Summer Intern Review

I did a 6 week internship and I found it gave me a really good feel for the culture of the firm and a taste for what the service line which I applied for - Assurance - entails. I was lucky to have been put on an engagement with a great team and I was given a lot of independence in completing my work. I really learnt a lot, and felt like I made a valuable contribution to the firm.

I felt valued because the work I was doing was work which actually contributed to completing an audit. I was taught how to perform an audit and was given ownership over the work I did. Everyone was also really open to questions and constantly available to help me better complete my work. I received glowing informal and formal feedback, which reiterated that my work was appreciated and valued.

You are formally given a buddy and a 'counsellor'. Your counsellor monitors your progress and meets with you three times during the six weeks, which is quite a lot. My counsellor also messaged me throughout to make sure I was enjoying the internship, and she tried to organise meetings for me so that I could find out about other areas of the business which I was interested in.

I always had something to do. Mainly it was my own work which I had been assigned to do in conjunction with a colleague, or otherwise it was smaller bits of work like casting and referencing financial statements. I also did small amounts of printing and photocopying, but to be honest, it is part of the job and I didn't mind it as I learnt something new about the copying as well.

I was given work of the level expected of a first year graduate, and as a consequence I was given a lot of responsibility. The more competent you seem, the more responsibility you will get. It may also depend on the client you are assigned to, as obviously the summer internship is not during busy season, some departments may have less work available than others.

I study law, but nevertheless, I believe this experience will help me to show my commercial awareness to law firms, and it will also demonstrate that I have knowledge of the financial services sector and of how it functions and the processes they follow. The everyday skills like excel, administrative skills and time management skills will always be relevant.

Incredibly positive. My team were super friendly and helpful, and we could sustain both work and non-work related conversations. There were lots of jokes between all members of the team, which ranged from the engagement manager to first years and interns. My team showed that they were human and could have a laugh, which is not like the atmosphere you would expect at a Big 4 company, and it is what highlighted that EY is a great firm to work at.

We were given laptops on our first day, along with a full day induction at an events venue. From the start we were introduced to the firms and our service lines, and on our first day in the office we also received a more in depth presentation on our service line and its departments. We constantly received updates from the Summer Internship team, and the entire organisation feels very well connected and in-sync.

They mainly invested their time, but there were also opportunities to complete web based learning to improve excel skills or familiarity with auditing tools etc.

Quite appealing because the prospects for advancement within the firm are clear. Furthermore I really enjoyed the firm's atmosphere and the team I got to work with. I also liked the work I was doing and they have a really good and interesting set of clients which they work for. Furthermore once you join the firm there are many perks, such as free tickets to Museum exhibitions, company cards and cars, travel and healthcare. Furthermore they also sponsor your professional accounting qualifications.

Not particularly.

Living in London will always have quite a high cost of living and socialising. But EY do put on a lot of events and they have quite a large budget for entertaining the team as well, and we often went out for team lunches or drinks. The departments themselves are quite generous, although the budget for entertaining the Summer Internship employees doesn't seem to have been very substantial.

Do people really party in Canary Wharf??...

I would say that the extracurricular activities were only mentioned on the first day and more could have been done to integrate those on the six week internship, However I also appreciate that the internship is only 6 weeks long, so it may be more hassle than it is worth. But it was disappointing that there were so few social activities organised by the HR team in charge of the Summer Internship.