Discover EY Women in Business Insight Programme Review

I felt the Discover EY Women in Business Insight Programme (with an emphasis on Tax/Assurance service lines was not only enjoyable but insightful as well. l feel the more you "put yourself out there" and come out of your shell, the more enjoyable the overall experience will become and it resulted in meeting numerous individuals in my cohort who I feel I have built a hopefully more longer lasting relationship with despite it being a 2-day programme.

With the nature of the DEY programme being large scale with over 100 individuals, to be able to make everyone's experience valued is a very tricky task. However, with EY's emphasis on "people culture" I felt valued from the very start when my questions on the nature of the training schemes were answered so enthusiastically by some of the new Tax/Assurance cohort at breakfast, all the way until the end of the insight programme with the presentations ending with reinforcement of personal growth and how to improve your public speaking skills.

The support from the 2 table mentors for individual tasks and answering our own questions on their day to day to the openess of more general questions to the floor and noting any unanswered questions, was second to none. In the end, there were individual next steps depending on which year of study you are coming from with an emphasis on intakes being bigger for Assurance and Tax as this was EY's larger service lines.

I feel the programme emphasized less on my academic skills but more on the professional and personal skills needed for the 2 service lines which go beyond my studies - these soft skills can in turn can be utilised in my following 2 years at university during society responsibilities, as well as any stream of work I can go into.

The 2 day insight programme itself was well structured from the beginning with emails being sent out previously regarding clear instructions on travel as well as a vague itinerary of the programme on the day, perhaps to allow for flexibility. To improve on this, maybe a more detailed focus on precise timings and content for the 2nd day of mock assessment centre and presentations would have been more helpful.

It was the friendliness and energy from meeting the EY employees ranging from HR, recent graduate scheme 1st and 2nd years, Senior Managers to Partner was my highlight. To witness whether the enthusiasm they exhibit on their website translates to real life, you have to see the firm.for yourself and I think this is where EY exceeds expectations. I feel this bounced back through the room and resonated with my peers when performing group challenges together.

I felt throughout each of the programme's stage, the company culture was emphasised largely by putting "people" first and the emphasis on embracing technology. This was translated both in the internship and outside socially when talking to both my peers and the current employees.There was also a large emphasis on embracing future technologies and being able to adapt to the skills of tomorrow.

There was a lot of guidance given to Tax and Assurance given they are the 2 biggest service lines but perhaps an improvement could be a rotational programme with equal weighting given to TAS and Advisory service lines if possible. If someone may be interested in one of the advisory service lines instead, I feel a rotational programme instead of just an emphasis on Tax/Assurance may be more beneficial.

There were plenty of networking opportunities from speed networking which covered all service lines as well as networks within EY, to asking questions after panel events. Due to the nature of the speed networking, which I felt was one of the most valuable aspects of the insight days to help you decide what specific service line suited you, we weren't able to ask as many questions as wanted but employees were open to questions by giving their contact details

Meeting motivated peers and getting to know the cohort through the social was especially enjoyable, as it felt more personal than just meeting people in a professional environment. The social itself was bowling at Kingpin which was a bit difficult to play with such a large group but being able to talk in a more relaxed environment was enjoyable nonetheless.