone calls to book in patients, cancer therapy assessments, preparing the screening clinics, processing confidential patient images and organising screening schedule for multiple clinics under the Dudley Group Hospitals.
Ernst & Young
(2021 - present) Tax Graduate
Day in the life
We interviewed Shazaib on what he experienced during a typical day at work. This section is to provide you with an insight into what it's really like to work as a Tax Graduate at EY.
Wake up
I work from home most days so I usually role out of bed around 8:30 to start at 9 but I am probably going to change this to 8:59 to get some extra sleep!�
The days I go into office are usually Tuesday and Wednesday and again I get in for 9am. The Birmingham office isn't as nice as the London ones so we don't have a canteen to get breakfast/meet colleagues in the morning etc, otherwise I would probably come in earlier.
I get on the train at 8:15am and get to Birmingham at 8:40am. The office is about a 15 minute walk so I grab a meal deal from Tesco and make my way in!
Daily tasks
We usually start off the week with a resource meetings to catch up with the team and see what work each person has for the week and if anyone has any free capacity. We then delegate tasks/client work accordingly.
On a typical morning, I will start by looking at a list of my tasks for the day or remainder of the week that I created from the initial Monday resource meeting, and will prioritise the more urgent things in the day such as client work before anything else.
I tend to get minor admin tasks sorted out in the morning such as organising emails, documents and my to-do list.
Following this, I will get started on the most urgent client work which in my team is mostly analysing client expenditure to find areas that will qualify for tax relief. Most of my day tends to comprise of client work and calls with my manager or colleagues to query things i'm not sure about. Or, someone may want to talk through another project or task they want me to help with.
In tax, April is pretty much the quietest month. Most companies tend to set their year end as the 31st Dec so November and December will be the busiest as a lot of clients like to leave it very late before sending us information meaning quite a bit of overtime is required to get through the more tedious tasks!
Finish
I usually finish around 5pm but this can be later during the busier months and towards Christmas!
At EY and the big 4 we use timesheets to keep track of the work we are doing and who or what it relates to. This makes it easy to charge time-based fees to clients. There is quite a strong flexible working culture so you can have a break in the day or do whatever you need to do and finish off your work in the evening.
Evening work
I very rarely work in the evenings although I am only in my first year so this is likely to change as I progress. There have been instances where i've had to deal with personal things during the day so I will finish off tasks in the evening but this only really happens during the very busy days.
Again this is speaking from tax, people in Audit often work late and on weekends!
EY is very focussed on employee mental wellbeing so working late isn't encouraged.
Day in the life
We interviewed Shazaib on what he experienced during a typical day at work. This section is to provide you with an insight into what it's really like to work as a Tax Graduate at EY.
Wake up
I work from home most days so I usually role out of bed around 8:30 to start at 9 but I am probably going to change this to 8:59 to get some extra sleep!�
The days I go into office are usually Tuesday and Wednesday and again I get in for 9am. The Birmingham office isn't as nice as the London ones so we don't have a canteen to get breakfast/meet colleagues in the morning etc, otherwise I would probably come in earlier.
I get on the train at 8:15am and get to Birmingham at 8:40am. The office is about a 15 minute walk so I grab a meal deal from Tesco and make my way in!
Daily tasks
We usually start off the week with a resource meetings to catch up with the team and see what work each person has for the week and if anyone has any free capacity. We then delegate tasks/client work accordingly.
On a typical morning, I will start by looking at a list of my tasks for the day or remainder of the week that I created from the initial Monday resource meeting, and will prioritise the more urgent things in the day such as client work before anything else.
I tend to get minor admin tasks sorted out in the morning such as organising emails, documents and my to-do list.
Following this, I will get started on the most urgent client work which in my team is mostly analysing client expenditure to find areas that will qualify for tax relief. Most of my day tends to comprise of client work and calls with my manager or colleagues to query things i'm not sure about. Or, someone may want to talk through another project or task they want me to help with.
In tax, April is pretty much the quietest month. Most companies tend to set their year end as the 31st Dec so November and December will be the busiest as a lot of clients like to leave it very late before sending us information meaning quite a bit of overtime is required to get through the more tedious tasks!
Finish
I usually finish around 5pm but this can be later during the busier months and towards Christmas!
At EY and the big 4 we use timesheets to keep track of the work we are doing and who or what it relates to. This makes it easy to charge time-based fees to clients. There is quite a strong flexible working culture so you can have a break in the day or do whatever you need to do and finish off your work in the evening.
Evening work
I very rarely work in the evenings although I am only in my first year so this is likely to change as I progress. There have been instances where i've had to deal with personal things during the day so I will finish off tasks in the evening but this only really happens during the very busy days.
Again this is speaking from tax, people in Audit often work late and on weekends!
EY is very focussed on employee mental wellbeing so working late isn't encouraged.
