Financial Services Audit Review

I enjoyed the wide range of tasks that I got to complete and had exposure to during my 8 week internship and everyone in my audit team was lovely. The one comment I do have is that I felt the social and outside of work activities that were available were quite limited and I did not have much interaction with other interns as I was based on client site Monday-Thursday which in hindsight is more of a true reflection of the work that I would be doing when I start the graduate programme

I did feel valued by my colleagues as they were always grateful when I took on additional tasks and when requesting feedback for my counsellor to review and make informed decisions on if a graduate role is suited for me, I received great feedback from my team which made me feel valued. As it was a busy time of the audit process I felt that as an intern with no experience of audit that I was still valued and that the team was grateful that I was there to help out where I could.

My buddy was based at my client site so being able to see and talk to them on a daily basis was really handy if I ever had any questions about my internship or just about the graduate job in general was great as she had nearly finished her 3 years it was a useful insight into the rewarding but also difficult times ahead if I accepted the offer.

Half way through my internship the 1st year graduates left to attend college has part of their ICAS qualifications. This resulted in me being given a lot more workload with responsibility and ownership of aspects of the audit that the first years would have been completed. Being able to discuss and prioritise tasks and time frames with my manager allowed me to understand the audit process further.

As the first year graduates left to study for their ICAS I was given greater responsibly and some of their tasks which other members of the audit team gave me an overview on how to do and were there throughout the 8 weeks on any questions or help I might need. If I ever completed all the tasks that I had for a given day member of the team were more than happy to allocate me other tasks on their list. I also got to contribute at team meetings and approach clients if I had any questions that they could answer to complete my audit tasks.

Skills such as speaking to clients and professionals and working in a professional environment will help me during my final degree year and in any career I pursue. My excel skills and learning keyboard shortcuts really developed during my 8 weeks . The major thing that I feel will help me later in life will be showing that I was successful in the Ernst and Young recruitment process and completed an 8 week internship with a successful offer from the firm.

The atmosphere in the office was quite serious and tense at times as there were tight deadlines to meet with the client audit, which i feel impacted on how quickly i got to know everyone. However although everyone was quite focused on work there were still times when we would all go to lunch together or it was someones birthday and a cake would be brought in.

Overall the internship was very organised with an induction day down in London which was paid for. When I first arrived at my office after the induction day there was some uncertainty as to what we were to do and spent the day learning the companies' intranet. However, after that I was thrown straight into client site and audit work which was interesting.

There was endless online modules which were optional to read through and complete if you wanted to further your knowledge of both your own and all areas of the firm. There were also compulsory modules which I had to complete during my internship such as safety of information, back and neck safety while working at a desk etc. We also had weekly skype sessions with the recruitment team in London on various topics such as business writing and the offer process.

Working for Ernst and Young is very appealing being a top firm globally, I feel very lucky to have been given the opportunity to experience an internship with them and be offered a graduate position. The 3 year graduate sounds challenging but very rewarding at the same time, with various opportunities to travel and experience different service lines and clients.

We had an end of season drinks night on Friday after work one week which was really nice and the firm paid for drinks and food. Apart from that the interns arranged a night out externally which was also fun. However I do feel that some extra activities could have been arranged.

I was fortunate enough to be renting a flat near the area for university and my client site was in the same city so the only additional costs I had was the train every Friday to go to the office. However I do know other interns who were not from the area who found short term lets of rooms in flats for about £400 a month which is about average for the area.

As I am from the area I work in I already knew the nightlife pretty well and has a good variety of nightclubs and bars so it was nice to take the other interns who weren't from the area around to see the city and take them to nice places for after work drinks.

There were lots of activities and enquired about some of the volunteering opportunities but never heard anything back. I feel that there are a lot more opportunities in the main London office compared to Scotland but it was still useful to read about the various things I could be involved in if I accepted the graduate offer.