Pensions Intern Review

I really enjoyed the internship, more than I expected to before I started. It was a really good experience and I fell like it gave me a realistic insight into what it would be like to work for KPMG as a graduate.

I was really impressed by how inclusive the team was, after the first week it felt like I'd been working with them for much longer. Everyone was really helpful when I completed work for them. They would make sure to point out and compliment me on things I did well, and give me points to improve on if I were to do a similar piece of work in the future. Their willingness to invest some of their time into helping me really made me feel like a valued member of the team.

One of the things I struggled with at the start of my internship was asking questions, I felt like I was asking so many and just getting in the way of my supervisor. This was not the case! My supervisor encouraged me to ask questions because ultimately it's much better to ask the questions now and not do something completely wrong, than to do it completely wrong and then have to re-do it later. If it wasn't for the support my supervisor gave me, I don't think I would have enjoyed the internship as much as I did, and I definitely wouldn't have gained as much from it.

This varied quite significantly. For the first few weeks, I was reasonably busy. I normally had enough work to last the full day and if i didn't, I'd normally be able to get some more work by asking around. In the last week of my internship however, I had two or three days where I had no work. The first day was okay because it gave me time to do some training, but the second and third days were quite boring. I think it was mainly due to the fact that a lot of the office were on holiday that week though, and my colleagues also said it was a reasonably quiet week.

I was given much more responsibility during my internship than I first expected. At one point I was given quite a large piece of work that took nearly two days and had a strict deadline later that week. Obviously there was a limit in some cases to how much responsibility I was given, but this was mainly due to the fact that I lack the training and experience needed for some types of work.

I don't think many of the skills would help me in my degree, but they will definitely help for my future career, especially if I decided to follow the same service line. The internship is definitely a good head start for anyone wanting to start a career in the professional services/ financial sector, whether or not you end up doing the same service line as a graduate that you did as an intern.

I was pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere in the office. Everyone was really friendly and it was just a nice place to work. It wasn't silent, people would talk to each other throughout the day which was really nice, but no one ever let it get in the way of the doing their work effectively. I liked the slightly more relaxed atmosphere and felt like I worked much better because of it.

The internship was set up very well. We started with a day in the main regional office where we received some general training about KPMG and their core values. This was then followed by a service line specific training day in London, so by the time I actually started in my office on the third day of the internship, I felt prepared. We were also provided with our own laptops etc and registered for all the IT systems before we arrived, making it quick and easy to get started on the first day in the office.

I felt like KPMG fully invested themselves in me. The amount of training I received was amazing and the way it was presented was as though you would be coming back as a graduate to work for them, which actually made me pay more attention to what I was learning!

I've recently been offered a graduate job at KPMG in the service line I applied for, as have most of the other interns that I met in my time there. Provided you perform well during the internship and show your enthusiasm towards the job, I think you're likely to be offered a graduate position.

On the first day, we we're with interns from other service lines which was really useful. I ended up meeting up with some of the other interns at my office after work once or twice a week and going for a few drinks. KPMG also organised a bowling night for all the interns which was also really good fun. On my last day, my team took me out for a meal and drinks. This was also the case with most of the other interns.