Summer Intern - Tax Review

I really enjoyed my internship - everyone was so friendly and helpful in the office. I got a real insight into what I would be like to work there as a graduate. The work I was doing was not always the most interesting but I got exposure to wide range of projects and worked for lots of different people in the team.

Everyone that I did work for was really appreciative of everything I did which made me feel valued. Most people took the time to explain background on the pieces of work I was doing which not only helped me improve my understanding but made me feel valued in the fact they were investing their time in me.

Everyone is assigned a counsellor who is at management level - my counsellor was really good at supporting me during my time here, I knew I could always ask her anything and she'd often find me work to do if I was quiet. Also everyone I worked for explained tasks well and they were always approachable if I did have any questions

It varied a lot. At the beginning of the internship I was pretty quiet - everyone assured me this was because it was August and a lot of people were on holiday. As long as you're pro-active at seeking work, you shouldn't be quiet for too long. Towards the end of the internship it got quite a lot busier, also by then, people around the office knew me so I rarely had to ask for work as people would approach me first. Some days I would be working for 5/6 different people but this was never unmanageable and people were always understanding if I couldn't complete a task straightaway

I was given very little responsibility during my internship as a lot of the tasks were document amendments/formatting/printing etc. However due to the nature of the team this was to be expected as it is required to have a lot more Tax knowledge in order to take on more responsibility.

The main skills that I developed during my time at EY were communication, network building and time management. The team that I worked for was really big (80+) so it was clearly impossible to get to know everyone. I therefore tried to get to know as many people as a possible and work for a variety of people at different levels, this way I could build my network and get myself known in the team. I sometimes really quiet and sometimes really busy, having these fluctuations forced me to manage my time effectively, prioritising things to do when I was busy and perhaps leaving something to do for when I knew I would be quiet. Having had to do this will definitely help me with managing my workload as I go into final year at university.

The atmosphere in the office was really good, everyone seemed very friendly and helpful - if I was ever stuck on something there would always be someone around to ask. People of all levels sit together in the office which is something I liked as it didn't seem very hierarchical at all. My team were also pretty sociable and would often get invited out for drinks. It was easy to chat to people around me on things other than just the work.

I thought the internship would be a lot more structured; i.e. I would be given a project at the beginning to work on for my whole time there. However it was not at all how I expected, due to the size of my team not everyone knew that I was around so at the beginning I had to make the effort to talk to people and seek work. At the beginning this meant that I was quite quiet but as time went on, people got to know me and began getting a lot more work to do. I actually preferred the internship being this way as it meant that I built up confidence in talking to people and it meant I got work based on the merit of the work I had already done (nearly everyone I worked for then asked me to do other tasks for them)

We didn't get any specific training for the internship, as a result this meant I couldn't get too stuck into projects and did a lot more of the mundane tasks like formatting and printing. I got a lot of exposure to different things which I then started to do my own research to further my understanding. It would have perhaps been nice to have a day's introduction into our sub service line where we learn the very basics (even if it was just acronyms!)

Really good, the process of getting a graduate role is relatively straightforward and there is little competition - if you're good enough, you'll get an offer. You have to collate feedback from people you have worked for and then have a chat with your counsellor who then goes to a review panel with HR. There are no interviews or assessment centres at the end of the internship

I often got taken out for drinks with my team. Also, as an intern group we were very sociable however this was all self organised and there were probably people on the internship that didn't know or didn't get involved in our social activities. If there was one downside to this internship it would probably the lack of socials organised by the summer internship team for all interns - this would've been a great way to meet people in other service lines as I mostly just interacted with interns in Tax. Luckily I was EY office based so could easily meet up with interns in the same office however a lot of other people were based on client sites so it must've been difficult for them to keep in touch with interns.

My internship was in London but I was commuting from home so didn't have any living costs apart from commuting which was still pretty expensive. I study in London so am used to London prices which is pretty expensive. A lot of other interns were shocked by how much drinks cost in the bars around the office.

We never went clubbing as an intern group but spent a lot of time in bars or pubs in the local area, all of which were good and we were able to find cheaper places or places with happy hours. However had we wanted to go clubbing we wouldn't have been short for choice as London has many night clubs.

On the induction day many people from different societies were at the networking event at the end of the day. These societies included sports clubs, jewish society and women in business. Personally I didn't get involved in much as there wasn't much you could do in just six weeks, although I did attend a 'Women in Tech' coffee morning which was particularly interesting.