Audit Associate Review

Overall, I found the internship to be a good learning experience. I gained a heightened understanding of how the corporate world and the consulting industry work, as well as the technicalities of a client project. I enjoyed the sessions and socials ran by HR and our scheme Champion (a Deloitte consultant) more so than my actual project.

I was tasked with two main projects over the 5 weeks. One of them was a document that I produced from scratch and "made my own", which would be used regularly by different work streams going forward. I felt valued for working on this, in the sense that I was tasked with meaningful work and contributed actual value to the project. In general, I felt my colleagues were appreciative of my contributions. However, I was disappointed I did not get a proper send off when leaving, probably due to the busy nature of the project.

I was set both projects by senior colleagues, which were initially explained to me in terms of content and overall purpose. I was then given full responsibility from there, with how I managed the work and approached the task left very much up to me. I appreciated this as I was able to express initative and was treated more like an employee, and less like an intern. If I encountered any problems or had questions, most of my colleagues were happy to help.

My hours were typically 9.30 to 5.30 as this was the hours of the client. I was kept busy throughout the placement and there were a few occasions when I would stay beyond 5.30. On one occasion I had to work over a weekend. I was able to organise my time around the project to meet employees for coffee chats and have lunch with fellow interns on the odd occasion. However, most of the time lunch was eaten at my desk.

I was kept busy throughout my placement, but I only had 2 projects to work on. On the first day, I was not expected by my team and so initially I had nothing to do. I would have liked to have tried out a few different things on the project rather than just focusing on 2 tasks over 5 weeks.

As mentioned, the internship was a positive learning experience. From learning simple business etiquette to understanding the technicalities of a project to developing Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint skills - I will certainly build on all these skills in my future career.

The client site was a standard office environment. I was very much with my team (10 of us in the corner of the floor of the client building) throughout. Although we interacted from time to time, it was mostly a quiet atmosphere due to how everyone would be busy with their work. I would have liked to have sat with other teams on different floors at some point. I would have also liked to have worked with more Deloitte people - the majority of my team was non-Deloitte, who didn't take much interest in the fact I was a Deloitte intern, but understandably so. During the 5 weeks, we went for only one team lunch.

Aside from the fact I was not expected by my team on the first day and some poor HR communications post-internship, it was generally organised well - particularly the socials and HR sessions. One particular HR session covered how to convert our internship into a graduate offer, which was useful. In the future, I think interns would benefit from the organisation of Microsoft Excel training, as many of us were not familiar with it but were required to use it extensively during our projects.

During our induction, we had IT training which covered how to use the intranet, access our e-mails etc. While this was useful, as mentioned we could have benefited from further IT training, particularly in Microsoft Excel. It would also be useful to perhaps have soft skills sessions during the induction day.

I will not be joining the firm full-time but the internship develops your skills and gives you a solid grounding into the realities of the consulting industry and the corporate environment. One thing to bear in mind is the Consulting graduate scheme does not allow you to rotate, but rather to specialise from day 1.

The social scene could not be faulted - as Consulting interns, we were given the most socials. This would both be with our Consulting cohort as well as general intern socials with from those working in the other service lines. There was a wide variety of socials including dinners and bars, laser tag and a Deloitte Digital tour.

I was based in London which has a higher cost of living compared to other Deloitte offices in the country. However, this is to be expected. For the socials, the costs were covered by Deloitte which many of us appreciated, being students! A couple of interns were based outside of London on their client projects and were able to claim back expenses through the company.

Anyone who is familiar with London will know that an unparalleled nightlife exists here. A wide variety of restaurants, bars, clubs are just some of what London has to offer. It is both the financial and cosmopolitan hub of England and so it is a very appealing city to begin a career in, for any young professional.

Yes, several. Over 5 weeks, we had 1-2 activities outside of work to get involved in on average, per week. This ranged from socials and networking evenings to office tours and Partner talks. With my project team however, there were very few opportunities, perhaps due to how it was mostly non-Deloitte.