Summer Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement as the work was varied and interesting, giving me an even better insight than I could have hoped for into life at the firm. I was well-supported by the team with whom I was working, as well as by the summer internship team, and had the opportunity to meet other interns too.

Given the fact that many of my colleagues were away for parts of the summer, I felt that the work I did was much appreciated by my colleagues as there were fewer people around to take on work. They often told me how grateful they were for my help, and invited me to events and meetings that were taking place in the team during the duration of my placement, making me feel that they recognised me as a member of the department.

My buddy was very helpful in the first week in introducing me to the many different people in the department, which often led to me getting work from them subsequently, and for talking to me about the structure of the team and ensuring that I settled in well. Meanwhile, my counsellor was always happy to explain things to me that I did not fully understand and to meet with me to discuss my internship and career development points regularly throughout my internship.

Although the volume of the work did vary, generally there were some quieter periods initially when I had to message lots of people asking if they had anything for me to do, but these were not too frequent and had pretty much faded by the latter weeks of my placement, when I was known to more members of the team. Ultimately there were periods when I would have liked to have more to do, but this was solved quite easily simply by speaking to more people as I spent more time in the department.

Most of the work that I completed was checked over by the team member who gave me the work, meaning that I felt that there was an expectation that there would be changes to be made, so I did not generally feel a huge pressure of responsibility. Nonetheless, I did produce pieces of work under time constraints, which would have had bigger repercussions had I failed to produce this work on time, whilst I also took notes during several meetings and calls, which did definitely include some level of responsibility as the set of notes made by myself would be the only notes from the meeting.

I vastly improved my skills on Microsoft Office functions such as Excel, which would insist me in a role like this. I was also introduced to some new programs which, again, would be used in any similar role. In terms of skills that could be useful at university, the need to prioritise different pieces of work according to factors such as difficulty and time constraints will definitely be of use in the lead up to university exams.

There was a really good atmosphere in the office in which I worked. Interns generally sat with the first and second year graduates when they were not at college, leading to a good-humoured working environment with people of a similar age. There was no culture of having to appear to be at your desk until late in the evening, and people were always more than happy to answer any questions that I had, either about my work or about their own experience at EY

EY were in regular contact with me prior to starting my internship and always answered my queries very quickly. The induction on the first day was well-organised with structured activities and plenty of refreshments provided. The networking opportunities here with other interns were particularly valuable. There was a clear structure for the counselling process to collect feedback and there was also a career counselling session with a member of the summer internship team. Overall, I always knew what I was doing and never felt that I had simply been left to get on with things alone.

There was a number of compulsory training modules that had to be completed by all new joiners to the firm, including interns, so there was definitely a sense that we were being invested in as future employees. Meanwhile, weekly Lunch and Learn sessions on topics ranging from exam training to emotional resilience were very beneficial as they demonstrated that EY wanted all of us to receive a certain amount of information and training relating to life at the firm.

We have been told that roughly 90% of interns receive an offer for a full-time graduate job with the firm, with some opportunity to defer or change your offer if you wish. Essentially, it seems that there are graduate job offers available for anybody who is of graduate calibre. I have not yet been informed whether or not I have a job offer, but feel that if I did not get one then it would not be due to any deficiency by the firm.

Although for the first time there were no social events organised for interns by EY, my team often had informal drinks after-work to which interns in that department were invited and, having met lots of other interns at the initial induction, there was a large group of us who met regularly to eat lunch or socialise outside work. This was really useful as it gave me the chance to meet people who I may not have encountered during my normal working day, and also meant that I could learn more about the experiences of interns in other departments.

Inevitably, the cost of living and socialising was more than in regional areas as my internship was based in London, but most interns who were not staying at home were able to find lets in student accommodation which we could easily afford from our wages. In terms of socialising, there were lots of bars within walking distance of the office which offered reasonably priced food and drink, so we tended tot take advantage of these when socialising with other interns.

The immediate vicinity of the office had lots of bars and clubs that were used for after work drinks, and we were never short of options when deciding where to go, so in this sense it was a great place to work. For a different sort of nightlife we would have had to use public transport to go somewhere further form the office, but ultimately we were quite happy staying nearby, although the transport links form London Bridge are clearly very good had we wanted to get further away.

We were introduced on our induction day to representatives from a number of different sports teams, ranging from touch rugby to netball, who were offering the opportunity for us to get involved even during the short length of our internship if we had wished to do so The firm' charity, the EY Foundation, also offered opportunities to get involved while we were here, and I know a number of interns who did that.