Summer ABS Intern Review

I really enjoyed my internship. I learnt a lot that I believe will help me in the future, discovered a new amazing place and met lots of wonderful friendly people.

I felt very valued by my colleagues- whenever I helped one with a part of their work they always thanked me and told me that I'd helped them by saving them a lot of time.

I was assigned a buddy when I arrived on my first day by the Associate Director who helped me whenever I had questions and showed me around the office and introduced me to everyone. Also in the office the seating was open plan with the managers being integrated amongst the rest of my colleagues here so it was very easy to go up and ask them particular questions if you were puzzled over something. Therefore in my opinion I was given a lot of support from the management here.

There were days when I had more work than others but whenever I finished something or ran out of work I could easily go and talk to either the Associate Director or the Senior Manager who would give me more. However I was also on the other hand never so busy that I felt pressured or stressed. Therefore I would say that the level of work was the perfect balance.

During my placement I was doing the same type and level of work that a starting graduate would be so I felt that I was given a lot of responsibility as in terms of responsibility I was treated equally as to how a new graduate start would be.

The skills that I developed here will not be incredibly relevant in my studies of mathematics apart from perhaps socially when I have to work on group projects however in terms of beyond that I feel they will help me extremely. Not only did I gain a lot of experience in terms of the different types of work I did and the variety of clients that I worked on but I also gained a lot of experience working on the various types of software used in the accounting profession. I feel this will be incredibly relevant in the future as I hopefully go on to study to become an accountant whilst working in a professional company. Additionally, from the internship I feel that I learnt a lot about myself as a person and my strengths and what I need to work on which will undoubtedly help me in the rest of my life.

The office was very lively withy many graduates and school leavers sitting around me-it was never quiet for very long but you could easily focus and everyone was very helpful and friendly and willing to answer even the simple questions like how to change your password.

The internship was very well organised with the first two days being spent in London for an induction with all of the other summer interns across all of the offices. There we were given talks by senior members of staff from all of S&W's various departments which really helped us gain an understanding of the many different services that the firm can offer their clients. We also had a Q&A session with current graduates and on the Monday evening S&W took us out bowling with a few of their graduates where food and drink was provided as well as putting those of us in a regional office up for the night near their London office. Additionally, halfway through the internship we had a catch up meeting with the Graduate Recruitment Officer where we talked about our future plans, our future with the company, how she could help us gain the most from our experience and how our internship had been going so far. She has also let us know that we will hear from her within a week of when we leave of whether they wish to offer us a graduate job or not.

The company invested in us a great deal as they not only organised the induction days for us but they arranged for us to have a buddy who could help us when we had questions as well as encouraging those around us to help us whenever we got confused.

The future employment prospects within the organisation are very appealing and I very much hope that at the internship I do get offered a graduate job here with Smith and Williamson.

There is a good social scene amongst my colleagues with many of them seeing each other outside of works for drinks or to play sport with a few of them even living together.

The cost of living and socialising here is similar to that of living in Edinburgh like I do at present for university so for me the cost of living here is pretty reasonable.

The nightlife here is more pubs than clubs with numerous pubs (around 30) in the city centre of Salisbury but there is only 1 major club here and about 7 bars.

I was in Salisbury over the summer so I didn't particularly look to get engaged in the community particularly especially as I would be moving back up to Edinburgh at the end of the summer but I did research gyms and climbing gyms in the hope that I get offered a job here and there are two or three quite large gyms within the city as well as a handful of climbing gyms within an hour or so drive from Salisbury.