Graduate Careers in Consultancy and Business Management

Increasingly, businesses are under pressure to satisfy demanding stakeholders and actively manage their risk profile, while turning their investments into recognisable returns. Recent economic and political turbulence in the global markets has only underlined the importance of building flexible corporate structures and strategies to safeguard investment returns. If you are a talented and enthusiastic graduate with good business acumen then a graduate career in consultant and business management could be for you. Whether you're interested in the audit, tax, advisory, or the business services entry routes, there is a graduate career in consultancy and business management for you.

Professional Services firms, such as KPMG, can help businesses address the most complex challenges by drawing on its people’s skills across its global network. Examples range from enterprise-wide risk management to corporate governance; restructuring to people management; and cross-border transactions to leverage IT and intellectual assets. At KPMG we have over 20 different careers for graduates and work experience for penultimate year students.

Tax

Working in tax gives you the opportunity to be at the nerve centre of a client’s business and gain a privileged insight into how different businesses really operate. For instance, at KPMG, when you join Tax practice, you have the option to choose where to spend your first year. Many placements will involve a mixture of mixture of corporate tax work, including:

• Advising clients on their corporate tax liabilities
  
• Completing and submitting the company tax returns
  
• Corresponding and negotiating with the Inland Revenue
  
• Providing input into advisory project work

At KPMG, you would have the unique opportunity to study for a joint Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) and Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT). The course covers all-round business, accountancy and tax skills and is tougher than the traditional one, with an initial focus on tax, therefore helping to enable you to work with clients more quickly.


Audit

Audit is an area which offers statutory audit services traditionally undertaken by qualified accountants. Such audits perform the vital role of helping to ensure that the company's annual accounts show a true and fair view of the company's financial activity.

The audit role has changed radically in recent years and increasingly involves gaining a broad understanding of our clients' business processes and objectives in order to help them develop and thrive in changing markets.

Typically a career in audit provides you with hands-on opportunities to learn how a wide variety of organisations function and to play a role in reviewing their systems and processes. Exactly what type of work you undertake can depend on which of the three different areas of our Audit practice you decide to join:

• audit of PLCs
• middle market audit
• public sector audit.

Advisory

Teams often work alongside clients from among the best organisations globally and their success stems from the ability to respond to a wide range of business issues, across all market sectors. Training is usually offered in a wide range of advisory and technical skills, from restructuring underperforming businesses, to advice on systems and technology. As well as benefiting from structured training programmes, you'll also learn from your experiences in a challenging environment. Advisory practice is a particularly dynamic part of a UK firm - most Advisory work falls under one of the areas below and you will need to think at the outset about which of these you would like to gain the main part of your experience in.

• Financial Services,
• Advisory practice,
• Government Advisory,
• Governance,
• Risk,
• Assurance and Advisory Services.

Business services

A Business Services Programme is an exciting opportunity to work at the heart of KPMG and gain an insight into our internal operations within functions such as:

• Human Resources
• Finance and Procurement
• Recruitment & Resourcing (including Graduate Recruitment, Experienced Hire Recruitment, Global Mobility and Recruitment Marketing)
• Training & Development (KLearn)
• Sales & Marketing, Information
• Communications & Technology
• Facilities in the UK.

All of these functions play a key part in underpinning the firm's successes, with over 1000 staff responsible for meeting the business needs of 9,000 staff across 23 offices.

Application Details

To pursue a graduate career in consultancy and business management you ideally need at least 300 UCAS Tariff points (260 UCAS Tariff points for Audit ACCA Programme) be on course for a 2:1 degree and have gained a grade A at GCSE Maths (grade B for Audit ACCA Programme and Tax). You may not necessarily need a business or economics degree; for example, KPMG recruits from any degree discipline.

However, it is not just academic qualifications that count. You need to be a good communicator, have a real interest in business and have a genuine desire to continue learning. So if you think this sounds like you then why not start applying today for a graduate career in consultancy and business management. Be part of a team that is dedicated to solving client’s problems.

If you are interested in applying to KPMG then you can complete an online application at www.kpmg.co.uk/brightminds.