Summer Intern in Audit Review

It was a really enjoyable experience. The actual work was tedious at times but I learnt a huge amount and the whole experience was great.

My colleagues at Ernst & Young really made me feel like I was making a valuable contribution to the team. They made me feel extremely comfortable and went out of their way to make sure I was settling in, had lifts to client sites (as I did not have a car), and managing the workload. I feel like I got to know some of them as friends, on a personal level, as well as professionally.

There was a lot of support and guidance from the supervisors. Although they weren't always around, they regularly communicated with us to ensure we were getting the most out of the experience and to try and solve any problems we might have been having.

The work load varied from client to client. In the beginning, there wasn't a lot that I was responsible for, but as I got more experience I was assigned specific tasks on certain projects that I was responsible for completing. There was never a time that I had nothing to do because there was always online training, an intern project, or work from colleagues that I could help with (which they were always grateful for!).

I was given a fair amount of responsibility, for instance, for completing certain aspects of the work for a particular client. This involved gathering information directly from the client, and working with the client to resolve any problems or inconsistencies with the information.

The work I did during the placement gave me a really good basic understanding of audit and accounting which will assist me in my future career. The networking and communication skills I developed will be extremely valuable to any career path I choose to take.

I was rarely in the main Ernst & Young offices because my work was based at client sites. When I was in the EY offices, the atmosphere was quite balanced. At the client sites, it was generally quite a fun, relaxed atmosphere in the beginning, which then became slightly more tense as the deadline approached!

It was very well organised. The internship started off with an induction week in Birmingham which included other regional interns as well. This consisted of a mixture of socials, training and corporate social responsibility. We then began work at our regional offices with an ongoing intern project to complete and regular meetings with the internship mentors. It ended with a final black tie event for all of the interns to meet again.

We had initial training at the induction week, as well as several Web Based Learning courses to complete. I think the majority of the training and development was on-the-job learning when working on the actual client projects.

Ernst and Young had a graduate place available for all the interns. Therefore as long as you were a good intern, the chances of you getting a graduate offer is extremely high.

There were 9 interns in the Bristol offices. Whenever we were all in the offices we ate lunch together and we organised a couple of nights out. Sometimes it was difficult to meet for drinks after work because some of the interns were commuting to work from other places. But overall, it was a good social scene.

It wasn't too bad, compared to London prices anyway! I was lucky because I was already renting a place as I go to university in the same area, so I did not need to spend any extra on accommodation.

Bristol nightlife is great! The Bristol Harbourside festival was going on during the placement which was really good.

There were some activities we were informed about, for instance circuit training and cinema viewings, but not a huge amount.