Summer Intern Review

I have found the internship to be an insightful experience. I feel I have been adequately exposed to working life in a large professional services organisation. The organisers have made the effort to ensure we feel welcome and part of the team. As such, I feel I have had an immersive experience into the firm. There have however been times where I have felt a bit lost with a lack of direction and purpose.

I can say with confidence that all the members of staff involved with facilitating the internship have made an effort to ensure that the interns felt valued. For example, the induction seemed to have been designed very well to ensure that we felt a part of the firm right from the start. Speaking to various employees, I have no doubt that one does feel valued while working here.

The level of support provided was excellent. We did for example receive a number of personal contacts as well as buddies/managers to ensure that we had someone to reach out to if we had questions or issues. With regards to guidance, I feel the structure was less clear, and I did feel a little bit lost at times.

Given that this internship was a thorough introduction to professional life at a large organisation, I was exposed to a number of situations which allowed me to develop various soft skills crucial in all walks of life, such as how to interact with colleagues and seniors. The technical skills such as familiarity with excel too will serve me well in my studies and beyond.

This is the area where I felt slightly disappointed by the internship. Although it was clear that the organisers had made the effort to put in place as many resources and contacts in place as possible to give us a thorough experience of the firm, I felt there lacked a purpose with regards to the actual day to day arrangement. We were put in teams, and although the team was very welcoming and ensured that I got as full an experience as possible, they often found they did not have anything specific for me to do.

Having been a part of the firm and the internship, I can say with confidence that KPMG offers an excellent atmosphere to its colleagues. Everyone is warm and helpful. Everyone I have come across, regardless of their seniority, has been extremely keen to make me feel welcome and assist me during my internship.

I get the impression that the firm has carried out all possible efforts to invest in the interns. The organisers have ensured that there have always been resources and people in place to assist us with any kind of learning or development, a clear indicator that the firm does wish to invest in our future.

Having been able to meet various colleagues from across different parts of the firm, I feel I have certainly been exposed to working life at KPMG. Those whom I have met have been completely open and honest about their experiences at the firm, and the structure of the internship has also meant that I was fully immersed in working life at the company.

Once more, I can confidently say that I had ample opportunity to understand and experience the culture at the firm. I was able to have many frank and honest conversations with colleagues on their own experiences of the culture of the company. Also being placed with a team helped to give a very clear insight into the culture.

Being able to sit with and shadow a team actually engaging in client work gave me a very clear picture of the nature of the work. Given that I was given such an immersive experience, it helped greatly in being able to consider future career options, not only regarding the industry, but also the firm.

I felt that for the nature of the internship and its duration, the compensation received was not only extremely fair, but also very generous. This not only gives one a good insight into the compensation structure at the firm, but also makes us as interns feel valued by the firm as a whole.

As mentioned, the organisers ensured we had adequate contacts with whom we could network and ask questions. In addition to this, we were encouraged to reach out to anyone we could to get an insight into their work. All the colleagues I came across were more than happy to facilitate chats and networking opportunities.

The organisers of the team I was in made very good efforts to ensure that the team socialised. In addition to this, the organisers of the internship put in place a couple of social events for the interns to get to know one another. I feel this was done very well, and is a good indicator of the way KPMG looks to treat its employees.

It became quite clear to me that one can have a lot of experiences at KPMG aside from the work alone. For example I got an insight into the large choice of networks one can become involved with. Reading the KPMG internal websites, it also became clear that the firm cares about its employees doing the things they enjoy, such as setting up new networks.

I would recommend this insight. I feel that KPMG is an excellent place to work and it takes its investment into interns very seriously. I got a very good impression of working life at the firm, and the insight enabled me to consider very carefully a career in this line. I would recommend the insight because it really is an excellent way to experience professional life at such a large firm.