Kate Lynch 

As part of the Graduate Coffee Chats series in collaboration with Foresight Business Group, Foresight Vice President Kate Lynch spoke to Jane Brazil, Deals Advisory Associate at PwC and former TBR Editor-in-Chief to get insights into her life as a graduate. 

PwC Deals Advisory Associate Role 

Jane, a Trinity Law and Business graduate of the class 2023, is currently working as a Deals Advisory Associate at PwC. In PwC, they have a specific deals programme known as “The Edge Programme”, which lasts 3 and a half years and occurs in Irish offices, across EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) and Asia Pacific. In this programme employees get the opportunity to rotate across different business units, which Jane described as “very useful, because you get an insight into different stages of the deal lifecycle”. Jane described it as a global programme, as you get the opportunity to visit Madrid at the start of the 3 years and meet other graduates from many offices across EMEA. 

Jane is currently in her second year of the programme and has done rotations in the Transaction services (TS) and then Capital Projects & Infrastructure (CP&I) department. Her home department is M&A (Mergers & Acquisitions) within corporate finance, being situated in this department day-to-day. Jane emphasises that “no two days are the same, one day I could be doing financial modeling, then the next day I could be doing market outreach…it’s so diverse”.

Career Progression 

Jane is currently starting her career as an associate, with career progression then leading to senior associate, manager, senior manager and eventually director or partner. This direct trajectory allows for continuous professional development with a clear vision of what’s next. 

Interview Process at PwC 

Jane came into this role from a summer internship position, so she didn’t go through the interview process for the graduate programme. However, she did experience the process for the internship position, which began with the usual online application involving a CV and academic background. If shortlisted, you’re then invited to participate in an online psychometric assessment and a group interview. If you’re successful after that stage, you’re brought for a private interview with a senior member of the team. Jane described it as a multi-stage process, but pretty similar to many other companies’ interview processes. 

Skills gained from Internships: Are they Still Relevant? 

Jane previously did an internship with KPMG in audit and “found it really beneficial in terms of your general knowledge about the different business functions”. She was able to transfer this knowledge to PwC and it helps her with the “day-to-day work in deals”. She emphasises the importance of “getting exposure to what different roles do, especially in the corporate world as it is all interlinked”. In certain transactions, Jane “would be working with lawyers and tax specialists” so it’s good to have a general understanding. 

In terms of soft skills, Jane says the internships are great for “pushing you out of your comfort zone..during the eight weeks and meeting loads of people”. During the Summer in PwC a lot of the associates go on study leave. These associates are replaced with the summer interns which puts the interns on actual live projects, giving them the opportunity to gain an abundance of hands-on experience, which Jane found so invaluable and an excellent opportunity experience all round. It’s also a great way to become more aware of what the graduate programme is like as it’s a very similar environment to the internship. 

Work Culture 

Jane describes the work culture in PwC as “very dynamic, very collaborative and very supportive, especially in deals, because we’re quite a small team”. Jane, as an associate, works directly with partners and directors where they will ask for her opinions and thoughts on projects, which is “daunting at the start, but they genuinely do want to hear your thoughts and ideas”. Jane expresses that it’s great to work so closely with the partners and directors because “they have so much experience and you learn from that”. Since the team is small, you become so close with everyone and it makes it a lot easier when working on different projects.

Insights into a Current Project 

Although Jane couldn’t give us too many details on a project, she did talk about how she has worked across a lot of different industries over the past 18 months. From “industrial and real estate to consumer goods, you get the opportunity to work in all different sectors”. This structure is very specific to PwC Ireland, getting the ability to work on projects from multiple different industries. In the likes of the UK, you tend to specialise early on, for example specialising in only real estate. Whereas in Ireland you can “bounce between all different industries, which is great. You learn so much”. 

Advice for Students 

When posed with this question, Jane immediately spoke about the importance of reaching out and making the most of your college alumni network. You’ll come across loads of alumni who work in the company you’re interested in, and the best way to get insight into what it’s like (aside from actually doing an internship) is to “just reach out to them and ask them, go for a coffee with them… that’s the best approach” 

Jane also recommended making the most out of all the college talks set up by societies. For example, the SMF: “they bring in amazing speakers…even the most random ones…just go and hear what they have to say…because you will probably hear things you never thought about before or programmes you never knew existed”. Attending these talks and events can help you be more up to date with current affairs as that’s something they really value in the interview process. 

Jane also emphasises the importance of getting involved in more societies and “quality over quantity”. Jane believes that when it comes to societies, “just get involved in one or two, because you can learn a lot of the soft skills that you need in the professional world” such as communication, leadership and time-management. And of course, “it does look really impressive on your CV!”. It shows that you’re not just about the academics, that you can also get on with people and work effectively in teams.