Finance Industrial Placement Watford 2023

We are looking for high-calibre undergraduate students to join our Finance department on a 12-month placement.

Why Work for Hilton?

Hilton is one of the largest and fastest growing hospitality companies in the world, with more than 7000+ properties in 122 countries and territories.

In the 100+ years since our founding, we have defined the hospitality industry and established a portfolio of 18 world-class brands, including our flagship Hilton Hotels & Resorts brand, which is the most recognised hotel brand in the world.

We are consistently endorsed by our employees as a Great Place to Work in all of the countries in which we operate, and for the last five years we have been voted by UK students as the most popular Graduate Recruiter in the Hospitality, Leisure and Tourism sector (TargetJobs Awards 2021).

Hilton Work Perks

In addition to a competitive salary you will also receive a range of excellent benefits - probably the best of which is our Go Hilton Team Member Travel Program. This provides you with access to heavily reduced hotel room rates for you, your family & friends. Perfect for the holiday savvy intern!

A bit about the job

As an intern, you will be an integral part of the team and will play an active role in our continued success. You will carry out a range of administrative/support activities, as well as having ownership of your own project based initiatives. You will be asked to select your top three choices of Finance Internship in order of preference, so here’s a bit about what each team does.

Record to Report (RTR, Corporate Accounting)

The Record to Report (RTR, Corporate Accounting) team located in Watford and Glasgow is responsible for the accounting activity which significantly impacts the corporate balance sheet and P&L, by combining accounting, analytical and presentation skills to effectively contribute the close process.

The team is also responsible for UK group VAT as well as the managed VAT Returns alongside looking after all international fixed assets as part of the close process.

As an intern, you will support the team with the monthly close process by performing variance analysis, ad-hoc reporting requests as well as support the coordination with third party service providers.

Intercompany accounting and reporting on the corporate cost of the company is also within the remit of this role. You will be required to simultaneously manage multiple tasks and deliver to tight deadlines working together with the team.

Statutory Reporting

The UK Statutory Reporting and Accounting team is responsible for all aspects of statutory accounting across the international estate, including preparation of all UK statutory accounts for audit, and compliance overview of all other statutory requirements.

Hilton has over 80 companies registered in the UK that between them report the results of UK leased hotels and all the international managed and franchised hotels.

The team are responsible for producing backing schedules for all the individual UK legal entities, preparing the statutory accounts documents and facilitating the audits of the entities in order that the September filing deadline at Companies House can be met.

As an intern, you will support the team in the preparation and audit of statutory accounts in accordance with FRS 101. This may comprise preparing workings to support the statutory accounts, preparing and making changes to the documents produced by the team and checking that the documents do agree to the underlying records for that entity.

This role provides the unusual opportunity to see the whole profit and loss account and balance sheet of a small group of hotels rather than one section of the balance sheet on a global basis. As a team there are multiple deadlines to be met and you will be required to organise multiple tasks that enable the team to meet those deadlines.

Internal Audit

Our Internal Audit team serves as a critical business partner to the Finance Department and multiple functional departments throughout the Company. We protect and improve the organization by providing risk-based objective assurance, insights, and advice to add value through our work.

The Internal Auditor will contribute to project reviews of financial, operational, compliance risks controls from planning, execution and to final report issuance. This position will be part of a team primarily responsible for risk-based hotel audits across Hilton’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operations and Global Corporate SOX compliance program.

The role also provides opportunities to assist with implementing data analytics capabilities, performing IT Controls testing, involvement in Global Sales audits, review of Centralized Accounting Offices, as well as a variety of global Corporate projects.

Consolidations & Reporting

The Consolidation Team is primarily responsible for consolidation, intercompany and review processes relating to the monthly reporting of results. We help ensure information is complete, accurate and in compliance with USGAAP, SOX and Group Audit requirements.

Our focus is primarily on the international estate (including Europe, MEA, Asia Pacific, and Latin America); however, we are also responsible for several Global processes, which provide the department with a full overview of Group activities in certain areas.

The team are required to work with a range of stakeholders and different reporting requirements across multiple countries, therefore there is plenty of scope to develop technical accounting skills and knowledge.

The role will support the team in the preparation and review of monthly analytical schedules, account roll forwards, lead schedules, account reconciliations, variance analysis and monthly Balance Sheet and P&L journals.

Order-To-Cash (OTC)

The UK Corporate OTC team is responsible for accounting for Hilton’s international fee revenue and receivables from all our international Managed and Franchised hotels, from the development of a hotel, during its operating term, through to termination or expiry of the contract.

As an intern you will support the team with first reviews of all legal documents for financial implications, recording of journal transactions, preparation of standard monthly and adhoc reporting and monthly analysis of movements across fee revenue and receivables accounts.

As a team there are multiple deadlines to be met and you will be required to effectively prioritise and organise multiple tasks that enable the team to meet those deadlines. This role provides the opportunity to be part of an accounting function at a publicly traded global corporation and experience the volume and complexities it brings.

Fixed Assets and VAT

The Analyst Corporate Accounting will be responsible for carrying out compliance checks on Owned VAT return and Managed VAT calculations. Challenging teams and ensuring correct VAT has been booked. Following transactions from the VAT accounts to the source documents.

In addition, the analyst will carry out a number of intercompany, analytical and reconciliation tasks. The post holder will combine accounting, analytical and organisational skills to effectively and efficiently contribute to the completion of monthly and quarterly VAT calculations and returns.

The Analyst, Capital Expenditures will support the Manager and Senior Analyst of Capital Expenditures with the monitoring, reporting, and forecasting of capital expenditures, support funding requests and project close-outs, and perform various other activities supporting Hilton’s fixed asset accounting.

What are we looking for?

As with any job, we do have certain criteria that you will need to meet in order to be considered for one of these highly sought after opportunities. These are detailed as follows:

• Must be in your second year of undergraduate study at the point of application.
• Must be available to start in July 2023, for the full 12 months.
• Must be eligible to work in the UK. If you are a non-UK national, without EU Settled or Pre-Settled Status then you will need to be studying at a UK university in order to be eligible to undertake a placement here.
• You should be able to demonstrate a genuine interest in Finance
• Able to demonstrate a high level of numerical and analytical capability
• First and foremost, Hilton are a hospitality company and we are looking for individuals with a strong sense of alignment to our culture and values

What next?

If you would like to be considered for this internship please ensure that you submit your application (in English) as soon as possible. Please bear with us whilst we process your application as we receive a lot of interest and we want to ensure that each applicant is given the consideration that they deserve.

You’ll be contacted via email by our Graduate Recruitment Team who will inform you of the outcome and (if applicable) next steps. If your application is taken forward, you will be asked to complete a series of online assessments and a video interview. A final assessment centre will be held in our EMEA Head Office in Watford.

Beyond the Internship

Whilst we are not always able to guarantee an offer of employment at the end of your studies, we like to keep in touch with our intern community and many have successfully re-joined Hilton upon completion of their degree.

Many of our former Finance Interns are either in the process of completing their CIMA or ACCA qualifications with us,or have qualified and are currently operating in Manager level positions within various areas of our Finance Department.