Finance and Commercial Intern Review

Incredible experience for a person who has had a limited insight into the corporate environment. I not only impressed the people around me but more importantly I impressed myself on the progress I made and the achievements I have obtained over the year. I will keep this experience very close to my heart in the future and channel all the things I learnt over the past year.

At the start I was fired up and ready to hold all the responsibility possible but as time goes along it became very clear that I would need to work in order to get more work. The colleagues valued me very highly and at no point did I feel like I was an intern.

I was supported by my supervisor everyday, which is very helpful. At times where all things were not great they supported me and helped me improve. They also helped me gain a better insight into the future of what I wanted to do. An example of this; when the Independent Key Controller role came up they did not hesitate to offer it to me as I will be pursuing a role in audit in the future.

Various tasks have been allocated to me on a daily basis. Some which are directly relevant to the job role and others which were not relevant to the job role. Overall, I felt like I had a good amount of work to do on daily basis but I could have been allocated more.

I believe I was given a reasonable amount of responsibility for the job role i had to complete. This includes tasks like being an independent auditor for the company; this is where i would review the companies internal controls and create a fine checking over the departments i was allocated.

The role i had pursued gave me a good understanding of areas of financial background outside my degree as well as internally. The clear point which helped me out the most in my role was the ability to explore a different side of financial statements and being able to understand the legal importance of documentation.

The general atmosphere within the office was quite the normal corporate environment that was expected. This includes various types of personalities to deal with. The department was always allocated different types of work so it did not feel like people talked to each other as we were all involved in our own work only.

An example that I will give without any explanation is the on-boarding process. Which I received two weeks after i had arrived to my placement. AMEX and company phones were not offered to myself as some of the other interns were offered. Also no company access cards until the second week of starting work so I think more organisation would have been better but overall not too bad.

I was offered various training schemes from the online training portals where i completed the main topics relevant to me and my course line. I plan on completing more before i leave work. Also training to use the internal management tools within the department and accounting tools within the organisation.

I would come back here some point in the future but one of the key financial accounting qualifications is not offered which is slightly off putting. But after completing this else where or if they were to offer this course on a one off option i would be honoured to return to this organisation.

The social life is very good as everyone wants to get involved and get you involved with whats going on. Sometimes you feel like the members around you are on a different path but they welcome you to the group and help you fit in very quickly. Incredibly fun atmosphere created by everyone.

My living expenses were minimal due to some perks within the people i know. I can state that the prices around this area are certainly not cheap but the area is of good homely quality which does not make me feel like i have left home to work elsewhere. Accessible to shops, hospitals and clubs.

The nightlife was very fun. You are very close to a famous club within the Surrey vicinity which is called Tru. This is a place where great memories and a lot of friends have come together. Fantastic if your looking for a good night out with some of your new work mates!

Many local clubs are available like cricket, football, rugby etc. If you look in the right places there are many centres available near to the office. Another great place where the people work with can meet and get to know each other better. Networking at its finest, i would highly recommend this.