Summer Intern Review

I found it really great. The biggest thing for me is that because I almost always had something to do (I was put on some fairly busy jobs) I was always growing and learning. I'm definitely more confident in dealing with people now (and to be fair I don't even think I was bad at the start) and I've learnt a lot about how to manage myself. Plus, most of the time it was good fun with some really interesting people who I wouldn't have met anywhere else.

I definitely felt really valued. There was never any sort of attitude towards you just because you're an intern, and I ended up speaking with lots of different people and having good conversations with them, even people outside my team. I feel like the more time I would have spent here the better the relationship there would have been with everyone else.

The good thing I've found about EY (and you've probably heard this before in other reviews) is that the people you work with are already happy to help. There's been many times over the course of the internship where I've needed help multiple times on the same task and every time you get as much help as you need. Not just in tasks, but also in more general terms on how to deal with certain situations and if you have any worries my counsellor was always there and very easily accessible to talk over my concerns and questions throughout the internship.

It depended on the job, at the start I wasn't too busy, and towards the end I wasn't too busy either, but for about the middle third there was a job where I had a lot to do, a lot of the time. I think there were two days out of the whole six weeks where I was bored, but if you ask for work from a manager they'll find you something. I give it a five because it wasn't perfect all of the time, but over the whole internship, I was as busy as I would probably expect.

Plenty. This sort of links in with what I was saying about how busy I was, but also I suppose the tasks you do as well. I think I did about two or three things that could be classed as "menial" over the whole internship, which is pretty good. The engagement that I was most busy on I had an especially large amount of responsibility as I was responsible for a fairly big part of the audit tests and actually carrying them out. Other tasks I was responsible for was things like reviewing financial statements and reviewing board minutes. All the tasks were of a level that I felt I was making a contribution.

As I was in audit the biggest skills I got were probably in Excel which I feel like I'll have no problem in using ever again. Most of the training will be most relevant if I get to stay in audit. But really it's probably the soft skills I'm better at, you get quite a lot of different situations to deal with, for example dealing with clients and their whims, and doing presentations in front of partners, and actually just talking to partners. You get to do them a lot which helps you do them in future and I think that's the main thing I've taken away from the six weeks in terms of skills, and whether I get a return offer or not that's something that will always be helpful.

Contrary to the myth of accounting it wasn't boring. Some of the people you meet and work with are a really good laugh, but obviously in audit you are sort of affected by what the atmosphere at the client site is like and who you're working with. Everyone is very friendly and approachable, and as you get to know people from working on different engagements with people it gets better and better.

I never found there to be any organisation problems. Considering I was in audit and had to move around a lot it was fairly easy working out where I had to be, and as long as you asked in advance there was no problems on the day. I was worried also at the start when there was the induction event in London that it was going to be disorganised as to how the hotel bookings would work but actually it was all very well done.

What they invested was simply a lot of time. Some of the time you're asking so many questions you feel like you're holding everyone back but everyone still spends time to help you. You can even be asking questions that are more like "why are we doing this" rather than "I need some help on this task" and you'll still get time invested into what you're doing. As for resources there wasn't much, like there wasn't any flashy training events, but I feel I learnt way more just by being on the job than I would have in anything flashy and superficial anyway. There was also Skype calls over lunch once a week which taught you different professional skills, I was only able to watch a few of these because I was busy but they were all very helpful.

I can't tell whether I've got the job yet or not because I'm writing this on my last day while it's all still fresh in my mind. But I personally think the employment prospects are appealing. I've enjoyed my time here at the end of the day, and some on the internet might complain about audit, but for me there are plenty of jobs out there that have no advancement prospects at all, and at least you have those in audit and at EY. I also like how in audit you can still choose further down the line other service lines if you want, you're not boxed in at all, which adds to the appeal for me.

Yes, there were a couple of office organised socials and also some arranged among the interns as well. They were good fun and more up my street than what you'd get at University. At these socials the music was quiet enough so that you could actually talk and get to know people. We also went out for lunch a couple of times and socialised in the office over lunch too, and again it was fun doing this because they're all interesting people which is something I sometimes find hard to come by. The other social was at the start of the internship at the induction, the night before the induction they arranged for a meal in London which was nice.

I wasn't in London which probably tells you all you needs to know, and I had to pay rent because I don't live near Manchester (which is where I am), the wage of the internship more than covers it, so there's no worry about not having enough money to get by. As for socialising again the cost of drinks didn't seem to be any more than anywhere else.