Summer intern Review

It has been a really good experience working as an intern for EY. I have been in one of the regional offices for 6 weeks in the corporate tax department. The best things about the internship have been the opportunities to get involved in grad level work. I was pleasantly surprised by the responsibility I was given to do work (although help was there if I needed it!). Going out to client meetings has been a real highlight and gives a real insight into a huge variety of businesses. My absolute favourite part has been the other people in my office, they have been very welcoming and friendly, which has helped me to settle in really quickly.

I feel that they were incredibly friendly and did give me work to do, however it was not always the most challenging. An example would be printing out all of the tabs on a spreadsheet. This sort of task made me feel undervalued. There was work given to me that made me feel like a valuable member of the team too though, especially if it was a client deliverable or I was trusted to deliver a piece of work under a short timescale. The same would go for after work socials, sometimes I would feel people were making an effort to get involved with me and other times I would feel slightly ignored.

The support has been brilliant for me. The people I have worked with have been happy to go over things for as much (or little) as I need. My colleagues have been approachable and this has allowed me to go back and ask any questions that arise whilst I am completing the work. This has allowed me to develop my skills a lot more efficiently than I would have done otherwise. I have had 3 meetings across the internship to talk about my goals and get feedback from work I have already completed.

I think I have been lucky to be given quite a lot of work during my internship. Having spoken to other interns on the same program they seem to have a lot more down time where they need to go and ask for work or find something to do. I have been busy for the whole duration of the internship, people come and ask me to do work for them and I can accept if I have enough time. However, if I am too busy, they have been really understanding and either stretch their deadline or find someone else to do it.

This was a mixed one. I was given quite a lot of responsibility on some tasks and very little on others. The level of responsibility definitely increased as I progressed through the weeks and my colleagues got to know me better. Overall, I wasn't expecting to be given too much responsibility so I definitely had more than expected before I started.

I think the internship will be really useful for my degree. I study accounting and finance at uni and have tax modules, so knowledge of how it works in the real world will be helpful. Beyond my degree, it was also a good experience of office life and seeing how clients do their work in their finance departments. It is definitely a good benchmark to consider when applying for graduate jobs.

The team in my office were really great. They were always willing to chat and have a bit of fun, but would get to work when it was required. The office was too far away from London to be part of the sports teams or other societies there but there were plenty of lunches, dinners, drinks and other activities to help improve the atmosphere in the office! It has been a great atmosphere to work in for the last 6 weeks.

I wasn't impressed by this aspect of the placement. There were multiple mistakes across my application where my paperwork was lost, I was offered a job that was not available and not told when my assessment centre would be until I was called to ask why I hadn't turned up. Since starting the internship they have used our HMRC codes incorrectly so we have been overtaxed and the laptop I have been given doesn't connect to any of the monitors! I would say that it is well organised once you get to your office but the more central organisation is pretty poor.

Nothing specific really, we haven't been able to start our professional qualifications during the 6 weeks. However, I have been allowed to attend any internal training events in the office which has been useful. I have learnt some interesting things about stamp duty, private equity companies and group structure. I have learnt a lot on the job, but not so much through official training.

I am undecided. Some days I love the idea of working here under the grad scheme and other days I am pretty sure I would never want to do it. I think it has been a great way to find out more about what it would be like working for EY or for professional services in general. I think it will take a bit of consideration before I decide whether I would like to come back!

The social scene amongst other interns was pretty poor. There were only a few people in my office and a huge majority of them were in audit, meaning they weren't in the office a lot. There were just two of us that would meet up with each other for lunch and after work sometimes. She is absolutely lovely but it would have been nice to have more than one other person in the same situation to have lunch etc with.

It was pretty expensive. I rented in the local uni halls as very few places would take a rental for only 6 weeks. It cost £170 a week for accommodation and travel/food/socialising was on top of this. The amount paid for the internship does cover these costs and a little more though so it hasn't been a problem. I would warn people that you only get paid a month after you start so you have to fund yourself to start off with.

I worked in a large town. There was plenty to do in the evenings. They had a range of bars and clubs - all the major names as well as some smaller individual places. There is also a large cinema playing latest releases and a bowling alley. There were loads of restaurants and cafes providing all sorts of different cuisines.

There were limited activities to get involved in that were EY related. All the clubs and societies are based in London so it is not that easy to get involved if you are working in a regional office. There were plenty of lunches and dinners to get to socialise with colleagues though! There are also lots of activities available outside of EY to join local clubs and societies.