Discover EY Review

The Discover EY programme was a really excellent two days and I'm so glad I went. The second day was particularly enjoyable as it was very hands on, whereas the first day (although still fascinating) was more based on talks and lectures.

I definitely felt valued while I was there. EY is a company that appears to really care about its employees. Considering the various rounds of assessment we all had to go through, the company appreciated that we could well end up working there so did their best to make us feel welcome.

We received a great deal of guidance and support. During the first day we had plenty of talks with people from tax, and one person from assurance, and during the dinner on the first day we had plenty of opportunities to talk to people who worked at EY. During the second day, when we had our client pitch exercise, each group was assigned a mentor who was really helpful with regards to feedback.

The presentation skills I learned during the second day will definitely be helpful as part of my degree. The insights into tax and assurance not so much, but that is more because my degree doesn't really lean towards those areas. The teamwork skills will definitely be of use.

The insight was relatively well structured, with insights into tax and assurance on the first day and then utilising them during the client pitch on the second. The first part of the first day was assurance and the rest of the day was devoted to tax - it definitely seemed like they were keen on tax! Having said that, I'm not sure anyone was complaining as the day was really interesting.

The others on the programmed were all really friendly and all the people who worked at EY seemed to really love it there. This all contributed to make a really great atmosphere.

Discover EY is only two days so obviously there is a limit on how much they can invest in you. However, it seemed like they were keen for all of us to continue with EY into a summer internship.

Both days were particularly useful for this. The talks given during the first day absolutely gave us an insight into what kind of work we could be doing, and the client pitch exercise gave us the chance to experience the sort of thing we could do.

All the people who worked at EY were really helpful in explaining what it was like to work there, and they all seemed to really enjoy their work. It definitely helped to understand what EY is like as a company.

I went in thinking I knew where I wanted to go and came out with a totally different idea. In that regard it was exceptionally useful because I hadn't really considered anything other than forensic accounting within the assurance section, but I finished the insight realising that having heard everything over the past two days, I actually really wanted to work in tax.

We had the option to be reimbursed for travel, but because I live relatively close (close enough that I can get the tube), I decided it wasn't really worth it.

During the first day we had lunch with various members of the assurance graduate scheme, and during the dinner of the first day most of the people we had met during the day were there (and some others), available to talk to and network with.

I won't lie, the food wasn't great at the dinner, but the company more than made up for it!

During the networking dinner one of the people who worked in tax was very excited about the possibility of doing a pentathlon which EY help you train for, so yes, we did find out about other activities.

Yes, the insight was really helpful and I would absolutely recommend it.