UK&I Assurance Summer Intern Review

I really enjoyed the summer internship. I felt like they put a lot of effort into making it a good experience for the summer interns and I learnt a lot. At times it was slightly boring as there was no work available for me to do. However, this was due to me having no relevant background knowledge so the work I was able to complete was very limited.

I expected there to be a mix of people at the company in terms of the friendliness and willingness to help the interns. However, I was very pleasantly surprised as every person I met went out of their way to introduce themselves to me, check I was doing ok and were willing to give up time to explain new concepts to me if there was anything I was struggling with. I was constantly reminded that every small piece of work was still important, which made me feel useful.

I was given a lot of support. Both the summer internship team and the management at my office were constantly reminding me that I should contact them if I had any problems or questions at all. I was also given a counsellor that I met on the first day of my internship and had several meetings with him throughout my six weeks to check on my progress.

This varied quite a lot throughout my internship. On some engagements there was a lot of work to do so I had plenty to keep me busy. However, there were other engagements, quite often, where there was no available work for me to do at all. This was due to me not having the skills to do any of the more complicated tasks and waiting on clients to give us the documents needed to carry out the easier tasks. Unfortunately, some days were spent with only around two hours of work to do and the rest of the day being bored.

I feel I was given the right amount of responsibility. When I was confident with a task I had been given then I was given the opportunity to get on with it by myself unless I decided I needed help. At times I felt slightly out of my comfort zone with the responsibility I was given but I feel this was a good thing for me, pushing me to become more confident.

I do not think the skills developed with particularly help with my degree studies. But, if I do end up getting a job after university in a similar area to my internship then I will have a very good starting point and have definitely learnt a lot that will be useful, rather than having to start from the basics. I also think the internship gave me a good experience of what working in a professional firm is like, as I had not yet had a proper job.

The general atmosphere in the office was great. I liked the way they had hot desks for anyone below manager level. This meant that rather than having your own allocated desk, everyone sat together so could help each other out if someone was unsure about the work they were doing. Everyone was extremely friendly to each other and took their work seriously but allowed themselves to have a chat and laugh.

The internship was set up well with an induction day for all the interns together, followed by an induction day in individual offices before starting work on client sites. There was also plenty of socials and a few other opportunities available to us, rather than just doing normal day to day work.

The people I worked with were willing and good at explaining new things for me. However, I feel like the company could have provided some training at the beginning of the internship to explain how to do some of work that I could potentially be doing. Without this training, I felt I was starting with no knowledge at all and wasn't comfortable asking too many questions of my team when they had a lot of work to do themselves. We did have an induction day but this only covered things like expenses, time sheets and IT induction. Some training for the work I would be doing would have been useful.

I think the company are a great place to work if you are interested in accounting. I have been offered a graduate job with EY, which I believe most summer interns are offered provided they have worked hard enough. I am undecided whether or not I want a career in accounting or whether to look at something else

There was several meals out for the interns in my office, as well as our counsellors and 'buddies', which was a nice touch. There was also an end of year BBQ event which I attended and was enjoyable. There was not really a leaving event for interns due to no funding being available so we organised a social ourselves on the last week and used our own money.

I think the area is quite cheap, especially in comparison to somewhere down south.

Leeds has a very good nightlife that I would highly recommend! Lots of bars, restaurants, pubs and clubs.

There were a few sports teams that you could join. I think these were football, netball and one other. There was also an opportunity to get involved with the company's charity. However, beyond this there was not many activities to get involved in and I feel there could have been more opportunities for this, maybe for people with other interests than sport.