Leadership Academy Review

I greatly enjoyed my time at the Leadership Academy and could not recommend it enough. The programme was intense and greatly stretched me as an individual, and while difficult, I could see progress on a day-by-day basis, which was highly satisfying. Furthermore, every evening we would have another activity planned, which ensured we were ending our days on a fun, relaxed note.

The firm did not spare any expense on us, with fantastic accommodation and food as well as great entertainment being provided. The 35 of us were split into groups of 7, each led by a facilitator which was an EY employee. This ensured we had direct access to them for at least 10 hours a day. Furthermore, along with them there were a couple other EY staff members which acted as hosts and generally chatted with us and answered all our questions, with Katherine in particular being fantastic. They also brought a Partner to speak one night, which made me feel they really invested in us.

The programme was all about being independent and finding your own way as a team, therefore not a great amount of support was required as we came up and developed our own ideas. However, when asked for help, each member of the staff would aid us gladly, and many insisted we came to them if we had any problems or wanted to talk about what we wanted to get from the insight.

I greatly developed my presentation and interpersonal skills, as well as getting a great confidence boost. I believe this will undoubtedly help me not only in my degree but also in my career and persinal life. We were also given a Strengths Deployment Inventory which highlighted our individual strengths and potential weaknesses. I found this particularly insightful and will keep it in mind when faced with a leadership opportunity again.

The insight was very well structured, and generally kept to time well. We had scheduled breaks every 2-3 hours, during which we could grab a coffee and snack and return to complete the next task. We were given a schedule which detailed what we would be doing during every part of the day, which was useful as it gave us a rough idea of what the programme would look like before we started.

The atmosphere was friendly and very pleasant. While in the beginning it was a bit tense as different teams became focused on outdoing each other, after we were told we weren't being compared to one another the animosity died down and we were left with an open (but still charged) atmosphere. In the evenings it felt very relaxed and really helped you wind down after a challenging day.

EY brought 2 outside consultants, trained in psychology and leadership courses, who we were free to ask questions or advice from. Furthermore, we had another outside psychologist which lectured us in how to convey messages persuasively through posture, pitch and body language. It was really very interesting and I feel it will definitely help me in the future.

The Leadership Academy is very much focused on YOU rather than on EY. However, we had access to 7 facilitators as well as 3 other EY employees, which all worked in different service lines and were able to paint a clear picture of what working in each would be like. Furthermore, during the Partner Dinner in the second evening, more EY employees came for the night, such as there was 1 for every 2 students. This ensured we were able to have one-on-one sessions with them and had all our questions answered.

This programme really did show me that EY are, as they claim, all about their people. Every EY employee I spoke to said they feel valued at EY and they feel they make a difference, compared to what they have heard from competitors. The mere fact that EY organised this Leadership Academy with little focus on actually 'selling us' the company is a telltale sign that they care about the individual success of their people.

I came to the insight decided on a career in Consulting. Speaking to enthusiastic Tax and Assurance employees, however, made me consider other options, as I got a real feel of how it would be like working for those service lines. Speaking to one of the Consulting employees was very enlightening, however, and I am now completely clear that is the direction I want to take.

I was reimbursed for my travel expenses i.e rail tickets

I would absolutely recommend the Leadership Academy to everyone, no matter the degree they are currently reading at university. The skills that I have developed during my time there are transferable and will benefit me in whatever I choose to do after this. I did not know what to expect - but this programme really blew me out of the water in the best way possible. I was there with a couple of students who had done a similar programme at a direct competitor, and they said the Leadership Academy was greatly superior in terms of what they had gained from it.