This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
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The Role
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The Company
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The Culture
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
I enjoyed the work that I was given as I have never done accounting before, so it was a new challenge for me. I enjoyed being in London and the obvious and only downside was the commute. The placement has given me motivation to be an accountant after university.
My colleagues made me feel welcome and assisted me throughout the placement. They took a genuine interest in the work that I was doing and were always happy to help when I was having problems. I was given a 360 appraisal which made me feel valued.
My manager was very helpful and even though she was busy, she had time to explain things most of the time. I was also assigned a buddy who I could turn to for support and guidance. I was even invited to a client meeting with a partner on one occasion , which was very eye-opening
There were days that I had a lot to do, which was good and no real pressure was put on me by other people to rush the work. There were some days that went quite slow owing to no work being delegated to me. To get round this, I asked for work for people around the office.
I went to 2 client meetings with a partner which was a lot of responsibility. The Graduates told me that they never had the chance to do so, so I felt lucky to experience it. The tax calcultions that I was doing were quite complex and at the level of a graduate employee.
I have learnt valuable skills in networking from a course that I was entered onto and from generally being in a business environment. I received specialised tax training for 1 out of the 8 weeks, which was a great help and enabled me to do the more complex work straight away. I will be able to use the professional skillls that I obtained for many years to come.
The Company
There was some good banter. Everyone was pretty busy around the time of my placement so sometimes it was hard to talk to people about things outside from work. I went for drinks with a director and a partner after work one time, which was good as I got to see the social side of them a bit more.
Excellent. I had a counselling manager, a buddy and weeks of training out of 8 weeks in total! I was given projects to do to keep me busy and introduced to most people on my floor and everyone knew that I was on a placement with the company.
I had a week of dedicated tax training and 3 days communication, networking and presentation training. Thorughout the internship I felt that the company invested heavily in me and this made me feel valued and like I would like to contribute well to the company in return.
Subsidised Canteen
Company Parties/Events
I find out next week whether I am going to get employment with the company for after my last year at university. The future job prospects are very appealing as the company impressed me with the opportunities available. Especially with the training prospects to become a chartered accountant, as there is an in-house tax training department.
The Culture
There were 2 other interns in the London Tax group and 36 interns in the UK. The other interns had similar interests to me, we went out for drinks on occasions and we more or less always met up for lunch.
The west end of London is expensive. Salary was enough to cover some nice lunches / drinks. I commuted from home which the salary covered no problems.
The west end has countless bars retaurants theatres. It can be pricey but on the whole the nightlife is brilliant.
There was an opportunity to go to Nottingham to take part in the BDO 5-a-side football competition. I could not unfortunately make it but I heard that the company paid for hotels and transport to the event.
Details
Internship (1 Month+)
Accounting
International
September 2008