Intern Review

The internship was really enjoyable and this is mainly due to the people at EY. You will be working with great individuals day-in day-out, on a diverse range of work and this all adds to an enjoyable six weeks. Despite this, there will be times when there is little on, due to the nature of the industry, and then it is really up to you to make the most of your experience. You can always email around asking for work, or speak with other interns to shadow them, should they be busy.

The team at EY really do make you feel valued. Admittedly, there are times where you have little work to do, however, the team are always trying to get you involved as and where they can. This translates into good client exposure - attending meetings, listening in on conference calls, etc.

Guidance and support is given as and when you need it. If you do not ask for support or guidance the team will assume you are fine. Therefore, it is really important to keep asking questions, as and where necessary, to make sure you fully understand the work you are doing and complete each task to the high standard expected. People are more than willing to sit down with you, as and when they are free, and provide a full explanation of the work.

It varied. Some days, specifically at the start of the internship, I would be really busy and would be working long hours to ensure all the work was completed (this varies dependent upon the project). There will be other times, where you are unassigned or waiting to get on another project, where there is very little on, so you will spend your days doing admin, training, for example. As previously mentioned, there is always stuff to do if you ask around - it is very much what you make of it.

A lot. Going into the internship I was unsure about how much responsibility I would be given, but EY really excel in this department. For example, only hours into my first day I found myself in a meeting on client site. Furthermore, in terms of day-to-day work, I had far more responsibility than expected being trusted to not only 'number crunch' but also to write pages for the financial due diligence report (the main client deliverable). Obviously, your work will be heavily reviewed and edited but it is satisfying to get the opportunity nonetheless.

I study Economics and most of my optional modules are accounting/finance based so this internship will definitely help me, both in my degree and future working career. I thought my Excel skills were petty good before starting the internship but using Excel almost everyday has only improved them further. The work is also relevant to my studies and has definitely helped my understanding more generally.

I would say the internship is not completely organized as each sub-service line does not have it's own internship 'leader'. By that, I mean, there can be times where you will not have work, as projects collapse or finish and sometimes it is quite difficult to be reallocated to a new project to make sure you are occupied for the whole 6-weeks. The summer internship team do a good job of organizing the programme more generally, and are always accessible, if you have any questions or queries - writing a weekly newsletter to keep you in the loop,

One way the internship could improve is by increasing the number of cross-service line intern networking events. Working in TAS, there are only a limited number of interns in comparison to a service line like Audit, for example. Therefore, it is very difficult to meet interns outside of your service line. Arguably, we should have used our own initiative and organized events but as most people are busy, it can be difficult finding the time to arrange this. There was networking events at the start and end of the internship, but this could be improved if there was an event weekly.

Living in London is always going to be expensive but you are remunerated for that, in comparison to if you did the internship at a regional office. The canteen in the office is relatively cheap if you are not preparing your own lunch and the café is slightly cheaper than most high-street coffee chains. One thing I would add is be ready to pay £4.50 minimum for a pint (unless you are willing to go to a zone 2 spoons).

EY offer lots of opportunities to get involved with sports and societies. As the internship is only 6-weeks long, I did not really get chance to get involved as much as I would have liked because I spent the 6-weeks trying to nail down a good work-life balance but if the internship was longer, I would have got involved. EY have a partnership with the Arts, so there is an Arts society, and we were informed about the football, netball, hockey teams, etc.