Internal Audit and Controls intern Review

I have loved my internship. From the first day in the EY office I was excited about the opportunities the internship would provide; the key message that had attracted me was getting "the same work as a graduate". EY did not disappoint - on my second day in the office I was at a client site, becoming involved in planning an internal audit, meeting managers, directors and partners, and meeting the companies EY provides services to. Throughout my 6 weeks I was given multiple opportunities to learn about, and be involved in, the work in my department. And it's not all work - we had a multiple of social events too, not including the partner breakfasts on offer and the lunches we organised with the team!

I always felt like the people I was working with valued my input and wanted to give me as active a role as possible. At no point did I feel that I was being talked down to or patronised, I was given the same work as consultants in the firm and I was treated in the same way. Everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming to all the interns, reassuring us about our role in the team and what we could expect. Whenever I had a question about the project I was working on, or an idea about something we should cover within a project, it was taken on board by the team I was working with, and given the same attention as any other member of the team would get. I felt like an equal to all other workers in the firm throughout my internship.

From the first day we were given contact names of people within the business to talk to if we had problems. We had a "buddy" assigned to us for the internship, who is a consultant (graduate) that you can ask anything to - from where the best places to eat are to how to complete certain admin tasks! I found that my buddy made herself available to me throughout the internship, getting in touch with me frequently to make sure the internship was going as well as possible. I was also assigned a counsellor, a more senior employee in the business who serves a similar role, in giving advice and support if needed. On top of this we were also frequently contacted by the student recruitment team, managers and those responsible for the summer interns to make sure, again, that the internship was progressing as smoothly as possible. We were actively encouraged to give any criticism we felt was necessary in order to help any improvements be made (although I was unaware of any criticisms in my team being bought up).

Obviously my workload varied day to day - the length of time I was working on a project determined how busy I was likely to be. But the company is keen to keep you busy, so if at any time we felt we had no work, a quick email to a manager requesting additional work would solve this; and we would quickly find ourselves with tasks to do! There were days that I would class as quiet, but through no fault of EY; sometimes a project has a quieter day because, for example, the project needs you to have meetings with clients to progress with the task, and the client is unavailable for a day. This is part of the natural process of the team I was in, and again, by creating a network of contacts, I was able to reach out to others and find myself extra work.

I was given a lot of responsibility. Most internships are viewed as being a "tea and coffee" deal, but I not only got to sit in and join in with client meetings - I got to lead them too! I became trusted by my team and was able to complete some independent client work/process testing, and through talking to the people I worked with, got involved with all of the areas of the audit, and got the opportunity to take ownership and responsibility for several areas of the project. I was amazed at the trust that was put into my abilities, although of course my work was checked, and I received comments/feedback if there were improvements, no one was afraid to give me jobs and responsibilities, and I was assured that if I wanted to do certain jobs, they would do their best to make it happen. It's also worth pointing out that you are never made to do anything you are not comfortable with, and are well prepared for all the work you do do!

The skills and knowledge I have gained will help me massively in my last year of university, I am studying auditing in my third year and as my internship was in internal audit, this will obviously give me a lot of knowledge for this area. I also found it very useful to be able to talk to people throughout the business about their experience in the Accounting/Finance sector, they provided me with a lot of tips for my career, how to succeed in the industry, within EY and also gave insight into what it was like to work in other departments. The way I was treated through my time at EY has lead me to feel much more confident, which will assist me in my last year of university, as I will feel more ready to take on challenges and make the most of my last year! I completed my internship in the same sector as I want to work in, however I knew interns who did much more diverse subjects (such as History or Chemistry) and still felt the knowledge and experience of the internship would serve them well, not only through university but through their adult life.

Everyone in the office was very friendly and welcoming, introduced themselves to the interns on our first day and organised several lunches in our first week so we could get to know each other. It was not too formal, there was an element of fun to the office whilst at the same time maintaining a professional atmosphere. The office was more open plan, no one had their own office, which I felt worked well because it reduced the idea of superiority between levels in the business. You could end up working sat next to a Partner, and be able to chat to them about their weekend, without feeling like you were talking to "management". We also had sessions organised in which the whole office went out in the evening, for food or drinks, to get to know each other in a much more relaxed setting.

There were issues within my internship where the project I was due to join was not confirmed and ended up being cancelled. By being aware of this and getting in contact with people in the office as early as possible, I was able to arrange being involved in a mixture of smaller projects instead. Despite this issue all of my team were helpful in guiding me with who to get in touch with, looking for projects for me, and of course providing me with extra work if I asked. I was asked to do some travelling in my internship, and upon mentioning to the manager I was working with that I was unsure how to book hotels and travel, they immediately helped me by booking it for me and guiding me through the process of how to claim back expenses. Any issues that occurred I never felt were the fault of bad planning or organisation; because the second there was a problem there were a lot of people on hand that assisted with solving it.

I did not do any formal training, but the work itself was a learning opportunity. In terms of development I was given a lot of opportunities to get feedback on my performance, talk to the people I was working with and make any improvements that were communicated to me (for example if they had felt I should engage more with a client, they would tell me so that I could alter this and benefit). I felt that EY was treating me as an investment, but in a good way. The firm saw the interns as its future, that we were the ones that would be leading innovation and development in the future, and as such was keen for us to have the best, most interesting and informative experience as possible.

I am hoping to secure a graduate job with EY after this internship, I felt that I had enjoyed the internship so much, and had been treated so well that this was the company I wanted to work for after I finished university. I believe that most of the people I worked with felt the same, I certainly did not meet anyone in the internship that had anything to say other than how much they were looking forward to it, and subsequently how much they had enjoyed it.

As London interns we set up a Facebook group to chat to each other and organise nights out. There were frequent suggestions for things to do and dates to meet, both for lunches, dinners and nights out. Admittedly not a lot of evening events were planned by the firm for us, maybe 2 or 3 over the course of the internship. But that just gave us more opportunities to plan things for ourselves! There was definitely a feeling within the office, and company, that we wanted to organise things outside of the office, and we were invited to general EY events too, such as the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge.

It is London so obviously expensive, and the canteen in the office was not subsidised so it was cheaper to bring food into the office/go out for lunch on most occasions. I stayed with a friend so my cost of living was low, but a lot of the other interns managed to find accommodation for "reasonable" London prices - around £400 a month. As a whole I found that the socialising was arranged in order to accommodate everyones budgets, so at no point did I feel like I was spending money that I could not afford.

Although I was not able to go out clubbing or drinking much (due to working a 9-5 job) I was aware of a lot of different places to go, being in London there was obviously no shortage of things to do! The interns who were local were very knowledgeable about the best places to go, so when organising a night out they took a lead role in finding places, and I was never disappointed!

As I have mentioned earlier we had a lot of opportunities. To some extent the opportunities we had were determined by how active we were willing to get in terms of preparing things, the interns in my office were often discussing what to organise next, with some events organised by us, some organised by the consultants we knew in the office, and some organised by management/higher up. There were also a lot of corporate events to get involved in, including the company celebrations for their new financial year!