Assurance Intern Review

My ability to enjoy the EY internship came with EY's ability to make me feel comfortable from the outset about the following six weeks. The first day they have an induction for not only your office but all the offices nearby, allowing you to meet people in your same position, alleviating some of the first nerves. (Some things to be improved) As someone in audit (assurance), we weren't in the EY offices at all, and I think knowing where we would be going beforehand would have been useful. Especially not living in London, it was annoying to get somewhere to live for that time close to the EY office when you were barely there. I would also say that this meant I didn't get to know many other interns, since I was only with one other intern for two out of six weeks. Improving the social side, even if it was for something just for auditors, would have definitely helped knowing more people. I knew some people in tax who, because their desks were all next to each other, got to know each other a lot better. But I suppose it's tricky since I don't think any of the other service sectors had the same problem.

Without a doubt, the friendly and people-based culture was the highlight of the internship. At no point in the internship did I feel unable to ask any questions to someone in my team, everyone was happy to help and took a keen interest in my development within the company, whether they were a first year associate, senior manager, or partner.

EY assigns you a councillor whilst you are there, who is there to make sure you are getting the most out of your internship and provide guidance for you where needed. They will also try and make sure you partner shadow for a day, this again, helps guide you to see a different side of the company and provides you with an insight as to whether that would be a long term goal of yours. Much like everyone else in the company, the partner, although busy, never made me feel he didn't have time for a question I had.

Within assurance, you are assigned to two or more clients, and the workload definitely varies from client to client. My first client was quite intense, working from 9:00-19:00 some nights, but then my second client was the complete opposite with a much more chilled environment, and since the workload was less I was able to chat with my team more and go out for coffee with different people I was interested in connecting with in the firm that weren't in audit, then my third client was a balance of the two, leaving just after five each day but still being in a very calm environment.

I feel for an intern, with no accounting experience, I was given the most responsibility they could. I was the preparer of several documents for an audit and although all my work was reviewed, this never felt like a patronising thing and more just a general check. The responsibility definitely felt close to the sort I would be given in my first year there.

My degree is engineering, so I don't think this will be relevant, but then again, that wasn't the point of me doing it, and if anything, having the diversity of different degrees made the company environment a whole lot better. In terms of development past and outside of uni, I imagine it will help a lot, it gave me a good insight into not only audit, but also the structures of companies we audit.

Again, much like the workload changing from client to client, so did the atmosphere. In all the offices the people were always really friendly and approachable. Of course, it was always work driven but this never got in the way of being able to chat and get to know the people around you.

I don't think I can fault much in terms of organisation, it is clear this is something that EY has been doing for many years and has been perfecting along the way. The only negative I have is that the mid-way social was cancelled last minute and rescheduled for the fifth week leaving only one week left after this. I don't think this would have been too bad had I not been in the office for the first four weeks there.

You are on a good salary when interning there and the people around you definitely invest their time in you as well. They also put in investment in terms of giving you a councillor and a buddy (someone in their first or second year there to be a friendly face for you from the outset). There is little else that I could have asked them to invest in those six weeks.

EY said that 85% of interns are offered a job at the end of the placement. I am yet to hear back from them (I finished the internship yesterday and they get back to you within two weeks), but I got the feeling that with good feedback, the only reason why they wouldn't give it to you was because of not having the places (which with an 85% rate is surely unlikely).

Like I said before, the big problem with the auditing / assurance service line was the social side between yourself and other interns since you are never in the main office. You spend the first two days with all the interns but because that's for all the interns from London to Bristol etc. and across all service lines, I only met one other person in my office and service line during those two days. I did feel that the social side between the team was good, all the teams were really friendly and within my six weeks there were several drinks and long lunches to socialise and get to know them better.

I worked in London, so it's never going to be cheap. EY does make an effort to give you socialising opportunities for free (there were two socials, one at a bowling alley at the very beginning, one at a crazy gold place at the end, both with two free drinks tokens). Even with that though, it is still expensive, but was sort of expected in London.

Apart from expense, the Nightlife was really good, and even with the expense, it is fairly easy to know how to make it into a cheap(ish) night. As someone very familiar with London, I didn't have too many problems enjoying the nightlife and making the most of what's on offer there.

As I have said before, the EY atmosphere is incredibly friendly so I always felt there were opportunities for outside work activities. As someone LGBTQ+, I was able to get involved in outside work activities for their LGBTQ+ network called Unity, meeting some people heavily involved as well as general members as well.