Summer Intern Review

I greatly enjoyed my six-week internship. My colleagues were all very helpful and made me feel welcome and part of the team. I was given responsibility for pieces of work that meant I felt I was making an important contribution. My colleagues made an effort to include me in social activities at the weekends and I greatly enjoyed taking part in a charity mixed-netball tournament!

This was one aspect of my Internship that really impressed me. Everyone at the Office and in my project teams made me feel welcome and a valued member of the team. I really appreciated even my more senior colleagues taking time to ask how I was finding the Internship and giving me a valuable insight into their work. On a day-to-day basis I felt supported by my colleagues.

I had three meetings with my supervisor over the course of the six-week Internship. This was sufficient time for her to provide me with important guidance and feedback on how I was doing. The amount of contact time with my supervisor was particularly impressive given the fact that I was often out at client's offices and my supervisor would occasionally have to travel to facilitate a catch-up.

I found that I had peaks and troughs of how busy I found myself. Some weeks I had a significant amount of work to be done and I enjoyed the sense of responsibility and contribution to the team this gave me. Unfortunately at other times I found myself with less work to be done. However I was never idle as I had been set a project which required work throughout the Internship, as a result I could work on this if I had no other work to be done.

I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of responsibility that I was given during my placement. I contributed client work and was involved with a financial year-end Audit. I do not think I could have expected to have been given much more responsibility as an Intern. Nevertheless I would strongly recommend that EY continue to strive to give Interns as much responsibility as is possible, for it is only when given responsibility that an Intern's skills can be tested and accurately judged,

I believe that the skills I gained will most certainly help me in the completion of my degree and beyond. I learned the importance of time-management and organisation, particularly when having to manage multiple work projects along with travel to client sites. In addition I believe I developed my personal skills and that these will be crucial in my professional career. I now appreciate the correct manner in which to approach client meetings and engagements.

The office had a friendly and productive atmosphere. My colleagues and the senior management were happy to answer people's questions. The open-plan nature of the office contributed to the friendly atmosphere and made it easier to speak to people face to face if you had any questions. The open plan nature also contributed to a sense of collective team spirit. The office was in good condition and had sufficient space for the staff, in addition there were useful meeting rooms for more private meetings.

I was very impressed with how well the internship was set up. The introductory days in London gave everyone a sense of excitement at the prospect of working for EY. In addition the Student recruitment team were very helpful in addressing questions before the internship started. The equipment I was given worked well and I.T was on-hand for any problems with my laptop.

I believe EY invested heavily in my personal training and development over the course of the six-week internship. The Student recruitment team gave considerable time and effort to ensure that I was settled in and was enjoying the internship through telephone check ups on a fortnightly basis. In addition there were a number of on-line learning tools that were accessible to me and which helped with my professional development.

I believe the future employment prospects within the organisation are very appealing. I am supportive of the pyramid structure of the organisation, and this was explained to me clearly by my supervisor. I like the prospect of being able to work towards a promotion and it was exciting to see the possibilities that were on offer within EY. I hope in he future to be able to make the most of these possibilities and progress towards more senior roles at EY.

There was a good social scene amongst my fellow Interns. There were four of us who worked the same six-week period and we all got on well. I appreciated being able to have a peer group who were going through the same process as I was. It may have been more of an active social scene amongst my peer group if there had been more interns, however his would only be a possibility at a larger office.

I was able to live at home for the duration of my internship and this enabled me to save money. If I had been unable to live at home then this would have greatly affected the amount of money I was able to save. As a result I would suggest that people apply for internships that are close enough that they may be able to commute from home. Socialising around Southampton is cheaper than London but still can be relatively expensive.

The nightlife in the area I worked was not one of the highlights of my internship. As I was doing a summer internship the nightlife in Southampton was quiet as a large number of University students had left the city for the summer months. However this was not of great importance to me as I was looking at the internship as a great opportunity to learn more about the world of work and accounting industry.

This was an aspect of the internship that I particularly enjoyed. I was involved with a mixed-netball charity tournament. This was great fun and a good way to get to know colleagues outside of the work place. In addition I was part of an office football team. Again this was very enjoyable and helped me build a stronger sense of camaraderie with my colleagues.