FSO Assurance Intern Review

It was a good experience for me for the most part. As is to be expected, you are required to do some pretty mundane tasks as you have little to no accounting experience. But some of the work was stimulating and interesting. There were times were other interns and I were left with little or no work to do, which was a bit boring at times.

The colleagues I worked with on my client were very friendly and definitely made me feel a valued member of the team. They had realistic expectations of me, answered questions I had about the work and EY in general and supported me throughout my internship. They really added to the experience.

Managers and supervisors were always willing to help and no question was too daft. They appreciate that you have no prior experience and adjust their expectations as such. My supervisors provided support with my work as well as with adjusting to life at EY.

While working on the client, I wasn't very busy for the first week as we were waiting on stuff from the client. Once we got what we needed, the workload picked up and I was quite busy for 2 weeks. Despite this, my team never kept me working past 5pm. When I wasn't working on the client, however, I pretty much had nothing to do all day. You can try to reach out to people for work, but it's unlikely you'll end up with anything substantive.

I was given enough responsibility to give me a sense of achievement when I completed my work, but not so much that I felt overwhelmed or under pressure. My seniors were always there to help me out and I think ultimately I wasn't held responsible for the outcomes of my work as it was reviewed multiple times by seniors. I believe this is representative of working at EY; responsibility ultimately lies with the guy who signs off your work, but if there is something wrong with it you'll be sure to hear about it.

As I study Accounting & Finance and one of my final year modules focusses around audit, I believe this internship will be very useful to me and my studies. The general business skills you learn (writing professional emails, scheduling your day, interacting with clients) will definitely assist me in my future career, whatever that may be.

The general atmosphere is pretty chilled out. As long as you get your work done, no one really stresses out. As the internship was during a time of year which isn't particularly busy and during which many people go on holiday, it was pretty calm and quite at times. I imagine during busy season it is a lot more hectic. There is also an activities room in the office with an Xbox and ping pong table which we made good use of!

It was somewhat well organised. Initially you sort of feel like you've been dumped in a big firm and it's a little daunting. But once you start meeting your team and getting into work it's fine. However, for my last two weeks I was not booked on any work and reaching out to people for work has limited effect as it's not a very busy time of year so it can be difficult for people to find work for you. Though I found organisation was fine mostly for myself, other interns were left without work to do for weeks at a time and never really got stuck into any proper client work, whilst others were working long hours on stressful clients. It can be hard to accommodate so many interns into the business, but I think work needs to be done by EY to make it more seamless and to maximise the intern experience for everyone.

The company ran an induction day and IT training in the first few days to get us accustomed to EY life. They also ran optional training sessions throughout the internship, the most interesting of which was one about artificial intelligence and machine learning. This in particular was very interesting and quite cutting edge and explained how EY are progressing in the field.

It was made clear to us on the induction day that there were offers available for everyone on the internship, so there is no competition for places. In all honesty, the firm are looking for any notable reasons not to give you a job offer rather than reasons to give you the offer. As long as you don't do anything spectacularly stupid, you will get a job offer. Whether you receive an offer or not is based on feedback you receive throughout the internship from your engagement teams and partners that you shadow.

It can be a bit tough to organise socials with interns as people will be in different places around London due to working at client offices, but generally there is an effort made by interns to organise socials that are convenient for as many interns as possible.

I lived at home in North London so I had not cost of living, just travel. As I go to uni in London I was able to get a discounted travel card through my student Oyster. The cost of socialising is very high. If you come from outside of London you may be quite shocked at the cost of a pint, or even lunch. Pubs and bars around Canary Wharf are expensive, you could be looking at £5-£6 for a pint, even more for cocktails etc.

This is London. Nightlife is obviously world class and some interns made the most of it as they're not from the city. It can cost a pretty penny, but hit up the right spots and you can have a hell of a night without bankrupting yourself.

You can sign up to EY Networks, which are the work equivalent of university societies. There are religious networks, sports networks etc. It's easy enough to sign up and get involved. For example, there is a 5 a side football network that meet up to play on Thursdays.