Summer intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my internship at EY. It was an exciting 6 weeks which was well strucured and I really felt involved in the company. It was a great insight into what life at the company could potentially look like.

The first few days were a little tough, as can be expected at any firm. However once I started on tasks and began to deliver, I felt that the teams I was in were quick to give me more work and were keen to get me involved. By the end I definitely felt like a valued member of the team.

With regards to support, I spent most of my internship on a client site. This meant that a lot of the formal structure of support was not possible. Despite this, I felt informally very supported by my colleagues, and my counsellor and various managers were always happy to talk to me about any concerns, and made an active effort to make me feel welcome.

First 5 days: 3/10 2nd week: 5/10 3rd to 6th week: 9.5/10 I was working on the group year end of my client, and by halfway in was treated like an ordrinqry member of the team. This meant I had a significant workload and was pulling long hours (9:00-22:30) regularly. I quite enjoyed this as I felt I got a lot out of my time. As a side note other interns I spoke to said that they were not very busy and were constantly having to seek out extra work.

By the time I had proven myself on a few tasks I was given the responsibility akin to a 1st year grad. I had to take ownership of my work as I was solely working on tasks and we working to deadlines. This is realistic of the work environment and I really enjoyed being relied upon.

I developed excel skills and business knowledge significantly during my time. As well as this I developed accounting knowledge and practical know how about the job. My colleagues were very happy to assist me with any problems. Despite this, I came into the job with a good level of accounting skills and excel competence. I feel that if I had entered with a weaker skillset that the teams would not have had time to train me up to a usable standard, as there was never any specific training time allocated.

Atmosphere was excellent. Great people and very friendly. I was in the Reading office, and would highly recommend it to anyone concerned about the stale/unfriendly atmosphere London offices often have.

It relied a lot upon individual staff members, I’m not certain how much actual structure there was behind the scenes. The buddy system is a little superfluous but gives you someone to talk to in the first weeks.

Team members were happy to sit down and talk me through any problems, and certainly seemed keen to help me develop - regardless of whether I came back as a graduate.

Everyone I spoke to made me feel very positively about the firm. Especially obvious was the culture of pushing through and promoting strong candidates and high achievers, which is a very appealing environment.

I was with a great bunch of interns. Really fun socials, and we also got to know a lot of the other staff as well. From my experience EY is full of friendly and tun individuals who most people would enjoy spending time with.

I lived at home for my internship. Cost was ok for me, as my client site was nearby. If you were working from London the intern wage would likely not cover short term living costs.

Nightlife was pretty good. Lots of nice bars in Reading.

There was an office party in my first week, which was really fun. Beyond that I was invited to come along to any office social events after work. These were fairly regularly and usually good fun.