Summer Intern Review

I have little experience to compare to other companies, but Grant Thornton allowed me to explore different opportunities whilst providing with a worthwhile insight into the world of Audit.

There is a great team atmosphere at Grant Thornton which you are thrown straight into. They have a buddy system which is a great start, and in addition have lots of social occasions that give you a chance to interact with people from all tiers of the firm from interns to partners. Every piece of work was important and used in the final outcome of the project or team goal, I was never sent to just go and make the teas.

I felt like Grant Thornton had a good balance of laissez-faire and tight control, I was given time to use my own initiative and brain power to find a solution to problems or to learn how to complete a task. Whilst at the same time there is a strong ethos of no question is a stupid question, if you need to ask then everyone is always more than happy to take five minutes or an hour to explain how you should undertake a particular task.

There was never a day when I had nothing to do but sit and read the news, even if my immediate supervisor was out of work for me. They would always arrange for me to be in touch with another manager to co-ordinate more work so that I had enough opportunities to try out new things and get to know as many different people that i could.

As an intern for audit it is very difficult for them to just hand over client details and say complete the audit. therefore there is a certain amount of control they have to exercise for their own professional gains. Having said that, when they could they were more than happy to allow us to go forwards and take whole sections of a project on and have face to face time with the client.

Confidence is a huge skill that I have taken from my time at Grant Thornton. Not being afraid to ask questions or to approach people who may be senior in a company. i was also sent on a presenting course which has helped massively in my third year of university where I have to make weekly presentations on academic papers to my lecturer.

For interns and grads, they have a hot desk system, meaning that you are never sitting next to the same person when you are in the office. This allows you to meet people and go to lunch with someone new most weeks. In addition, organised and unorganised socials of going to watch the football in the pub, to department days out were always well attended by all levels of the hierarchy.

It was extremely well organised.

As an intern I was only there for 6 weeks, so not much time to make a huge investment in me, but a free training course over two days was definitely more than i expected. as well as the other training on a daily basis that i was given by my supervisor.

Extremely appealing, in our first week we were given a talk by the current vice-CEO who started at Grant Thornton as an intern just like me. The opportunities discussed with managers and partners are also very appealing, e.g. secondments to different offices/departments

Definitely.

My internship was in London, so as you could expect it was expensive but the salary and the job more than outweighs the cost.

As in London there are always new bars opening keeping the night life fresh and exciting rather than the mundane pubs.

As I was only there for 6 weeks I cannot answer this question fully.