Assurance Intern Review

As far as internships and vacation work goes, it was very interesting - most of it was client work which involved a lot of travelling, so it was interesting to visit lots of different clients and learn how different businesses worked. The least enjoyable part was when there was nothing to do, which was quite infrequent,

As an intern, there was only so much technical stuff that you could do, but my colleagues definitely tried to include me by teaching me about different aspects of the work and the clients. Everyone was very friendly.

Everyone has their own counsellor - interns have around three meetings with them in the course of the six-week internship, and can email them about any issues relating to their progress. There are also buddies, who are in the first year of the graduate scheme generally, and who can give more informal advice. My counsellor and buddy were both very friendly and approachable, which was great.

It depended on the day - at client sites (provided that we had been given enough information by the client) there was always work to be done, but as an intern I left at 6pm at the very latest, usually 5pm. In the office, I often had to ask for things to do, and sometimes there wouldn't be anything but at the office I worked the group of interns worked on a project which we presented on the final day of the internship to the senior management team. I worked on this during any dry spells so I was never bored.

I was given responsibility, but not too much that I didn't know what I was doing. It would be difficult to give interns anything that involved specialist knowledge, but I did get to talk to the clients (the clients' accountants) to ask about issues that had come up with financial statements.

The internship wasn't really designed to provide technical skills that would help with later life, so any specific accounting knowledge wasn't given, but there were weekly 'lunch and learn' webinar sessions that helped me with my workplace writing skills among other things, and I definitely gained confidence and work skills that will help me later in life.

It was an open plan office, with no set seats apart from the partners' and some of the other most senior people. This was good as it was very easy to move around and sit with whoever I was working with on that particular day, and it made people (including managers and the partners) very easy to approach, with no one split off from anyone else in separate offices. It also meant everyone could talk to each other by the coffee machine and made for a friendly atmosphere. There were also conference rooms that could be used for quiet work as well though.

It was very well organised on a national level - for the induction day in London, they booked everyone far enough from London a hotel stay and meal the night before, which was very convenient for me as all I had to do was tick a box saying that I would be staying there and it was all sorted by them. In the specific office I worked in, it was also very good; there were a few last minute changes to clients I was going to be working on, but I don't think these could have been avoided.

The internship team had regular 'lunch and learn' webinars to help with everyone's training and development, and the induction day was also very useful. I did not learn many accounting-specific skills, but these are taught in the graduate scheme through taking a professional qualification and so this is understandable.

For an area such as Assurance (and outside of London), most interns are offered a place in the graduate scheme. If you want to swap to a different service line or location, then you have to do another interview for that job, and this is when people are most likely to not be offered a permanent job.

Not really for the office I was at as there were very few interns. However, there were frequent office events, as the workforce is relatively young, so there were opportunities for doing sport, or going to parties, if you wanted them.

The main cost for me was travelling to the office - I don't know how much it costs to live in the location as I got the train in.

I did not live in the area which made it difficult to enjoy the nightlife