Audit intern Review

I really enjoyed the internship. I was given so much to do considering I had absolutely no experience of audit, however I was trusted straight away. It gave me such a good understanding of the type of work it is and it confirmed audit is what I want to do.

All of the people I met at KPMG were so nice to me and I can honestly say there was not one person who I disliked throughout my time there. They were happy to answer any questions I had and didn’t make me feel inferior to them, and they praised me for the work I had completed.

I was given a ‘buddy’ before I started the internship however I heard absolutely nothing from them throughout my whole 6 weeks. This was disappointing but I could always find people to ask questions to and they were always happy to help whenever they could. The managers were not always on the client site with us however when they were, I always found them helpful with any queries I had, and when they reviewed the work I had done the feedback was always explained to me.

Apart from my last week on the placement, I was busy every day. It wasn’t overwhelmingly busy, but I certainly wasn’t bored, which was a good thing. Whenever I finished the work the team expected me to complete by the end of the job, there was always more for them to give me, which I really appreciated as I never felt useless. I actually felt like I was of massive benefit to them as people could delegate their tasks to me, and I could help out whenever they needed it.

I was honestly amazed at how much responsibility I was given. On my first day I was speaking with the client about things that I had never heard of. If I’m completely honest the first few days were a little bit overwhelming as I felt like I had a lot of important things to be doing without knowing the ins and outs of it. The trick, though, is just to ask questions. Everyone says it but don’t be afraid to or you might make a mistake; everyone is expecting you to ask lots of questions so make sure you do!

A skill I really improved on during my placement was my organisation skills. On some days I had so much to be doing and I had meetings with the client in the coming days and I had to make sure it was all clearly noted down somewhere otherwise I would have forgotten. I think I also grew in confidence however because I study maths, none of the accountancy knowledge will be relevant for my degree.

I was only actually in the office for around 3 days for the whole placement as I was mostly based on client sites. When I was in the office, however, everyone was always so friendly and happy to help with anything I needed, even if it were about the printer or coffee machine!

I had no issues with organisation of the scheme, the only thing would be on my last day we did have to wait around until quite late in order to give back our laptops so that we could leave. Apart from that, I always knew what I had to be doing and where I was supposed to be going.

There weren’t huge amounts of official training as we were only there for 6 weeks, however there was some online health and safety and other training to complete. Pretty much the whole time you’re learning on the job though and everyone is willing to help and share their knowledge; I’m amazed at how much I learnt about auditing in just 6 weeks.

After even just the first 2 weeks I knew that I wanted to work with KPMG doing audit, and I can’t recommend enough doing the vacation scheme as it really is so useful to confirm whether or not it’s the industry you’d like to go into. The people were all so friendly and I realised I really enjoyed audit work so working for KPMG definitely appeals, especially seeing as I got offered a graduate job at the end of the placement.

There seemed to be a good amount of social events in the office with go-karting, chocolate making and other events having been mentioned. I didn’t attend any due to commuting to and from the office and often being on client site but it sounded like there was a good social atmosphere.

I commuted from home so I am unsure of the costs of the area

Again I commuted from home so I did not experience a night out in Southampton

There were one or two events that happened outside of the office during the time I was there, however I didn't attend due to commuting to and from the office and often being at client sites which were further away. It seemed there were quite frequent socials though.