Intern Review

I really enjoyed my internship. I was based out of MLP, but was mostly posted at client sites. I managed to work on 3 clients within a 6 week period, and gained a breadth of experience about how different industries operate.

I felt like my work counted. I was treated like a normal first-year team member. I was mentored by a senior in the team, and my work was used by other colleagues. My senior reviewed my work frequently, and provided constructive feedback.

I was mostly working under one/two people per client that I was on. They would help explain key concepts to me, and taught me to develop my Excel skills. I was encouraged to meet with clients, and had multiple one-on-one meetings with clients, which helped build my confidence.

I was quite busy every day. Since it wasn't busy season, there wasn't an abundance of work. The work also depended on how responsive clients were when providing supporting documentation. I felt like I was productive, and was occupied by work most of the time. Even when I didn't have client work, I had to complete work-based learning courses, timesheets & expense forms.

I felt I was given quite a lot of responsibility. My work was reviewed by seniors, as everyone's was. I was eased into my work, and slowly was made to take more and more responsibility. I was supported through my first client meeting, and received constructive feedback off the back of it. This allowed me to improve my communication skills in a professional environment.

The skills I received will help me in future. We had several Lunch & Learn sessions about Exam Training, IT, and our paths at EY. I can use the knowledge acquired during these sessions to help understand the commitment required to study & work within Assurance at EY. I greatly developed my Excel skills during this internship, especially my knowledge of shortcuts. This helped me to increase my working speed, and my efficiency.

The office was a really collaborative, friendly place. It was open plan, and even partners did not have offices. Everyone was extremely approachable, which made you more likely to ask questions without being nervous about them being very simple or obvious. There were cafes & a restaurant downstairs, which had a variety of food for breakfast & lunch. Since it overlooks the HMS Belfast & Tower Bridge, the views from the office were good. There were coffee machines & vending machines on every floor, as well as break-out areas for casual meetings.

The internship was well organized. There was an EY induction, then a service line induction, and finally an IT induction. These helped us find our feet early on. We had buddies & counsellors who helped us integrate into the firm. We had meetings with our counsellors every fortnight, where we set goals for the internship. Our progress was measured against these goals during the internship, and then we received/didn't receive graduate offers based on our feedback. Each intern also got the opportunity to shadow a Partner for one day, which I found was a very interesting experience.

EY provided us with a backpack full of IT equipment. They gave us brand new HP laptops (touch-screen, and could fold back into tablets), as well as the associated tech equipment. We didn't have any formal training, but that could be attributed to the short length of the internship (6 weeks). Our travel expenses were also reimbursed when we were travelling to client sites, and we were put up in hotels when we were on 'away' jobs. I feel that EY invested a great deal in us during this internship.

Future employment prospects are good within EY. The firm is very accommodating to new joiners, and gives you the option of deferring for a year if you have sufficient reasons to do so. They also offer multiple opportunities to work abroad after you have qualified. For an Assurance grad job, EY pays for your training & exams (adds up to quite a lot), and is generous with the time it gives employees to stay home & study for exams. There is a natural progression for the first 3 years, after which progression is merit-based. After you qualify, there is also the option of leaving the firm and working in industry, which many people do.

Due to the nature of the internship & the service line (assurance), all the interns were spread across client-sites in London & the South-East. This made it difficult to organize post-work meetups on a large scale. However, the interns did socialize on social media, and have become good friends. However, each team did have a team dinner after each job was completed, which gave you an opportunity to get to know your colleagues in a social environment.

Expensive, as it was in London. I was living in South-West London, and so the commute into work every day did add up over 6 weeks. The commute into MLP (at London Bridge) took about an hour every day, however, when we were posted at away jobs, we only had to do a weekly commute.

The Nightlife would have been good in the area that I was working in towards the end of my internship (Covent Garden). Nightlife would vary heavily depending on where you were posted. I was also posted to clients in Kent, where there weren't many options after work, especially when you were working longer hours. MLP does have several decent restaurants and cafes around it, which is quite convenient.

There were opportunities explained to us at the initial EY Induction on the first day. There were several options, such as corporate social responsibility projects you could get involved in. There were also multiple opportunities to get involved with EY sports teams, such as five a side football teams that played weekly. EY seemed to encourage people to set up new societies, and to become more rounded, rather than just focusing on work all the time. This was quite similar to university societies, in such that there was something on offer for everyone, and if you didn't see something you wanted to participate in, you could set it up yourself.