Assurance Summer Intern Review

The work side of the internship was fantastic - the teams I got to work with were so inclusive and seemed to really enjoy having me there. It cemented my aspirations of joining EY. My breadth of clients was diverse and impressive, and I really felt fulfilled with my work. The social side was great, with an induction in Glasgow, a day planting trees in the community, a pizza social, a summer party, and an escape room! There is also the opportunity to socialise with some of your team outside of work but this is completely up to you. The only downside was that there was no sense of someone “overseeing” the whole internship. With that I mean, it seems like student recruitment were disconnected from our counsellors, and both were disconnected from the teams we were working with. This sometimes made it hard to understand who to contact with different queries.

Every employee at every level was so friendly and inclusive. Even the office managing partner made time for a meeting with me even though she had barely any time in the office, and she gave me excellent advice for my future and made me feel like I would be a great candidate for the office.

When you are on the job, everyone more senior than you will be happy to help you, give you work and answer any questions you may have. However, contact from student recruitment is very limited in this period and I found they could be too busy to talk to you and answer questions to do with the recruitment side of the internship. In my whole time in the office I did not see anyone from student recruitment, and only received one Skype call asking how I was getting on.

My first client was a FTSE 100 company, and they gave me real work to do from the get-go. I also got to speak to the client regularly and although this seems a bit daunting, the experience was amazing and I hope I get to work on this client if I get a graduate offer. Some of the other interns struggled for work at times, however personally I always had a lot going on. I only spent 2 days of the whole six weeks in the office.

With one of the clients I worked on, we were only booked on site for four days and so there was a very limited amount of time to do the majority of the audit. This meant the team actually relied quite heavily on me to get a lot of the work done. This made me feel valued and I enjoyed having the responsibility.

Everything I did during the internship was a legitimate audit task. This means that if I get the opportunity to join next year, I will already know how to do a lot of the tasks. The client facing side also developed my confidence and improved how I interact with new people. These skills will help me immensely in my career even if I don’t get into audit.

I was only in the office for a couple of days, but the general atmosphere was very laidback and friendly - not tense and stressful which some people might expect from a big four company. This atmosphere followed to client sites, I never felt uncomfortable or like I was burdening the team - they always make you feel valued.

You are assigned to clients and given a timetable for who you will be working on and with. A member of the team will get in contact with you beforehand to ask how you will be getting to site and give you a number to call if you have any issues. You are never left by yourself and are kept updated via Skype and email. It could have been improved with just a weekly group chat Skype message with the counsellor, student recruitment member, a senior on the team you’re working with and yourself. Just a 10 minute chat to gauge how the week went and an opportunity for the intern to ask questions.

I find it extremely appealing. I am also hoping for an offer and I get the impression that they get back to you very quickly. Everyone I worked with made some sort of comment relating to hoping that I get the job, and Have added me on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Very cheap. I went to university here so I have a good idea of the cost of living and socialising here. One of the appealing things is the low house prices compared to places down south (especially London). Local offices also offer a wider variety of clients which is also appealing.

The office held a summer party which all the interns and staff were invited to. It was a great event and everyone from the interns to the partners attended. There were bouncy castles, free ice cream and popcorn, and free drinks! I would encourage everyone to go to socialise with potential future work mates.