Assurance Intern Review

I had a great experience at the Southampton EY office. The teams I worked with were extremely supportive and friendly, and I felt that I learned a lot during this internship. Because the Southampton office is so small, there is a very tight-knit office feel even though people are constantly in and out of the office.

I felt quite valued by my colleagues because they invested a great amount of time in me. Every person I spoke to was very encouraging and willing to take their time to explain new concepts to me when I was confused. I felt that they truly cared about my development during the internships.

For the first half of the internship, I was extremely busy with tasks, but as the internship went on, the office went into a bit more of a slower period, so there was less work for me. I wonder if it would be better for this internship to be earlier in the summer, so it occurs during a busier period.

I understood that the majority of the work I was doing was not the most important part of the audit, but that was understandable as it was my first experience in the field, and I had so much to learn. I was most surprised that my team had me meeting with clients one-on-one quite early on in the internship though. This made me feel that I was making an important contribution to the team.

While the work I did during the internship is not quite relevant to my degree, I think I developed a number of transferable general business skills, such as working in a professional team environment, interacting with clients, and developing my excel skills. I also think working in audit allowed me to learn about a number of businesses that I had previously known nothing about.

Because it was a small office, there is quite a family-feel. Most of my colleagues told me that you end up knowing most of the office after you work there for a bit. I found that many people had made close friends within the office after working there for a bit.

It was well organized for the majority of the internship, but towards the end there was less work to do overall, so the time went by a bit slower. I found work to be more enjoyable when it was busier, so the last week or so was probably the least interesting time of the internship.

This internship has left me with a very positive impression of EY. I was so impressed with how much time all my colleagues invested in me and the comraderie I saw in the office. I found EY to have nice people that care a lot about your development. I feel like this is a great organization to learn from, and there seem to be many opportunities for growth within the company.

People were extremely friendly and quite social in the office. Most of my colleagues had made close friends in the office and seemed to spend their weekends and even holidays with colleague friends. I attended one social where I went out with my colleagues, and I had a great time.

Southampton is ok. Rent is moderately expensive, but quite cheap compared to London. There are some nice restaurants in Southampton, but there isn’t much to do otherwise. The location was one of the negatives of my internship, but fortunately there are plenty of great places like Bournemouth, Winchester, & London nearby.