Management Consulting Intern - PwC Review

I thoroughly enjoyed the internship with PwC in management consulting - the team I was working with, and the company as a whole, were incredibly accommodating and ensured that I was making the most of my time. I was set a variety of different tasks which were incredibly varied and allowed me to work on key skills including technological capabilities as well as the networking aspects.

I was treated as any other full-time employee of the company with the exception of the additional guidance I received when first starting out. My colleagues constantly set me work that I would find interesting, and that was in line with my personal goals/objectives, rather than simply giving me work that they didn't want to do themselves - something I hugely appreciated!

My team was incredibly helpful and answered any questions I had, and were more than happy to spend some time with me to talk through anything which I wasn't sure about. I also received help with formulating my objectives and making the team aware of these so that work I was set could be shaped by my personal goals.

The emphasis placed on a good work-life balance was very refreshing within my team - whilst I was sufficiently busy between the hours of 9-5 there was no expectation that I would stay past 5pm. On some days, however, there was not a lot for me to do at all hence there was occasional boredom.

I was given more responsibility than I would have expected before starting the internship - I was asked to create key documents that would be delivered to the client, I sometimes ran meetings and calls, and was given the responsibility of presenting one of my key pieces of work to both fellow employees and to clients.

Many of the skills I worked upon will be incredibly helpful in the future - for example, learning how to interact with certain clients or key individuals was useful to learn about. As I was based within a tech team, I also developed my skill-set in different programs and software such as Excel/google sheets and power BI.

Within my team, there was constant interaction and a very friendly atmosphere. Everyone was incredibly understanding of my position as an intern and went above and beyond to make me feel welcome and at ease. The social side of my team was definitely a positive as there were plenty of opportunities for team dinner and drinks occasions.

The internship was well organised overall, especially with the few days of training at the beginning which provided a good opportunity to meet all interns from different lines of service and different offices. However, once I started on my engagement it took a slight push to get some tangible items of work set, though these initial issues quickly resolved themselves with little effort required.

There was definitely a large investment in my training and development, with numerous opportunities to learn new skills and become competent with different pieces of software. My team also set me up with different online training courses so that I could learn more about the Agile methodology that was being used within my team.

I would definitely enjoy working with PwC in the future given the amazing way that staff are treated, as well as the highly engaging and interesting work available. Being surrounded by highly intelligent individuals certainly promotes the company as a desirable place to work, as it pushes you to put in as much effort as possible.

There was not a lot that was organised by PwC in terms of interns' social events, however there was still a relatively strong number of interns from the office who would go for drinks on a Friday night. There could have been a bit more cross-line-of-service socialising pushed by PwC as obviously the pub isn't for everyone so this may have excluded a couple of people.

In terms of cost of living, I was staying at home during the internship so had very few expenses other than lunch and train tickets. Birmingham has a good range of cheap bars/pubs/clubs so if you know where to go it isn't expensive at all - also on team meals/socials it is generally the case that food/drinks are paid for by the company!

Birmingham nightlife is definitely good enough for an enjoyable time! There are numerous activities that stay open into the early hours of the morning that don't necessarily involve drinking (eg my team and I went to a bowling alley on one social) and also plenty of good bars and clubs.

The main opportunities outside of work were food & drink based, with the exception of a trip to a bowling alley. Though there could have been a bit more variation, there were still plenty of events going on and at least 1 team meal per week, which were always enjoyable.