Assurance Review

Overall, I think that I very much enjoyed the experience provided by EY. This is the first time I'm exposed to this kind of environment and it definitely gave me an insight into the assurance line of work. Everyone is very helpful and I got a taste of what working is like.

I definitely feel valued by my colleagues. During the internship, I was working closely with the clients as I was on client site. Some of these clients are large companies and I fill that my colleagues are giving me a high responsibility by giving me work that they would've done themselves. Many workbooks were prepared by me and it was for a report in a company. They are also very nice to me so if I have any trouble or questions they are very willing to help.

Over the course of the internship, I was supported very well by my colleagues and supervisors. All the seniors I have worked with are very helpful so I have a question as to what I need to be exactly doing, what I did wrong etc. They are willing to point it out and criticise but in a nice way so it actually motivates you to do better.

Overall the balance is good. The first week was mainly adapting to the office lifestyle and so the workload is not as much as it would have been on a usually day, this I can understand however, I may have preferred to do a bit more. However as the week go by, the workload is lot more engaging as you understand more and more about the business and what you have to do.

As I have mentioned in my previous response, responsibility on a good level was given to us. We may not be presenting financial instruments to our clients, but that is because we do not have enough knowledge on these kind of things yet. I was working on workbooks for auditing and was closely working with the clients themselves, asking for information from the clients myself etc.

I think that apart from working in excel, there were many things I have learnt during this internship. Communication is very important pretty much everywhere you go. Back then I was asking for clients' information directly myself so communication; making sure the client know what you wanted is very important. This will definitely help me through life as I believe this is a skill that you need to continuously improve.

I think in general the atmosphere in the office is quite nice depending on what you prefer yourself. Usually when things get a little busy, it is kind of quiet as everyone is working hard. However, there's usually nice chatter in the office, everyone is nice, if you have any questions they will happily answer it.

I think it is very well though out. It is planned already as to which clients we will be working with at the beginning of the internship. These different clients provided me with deeper insight into what it is liked to work in assurance. These firms are of varying size so I can experience fully what it is like to work with a small firm client or a big firm client.

I think to be honest, they have invested a lot of time and energy into my development. They have provided help with how we should comply with the regulation as assurance is a very strict practice. They also have programmes for personal development but as our internship is only for 1 month, there wasn't enough time so we believe that we can participate in that once we graduate.

After the internship, I will be placed on a placement in-between my university years to work for them. Some of the seniors I have talked to, tells me that it is very likely they are going to recruit you back into the firm to work for them after the placement year.

There is relatively good scene. We had social events during the evenings when our induction took place in the first week, it was fun and enjoyable and got to socialise with many other students from all over the country. When all the interns arrived at the office, they also took us out for lunch together with our buddies.

It's a city where I worked so it might cost a bit more than other areas. But overall the cost of living and socialising is good for where I worked.

It's good in general, a lot of places you can hang out with your friends and colleagues.

I think with duration of the internship combined with the fact that most of the time you are in the office, there isn't much activities I was able to participate in. However, if you are busy person I'm sure you can find something to do in the little free time you have.