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My name is Philip Longhurst, I'm 17 years old and currently attending Kingsdale Foundation School in Dulwich Village.

I would like to take this opportunity to talk about my work experience here at Morgan McKinley and what learned along the way.

From the minute I arrived at Morgan McKinley’s very impressive Holborn offices , I jumped straight into a meeting, which, whilst hard to follow helped introduce me to the type work that is carried out and what working within audit practice entails. This was the team that I would be working with, alongside Josh, Sinead and Tom. It was great to be surrounded by lively and friendly people!

I found it really interesting to learn about what employers look for when searching for candidates to join their firms and now knowing what puts them off will help me in the future when I apply for a job! Throughout the day I helped with researching suitable candidates for those tough to fill roles, spoke with candidates and clients to better understand their needs and brushed up on market trends so that I had a better understanding of audit tax. At the end of the day, knowlege is power, especially when it comes to high profile accounts.

I got to grips with various new systems, how to read data and format it so that it can be useful for consultants. I liaised with the members of the team and offered help where needed. Consultants can be seen as a mix of marketeers and scientists. They must be able to attract the right candidates and clients but intuitively know the formula to make it all work. This all comes with years of experience.

Outside of the 9-5 job, being in central London is great; the area is nice and you have a plethora of options food wise. My new personal favourite being the legendary ‘Wasabi’, a Japanese food chain that does the best sweet chill chicken!

It is also really cool that everything is so close to where you work. There are parks, gyms, shops and barbers to name a few which gives you lots of options in what you can do during your lunch break. I decided to wander down to Denmark Street and practice my guitar playing and of course went straight for the most expensive guitar in the shop being a Vintage Gibson, costing a mere £5000, which surprisingly the owner didn’t seem too happy about!

I also heard a story about a previous employee who tried to join MI5 which peaked my interest: 

How do you apply? What do you actually do day to day? Most likely not chasing bad guys and fighting on the top of trains, all whilst wearing a suit. Applying actually takes ten months, 15 interviews and also involves written tests and training exercises. 

After this there is a rigorous interview process which will seek out every drunken escapade, mishap and embarrassing blunder, not to mention everything from your past. Once you have passed you officially have the highest security clearance in UK but due to the confidentiality of it all you cannot tell your friends or family what you do or you risk breaking the law!

But what do you do? 

I have to say that I really enjoyed my time working at Morgan McKinley, it has given me a great insight into recruitment – If you are in a similar position to me and looking for work experience or seeking to work as a recruitment consultant, please contact our talent acquisition team.