Vacation Student - Pensions Review

From day 1 I enjoyed my internship. I was always given interesting tasks to complete and got a real feel for what I would be doing if I was to have my internship converted to a graduate job the next year after I graduate. The team provided many opportunities for me to get involved and show off my skills.

I felt extremely valued by my colleagues. Within my first week we had a joining lunch to celebrate me joining the team and I was invited to many colleague events. My work felt valued as I received feedback on everything I did for my colleagues. At the end of my internship I was thanked for the help I had provided the team during my time there.

Although at first I was apprehensive about asking for help as I did not want to distract my colleagues from their work, my colleagues were very willing to help me with anything or provide more guidance on projects I was working on. They were also willing to answer any questions I had which I did not need knowledge of to complete the tasks.

At the start of my placement I received little work as colleagues tried to find things for me to do, but this was fine as I had training to complete online and also had a lot of IT set up which took up a lot of my time initially. By the second and third weeks I had plenty of work to do and usually if you asked someone if they had something they wanted help with they could provide you with something. By the final few days of my internship there was a definite wind down of work being given to me.

Due to the nature of the work in my department I did not have a great deal of responsibility, but this is to be expected. Every task I completed was checked to make sure it had been completed correctly which took a lot of pressure off myself. I did not have the knowledge or experience to really have any great deal of responsibility on any projects. As my internship was only 4 weeks long I could not have expected to have a great deal of responsibility as in reality the client projects take a lot longer start to finish.

I felt in such a short time my knowledge of the pensions subject increased rapidly, learning many new things every day. As my degree is in maths and statistics it did not help with my degree a great deal however it did give me an idea of what kind of classes I should be taking in my final year that might help me get exemptions in the professional actuarial exams.

There was a great atmosphere in the office. The atmosphere was very relaxed and generally people were just getting on with their work. However there was plenty of discussion and general chit chat within the team which I was encouraged to get involved with. At no point did I think that KPMG would be a dull place to work.

At the induction on our first day of our internships we were given "passports to the programme" which outlined what we could expect to be doing over the four weeks. In our penultimate week a corporate responsibility event was set up for all the interns to attend which was incredibly interesting, and also a final partner interview was set up for every intern for the opportunity to convert their internship to a graduate placement for the next year after graduating.

After my induction in my home office I was to attend a one day training session at the KPMG tax business school in London. KPMG invested in us greatly for this one day training, paying for flights and accommodation down to London and back. On my first day working in my home office I was provided with a brand new laptop and equipment

After completing my internship at KPMG I knew for certain that I wanted to return there as a graduate the next year. Before my internship I was unsure of this possibility due to pensions being such a small department, however I recently have been offered a place with them which depended on both my performance during my internship and my final partner interview. I will gladly be accepting the formal offer when it comes through!

There was many opportunities for the other interns in my office to socialise and get to know each other. After our induction drinks were organised by KPMG. At our corporate responsibility event we spent the whole day working together, and in the last week of our internship a celebratory dinner was organised for a restaurant in Glasgow for all the interns which was paid for by KPMG.

I stayed local to Glasgow so just stayed at home and travelled in every day for my internship.

Glasgow has a fantastic social life with something for everyone.

Not particularly; it was a very short internship.