Summer Intern FS Assurance Review

The induction week was really useful and provided excellent opportunities to network. There were social events in the evenings as well as the more formal proceedings during the day. During the internship itself, I was not given as much work to do as I would have hoped for. The office was quite quiet in the summer, but the EY employees tried their best to involve me in ongoing projects.

Everyone that I met within EY was extremely friendly towards me. No one looked down on you because you were intern, they were all willing to spend time helping you to learn the ropes. I emailed one of the partners to ask if I could shadow her for a day, and she was very willing to help me, even spending time in between meetings to explain what it was they were talking about.

Each person at EY has a counsellor who is responsible for providing support and guidance. My counsellor was extremely useful in helping me to gain new experiences when I spoke to him about the fact that I did not feel I was doing enough worthwhile work. It is very useful having someone higher up in the business that you can talk to about work related problems.

I was slightly bored by the lack of work given to me to do during the internship. The advantages of this was that I was not overly stressed, or having to work long hours, but I would have liked some more meaningful work to do, so that I could have made a better use of my time on the internship.

During one of my weeks with a client I was given a lot of responsibility. I was able to ask all the questions I needed off members of my team, so I did not feel like I was doing the project alone, but it was very satisfying to be able to put my name to a piece of work.

I learnt a lot about the financial industry during my internship, both from first hand experience and from web based learning. I also learnt a lot about Microsoft Excel which has led me to feel more comfortable researching how to do certain formulae. I learnt a lot about how to work in a professional environment which is a useful skill for the future.

The atmosphere in the office was great. There was a very professional feeling to the place, and I felt very comfortable sitting anywhere within the office. The open plan scope of the office meant that it was very easy to find your colleagues, and there were various collaboration zones where you could work on pieces with other people without disturbing those around you. The cafe on the top floor was a great place to go for lunch.

The organisation of the internship was very structured. The induction was well organised, but once you were assigned to your section there was not much flexibility. While other areas of the company were more busy, because I had been assigned to insurance which had less work to do, I did not have much to do, and there was no flexibility for me to take work in different areas.

There was a very wide range of training in the induction: in the IT systems used by the firm, vision 2020, Effective networking, business writing, emotional resilience and working with clients. There was also a continued element to the personal training, as there were partner breakfasts where you could ask questions about professional development.

The initial social events organised by EY established positive connections between us interns. After the induction week there were drinks events most weeks organised by one of the interns. Someone created a Facebook chat, and this was used to organise events outside of the office. I often went out to lunch with other interns during the day.

I got involved in a training session for the EY netball club, but unfortunately was not able to play in their matches over the summer as you had to subscribe to play for a longer period of time. I did not have the time to go to one, but there are art galleries that EY has an arrangement with so that you can go to exhibitions for free.