Leading Women Intern Review

I was an intern on EY's new Leading Women Programme, I thoroughly enjoyed my week at EY and its focus on leading women in particular. The empowerment of women in corporate firms is something which is very important to me, so to be able to shadow female Partners, Directors and managers was insightful and inspirational. I feel that I was able to gain a good balance between networking/ shadowing, and actual work experience.

Despite interning only for a week, I feel that my time at the firm was greatly valued. As mentioned before, the timetable was scheduled in a balanced way which ensured I was able to meet as many people across financial services, risk and technology and more. As interns we were given a lot of support when we needed it, and equally we were able to gain valuable insight from professionals. I was able to tell that we were valued because of the time that was invested in us by various professionals who were keen to meet with us despite their busy schedules.

I gained a lot of guidance and support throughout the week, from the induction till the end of the week where I had a career counselling call to discuss the next steps. I liked that I wasn't thrown into the deep end with work, instead we were introduced into the program at a reasonable pace and then introduced into the team we were working with etc. We were told that 'no question was a stupid one' which made sure we did not shy away from asking basic questions if we were confused- something I think is important because it is sometimes daunting to think to ask questions! Guidance and support came in the form of having a buddy to be our point of contact, as well as shadowing leading women who mentored us in that short space of time.

I think mainly I have been able to develop my communications skills, interpersonal, as well as organisation skills- both of which will certainly assist me in my degree. In the space of a week I gained invaluable information on understanding EY, its service lines, company values as well as learning a lot about technology and how EY uses technology to create solutions.

I feel that I gained a well rounded experience of what it would be like to work at EY because of the structure of the Leading Women Programme. We were allocated a buddy that would introduce us and would be our point of contact for any questions or concerns. We spent the morning of the first day in inductions, and then were able to go off to our placement part of the day after lunch. For most days, the mornings consisted of meeting with senior female leaders across the board, we were able to ask them questions and really understand their role in the firm. The afternoons were spent working at EY Seren (EY's digital consultancy located in Shoreditch), which was really exciting considering the creative projects the team were working on. On the last day of our week we were able to present the project we had been working on throughout the week. The afternoon spent on debriefing, filling in our reflection journals and returning equipment to the it department- so overall a very well planned and balanced insight week!

The general atmosphere was welcoming and super friendly. The majority of the people I met this week were keen to help, from answering my questions to helping on my project, and importantly in connecting me with other professionals. This week has really shown me how much of a 'people's place' it is, and for this reason it has been an enjoyable and successful week.

EY has invested time into my development and personal training which has been very effective and valuable. Being able to be mentored by senior female leaders was inspirational and interesting as we were able to hear of their career progressions, personal anecdotes and more generally about their role and what it consists of. We were also able to sit in in their client meetings, for me this experience was really insightful in making me understand how client meetings work. At the end of the week we were scheduled in for a career counselling call with one of the EY Leading Women recruiters in which we were able to discuss potential next steps.

As the Leading Women Programme was an insight week, I would agree that I was able to experience and understand what it would be like to have a full time role at EY, though the short space of time meant that I was not able to fully comprehend this. We were also provided with work laptops which meant we were really able to get a feel of what it would be like to work full time. Though we were interns we were treated in a very professional manner, and given a project to work towards which mimicked what a 'real' project might look like.

I was able to gain a thorough understanding of EYs culture and its values specifically through the people we met throughout the duration of the week. As mentioned earlier, the professionals were keen to help in putting us in contact with people we wanted to meet and network with. Other than the values, we were also able to see EYs branding 'building a better working world' at work in various meetings and projects we were able to shadow.

Overall the content of the day was very valuable in helping me decide my future career path. Because the schedule was so varied in having different segments I was able to get a well rounded experience of various divisions ranging from advisory to financial services. So from talking and working with people across these service lines I was able to understand which sectors I would be more inclined to work in.

The Leading Women programme was a paid opportunity. Lunch was also expensed by EY, though travel was not. Considering this opportunity was in London, I think it was paid very fairly and appropriately.

There were plenty of opportunities to network and meet other employees of the firm. As we had access to our own personal work laptops throughout the week, we were free to schedule calls/ meetings with other employees we wanted to meet. As part of our timetable we were already scheduled in to meet around 10 professionals, and so any 'extra' networking was dependent on whether we wanted to do.

Unfortunately there were no EYs women's network events being run in London at the time of my internship, but having been able to talk to the EY Manchester's Women's network lead I was exposed to the types of social events that are run for employees, clients and also externally for students.

Mainly this consists of networks that employees can join. As part of EYs strategy towards diversity and inclusiveness, there are various networks some of which include EY Military network, Women's network, and faith networks. Networks are a bit like university societies in that there is a committee and the networks seek to create a space for employees with the same background or experiences.

I would certainly recommend this insight to a friend based on the experience and connections I have gained. It has been a week of experiencing and learning new things, which is always advantageous. Particularly the programme is focused towards women and women being empowered in their careers, and having seen EY wanting to openly improve their gender parity I would definitely want my peers to participate in this programme.