ABSTRACT
This chapter examines trainee experience with a view to highlighting the various elements of ‘successful’ performance with which trainees identify and are expected to develop whilst on a training contract at the two offices that are the research sites. It analyses and elaborates the nature of these other social and cultural norms, highlights the processes through which trainees become aware of these, and describes how they are assessed on their ‘performance’. The chapter explores the socialization of trainee accountants at the research sites. The starting points for any analysis of organizational socialization are the formal systems for recruiting, training and appraising trainees. The chapter also examines both the role of these formal systems and the nature and form of informal socialization processes with regard to trainees learning how to ‘regulate the self’. A significant element of the presentation of an acceptable self within the firms is time management.
