Performance Improvement consultant Review

The best part of my 12 month placement was the variety of experience I received. I worked both on client projects and an internal strategy role which meant I experience both sides of how EY operates as a firm. EY is a very enjoyable place to work, with a large focused place on teaming, learning and development. This placement has left me feeling confident that I wish to pursue a career in consulting with EY, and has set me up nicely for when I graduate.

I have mostly felt valued by my colleagues. EY's people culture tends to be mostly encouraging and supportive.

I have received support from my counsellor whenever I have asked for it and my managers have given me tasks that would help me to develop certain skills. Despite being (inevitably) assigned mundane tasks that require little skill, I have also been given a lot of responsibility, in particular with clients.

It varys from project to project. When working for a client in the public sector, my days were very busy and however the working hours would rarely go beyond 8 30am-6pm. Other projects may have involved later hours but they were not a common occurrence. There have been some projects where I have been given little responsibility and therefore not been particularly busy during the day which can be frustrating.

Once I had been on a client engagement for more than a few months, and thus proved my worth and built relationships with the clients, I was given a large amount of responsibility in terms of forming and owning client relationships, representing the team in client meetings and taking the lead with certain deliverables. On other, shorter client projects (e.g. 3-6 weeks) I have not been given much responsibility as I have not had the time to build up the level of skill needed.

The skills I have developed will certainly assist me in my future career, as I would like to continue to pursue a career in consulting. I'm not certain whether the skills will assist me in my degree, however I have gained more in-depth knowledge of different market sectors and the issues facing them, which may help me to put certain aspects/modules of my degree into perspective.

Depends on the client project. I was lucky with my main client project as EY had a great relationship with the client and thus the client site had a great atmosphere. Other client projects can be different, with some having a more tense atmosphere. In the general EY office the atmosphere is friendly.

From day 3 on the placement I was sent out on to a client site to begin my first client engagement, so in this way it was well organised as we quickly got on the ground and started developing our skills. The other good part of the placement is that we are treated the same as graduates and therefore receive the same project opportunities and other opportunities as them.

We received a week of training with the new graduates, however this was 2 months after we had joined so most of the skills taught then were stuff that we had already developed. However it meant that we were included in the graduate cohort. There is also plenty of other training that you can put yourself forward to if you so wish.

The grad scheme is very appealing, and highly likely for placement students to get a place on. The only problem is that placement students still have to do the 2 years of the grad scheme, despite already having done one year where we are essentially treated as a graduate.

Yes, on big client projects that are away from home there are usually regular weekly team drinks. There is also usually after-work drinks on a Friday back in London.

Expensive as it is central

Not much directly within the area but several options slightly further out

Yes, lots of charity events, fundraising, sports clubs, ski trips, treks etc.