Audit intern Review

Having gone into the internship with little prior experience of accounting I learnt a huge amount during my time at Grant Thornton. It was a great experience for me and all the staff there made me feel welcome and were very helpful in teaching me about auditing, for which I was very grateful.

Everyone at GT made me feel very valued, gave me lots of work that was important for the audit rather than getting me to photocopy or make coffee which is what you fear you might end up doing. Nobody talked down to me or treated me any differently to a full time employee.

Everyone that I worked under was a huge help to me, they explained everything clearly to me before I started working on it. I was also free to ask all the questions I needed to to understand things and at no point did anyone show any annoyance at my persistent asking of questions.

The internship was largely a 9-5 job with some differences depending on which audit you were on, the longest day I worked was probably 8-6 but that was rare. Only on one or two days was there too little work for me to do, most days I was kept busy which was good.

I felt I was given a lot of responsibility for an intern as I was entrusted to complete different parts of the audit and I was left to my own devices most of the time to complete the work I had been given. Obviously my work would have been reviewed by someone more senior though.

I study history as a degree so the accounting skills won't be relevant for that but will hopefully give me a head start when I start to study for the ACA to become a qualified accountant after university. We received some presenting training which should be very beneficial in the future and has already helped develop my confidence.

The office was open plan with a hot desking arrangement so as an intern you could be sat a few feet away from a partner which kept you on your toes. In general the office had a relaxed and friendly atmosphere with some background noise from chatter but not too much.

A good example is that GT paid for all the 100+ interns and placements to go down to a conference in London for two days in which several partners and the CEO gave up their time to speak to us which I think shows that GT are serious about investing in their interns.

After performing well during my internship I was offered a job in the audit department which shows that there is a clear path from intern to grad offer if you work hard. It's a great organisation with many offices around the UK and different departments so it's exciting to join GT.

There wasn't a lot of other interns and placements in my office and a couple of them were quite quiet and didn't get involved much. However I did bond with a couple of people and we went to watch the football together and have a drink after work which was nice.

I was working in Manchester so in general living costs were not too expensive. The Spinningfields area around where the office is in Manchester is itself quite expensive but in general Manchester is quite cheap for accommodation and food, especially if you're comparing it to London which is significantly more expensive.

Manchester is known for having a vibrant nightlife with books describing the Madchester of the 80s and 90s. I've lived in the city most of my life so had experienced the nightlife before the internship. There' s lots of good pubs and clubs and an abundance of cool bars in the Northern Quarter.