Tax Intern Review

I really enjoyed my internship. I was working in the Glasgow office and the atmosphere ever day was so open and welcoming, no matter how much work I had it never became a stressful place to be. I wasn't expected to do everything right for time which took a lot of pressure off and was made to feel included by the rest of the team instantly.

I felt that my colleagues invested a lot of time into the interns, often giving me jobs that took longer for them to teach me than it would have taken for them to do themselves so I appreciated their time. I felt valued in that I felt part of the team, I was included in all email chains of whatever I had worked on, no matter how small the role I contributed to it was so that I could see the process moving along.

Prior to joining Grant Thornton I was given an excellent buddy who kept me well-updated so I felt supported even before I had started my work. The office was incredible, there was no one too busy to help and it was easy to request time with more senior levels in order to get feedback or instructions for particular piece of work, even the partners went out their way to introduce themselves to us and offered advice.

There were some days were I had a lot to do and some days where I really didn't have much given to me. I joined at the end of a tax year and so days before I joined were manic but it had calmed down considerably before I arrived. I was given work when it was available but as the office in general was quiet I had a lot of free time that I could use to do my project, an assignment that was part of my internship.

Grant Thornton have an excellent reviewing system that meant that I was never left to do a job completely on my own. If I was given the task of drafting a letter, for example, while the letter itself may have been very important it always got checked by several other people before it was sent on, so while the jobs I was doing where of high responsibility there was never any pressure to complete them perfectly on the first try.

During my internship they sent everyone to Bradenham for a 'Developing your business skills' workshop, that taught us how to make the best impression at work and how to deliver presentations. I was sceptical I would see a difference after this course but my presentation skills and confidence levels were vastly improved so that, upon returning to university, I no longer fear public speaking the way I used to.

The atmosphere in the office was excellent. You could tell that everyone got on very well with one another, there was plenty of joking and chatting whilst people were completing their work. This was the same no matter what grade the person was, you could talk to a senior manager or a director as though you were friends and no one thought anything of it.

We had a London trip in our second week that was supposed to be in the first, which meant that a few of our meetings felt like they were in the wrong time but apart from that it was great! They had our laptops and everything prepared for us on our first day and our buddy was in the office with us the whole time to talk us through anything we had questions on.

They put a lot of time into us, giving us jobs that meant they had to spend a while explaining things to us just so that we would be able to have the opportunity to do it once. We were given experience in different service lines whenever opportunities came up and were given the opportunity to travel, once to London for a networking event and once to Bradenham for a workshop that was entirely focused on personal development.

The organisational employment prospects are very appealing, there would be many reasons why this would be a great place to work if I am given a job offer. They take care of all training once you start and there seems to be a quick route to higher positions, given that most managers I was working with were in their twenties. There is also plenty of opportunity to experience different service lines, no matter what you get the job for.

There was an excellent social scene, we were frequently invited out to drinks after work and to celebratory lunches during the day. As previously mentioned they were very welcoming and made sure to include us in whatever they were doing and given the young age of most people working there, there was a lot of social events which we could use to get to know people better and become more part of the team.

I live in Glasgow anyway for university so I don't think it is too expensive a city to live in, there are certainly ways to have a cheap night out if that's what you were after. There is a good mix of expensive and cheap places so there will always be a place to suit you whatever the budget and scene you were looking for.

Glasgow has an excellent nightlife and our office is right in the centre so there were several Fridays where an event was occurring in the office that would just go straight into town afterwards.

While I was doing my internships there were events such as a Grant Thornton Football tournament were teams would come from all over the UK to play. The interns got involved in hosting a cake sale at the event in order to raise money for our project charity so there were plenty of times for us to integrate further into the office whilst doing something outside of work.