EY Leadership Academy Review

I participated in the Leadership Academy and to be honest, it was one of the best experiences of my life. I had the chance to meet amazing people, do activities that surprised me and stretched me out of my comfort zone, network with EY employees and gain an incredible insight into who I am.

Every single one of us mattered, this is perhaps one of the things that I valued the most. Despite the fact that this was a four day course with around 35 students, half-way through the course the coordinators and the EY staff already called us all by our names. The programme itself just shows how much they care about the individual and not just their company, they invest this enormous amount of time and money to let YOU find YOURSELF, as they put it "this programme is about 4 days to discover yourself, and the last 20 minutes of the very last day before you go home we will tell you about EY". So it was not like a continuous spam of company information to make you become biased towards their company, it was all about you.

The guidance was again incredible. We worked during 3 out 4 days in base-groups. These groups were made up of 7 students and one EY employee who was like our mentor. As I mentioned above, half-way through the programme EY staff already knew our names and could already pick up on our strengths and our weaknesses, but added to this every day we had a 15 minute individual feedback session with our mentor as he/she would have followed the whole group closely day after day and would have seen our evolution. I believe this was extremely valuable, not only the fact that you were not a mere number, but the fact that they knew your name and they cared about your personal development.

What you learn in this programme is unlike anything you have learnt before. This is because you learn all about YOU, it is basically a programme for self-realisation and discovery of your own potential. It is amazing, I finished the Leadership Academy 3 days ago and I am still hooked into my thoughts. During these 4 days you dig deeper and deeper into who you are, what are your strengths, what are your weaknesses and how to make the best of yourself in different situations and with different people, and so you discover so much about yourself that it almost becomes overwhelming in such a short period of time, you need a few days after to reflect. Yet the best of it is that the skills you develop are "life skills" not "university skills or textbook skills".

It was very well structured, each day had a different purpose (as in day 1 discover yourself, day 2 discover how you interact with others..) and so every day had a clear purpose and they did a great job in providing us with a clear sense of direction so that we knew at all times where we were and what we were doing. However, the days were extremely intense. There is so much to learn that there is not enough time, and I would have liked even some more extra time to learn a bit more, yet the days were very full on and the breaks were very small. Nevertheless worth every minute of it.

The atmosphere was incredible. To start with the activities were wonderful, extremely varied and very engaging (we had some group tasks, some "lectures with theory", yet also some outdoor games and some role-play activities, all very good fun. Secondly, the EY staff was amazing, everyone was so passionate, so engaged and so caring about each and every one of us that they are the ones who really made this experience worth it. Last but not least, the fellow students were incredible, everyone was amazing, you could instantly tell they were all natural leaders and they had a huge potential, so again it was a wonderful opportunity to make new friends and network with EY employees. The atmosphere was relaxed yet demanding, you could sense the smiles all around, the good energy flowing around, yet you could see people focused and ready to give the best of themselves.

They invested a lot in each and every one of us. They gave us personalized feedback sessions with our personal mentor, they provided us with material in order to follow the sessions correctly (lecture slides printed, booklets, they even sent us a book home as a gift)! They really do invest in the individual, the above elements are just material elements, but you could really tell the effort and dedication that stood behind the programme, all the EY employees were so eager to get the best out of ourselves, to see us learn, and what I told my mentor "It was wonderful to have you as a mentor!" she replied "For me it fills me with joy to compare you guys in day 1 to you guys in day 4 and to realize the huge change you have made, it makes me incredibly proud".

The insight was more about us as individuals. We did not get the chance to experience what EY would be like, as for example an office spring week would, however we did get a good feel of EY in terms of the atmosphere that must exist in an EY office. One of the mentors was telling me "I am getting married next month and I love everyone in my office so much that I would want to invite 350 people over just from work". Thus, talking to EY employees in a relaxed environment, rather that the formal Q&A sessions where all students are tense and scarred to ask questions, was very helpful. Furthermore we did get the chance to have a dinner with an EY partner that explained to us her story and how she made it in EY, so that was pretty good insight of a full time role.

This will be a 100% for me. Through this experience I have seen what EY is like, first of all the idea of providing students with an internship to discover themselves and not just discover the company, already tells a lot about how much they care for the individual. Furthermore, all the employees were so excited, you could speak to them and they all seemed very energized, not only about the programme, but about their work and the people they work with.

Every mentor came from a different office and worked in a different division so you had an amazing chance to speak to each of them and gain some insight about what they do on a day-to-day basis and what was the rationale of their decision to get to their division. Furthermore, what was extremely valuable about this experience was the fact that everyone was so relaxed and the environment was so nice. After 7pm it was dinner time, so everyone would take off their suits, put on jeans and grab a beer or a cup of wine, here is when you could peak to all mentors and share a very close moment with them.

The programme takes place in a wonderful venue, it's a castle-looking hotel with beautiful gardens and amazing classrooms and bedrooms. The venue is just fantastic. EY doesn't provide you with a salary for the programme, but they do reimburse your travel expenses up to 100 pounds, and they provide you with the opportunity to stay in this hotel during 4 days, and they cover the costs of your stay and all of your meals.

Yes, actually all the time. You could just grab one of the staff members any time and ask anything, I said to one them "look, I saw that you worked in the office in South Africa, are there international mobility chances?". So you could literally approach anyone and ask anything and everyone was very happy to answer your questions. This was perhaps the more informal way, added to this, there was a formal dinner to network with EY partners and EY employees who had also gone through this programme when they were at university. It was great!

The social events were very good fun, well to start with every moment was social because as you sat with your group every moment was fun (outdoor activities, teamwork activities...). But actually after 7pm it was always social time, and so one night we had dinner and after we played a quiz in groups and that was very good fun, another night they organized a whole jamming sessions and they brought drums over and we had altogether music session... Just wonderful, everyone was so nice and open that every little move was an opportunity to socialize and network, even at the toilet in the mirror you would bump into another student and stat sharing experiences.

ABSOLUTELY YES!! This experience is one of the best I have gone through in my life, I have learnt more about myself than I ever had, and these skills are extremely valuable in the marketplace, because if you know who you are you know how to approach other people and get ht best out of yourself. The people were there were great (both staff and students), the programme was very well designed and had many activities and very varied. It has been an amazing time this has literally been a milestone in my life, I am sure I will remember this moment and what I have discovered about myself forever.