Nation Market Audit Vacation Student Review

The insight programme was really great and informative! I was really worried before starting as I thought I wouldn't know what to do, however (whilst it was a steep learning curve) everything was explained really well and everyone was happy to help when we struggled. I enjoyed doing two weeks at each client site as it allowed us to experience two different locations, as well as doing a year end audit and an interim.

I felt extremely valued during the internship. Whilst the work that I did was quite basic I knew that it was extremely important that it was done properly. I was explained everything by my supervisors and the importance of it. I was also integrated well into the team and participated in activities such as the weekly quiz.

I felt like I received a lot of support and guidance. Anytime I needed help with anything I felt comfortable to ask anyone on my team, and all my tasks were well explained before I started.

The predominant skills attained during this vacation scheme were teamwork, commercial/business awareness and organisation. All of these, I am certain, will help me with my masters project! Also specific excel skills, such as the use of pivot tables, will definitely aid me with the experimental aspect of my degree. I am used to dealing with large amounts of data in a specific way, and so to learn a new method means that I can employ this next year during my experiments.

It was very well structured, though I feel that we should have been a bit more informed before we started our internship as to what to expect (e.g. been told in advance that we would be sent to client sites). This would have allowed us to make arrangements such as purchasing tickets in advance or researching about the clients sector. Whilst I felt that I had plenty of work to do in my projects I know that quite a few interns suffered from having no work to do, and so I feel like we should have been set additional tasks/training for us to do when lacking work (though I know that it allowed some of us to be more proactive which is important!)

Really friendly! I was worried that it would be very serious and stressful being in this environment but I was pleasantly surprised with how friendly people were and the nice environment. Everyone was happy to joke around and make the workplace a fun and enjoyable place to be in. In addition, I was also pleasantly surprised with how down to earth the senior partners and directors were, in addition to how they seemed keen to spend time with the interns and get to know them.

I felt like they had invested in us quite a lot, as we were given all the new equipment to use throughout our vacation scheme. We also were integrated into proper projects with real KPMG clients, as opposed to just forced to get coffee or make photocopies. The fact that we had a real impact on audits demonstrated the investment KPMG had made, as they were investing time and their reputation in order to train us. We were given regular meetings with our PM in order to discuss our personal development and thoughts of the vacation scheme.

I felt my internship in particular gave me a full picture of what it would be like to work in audit, as I experienced a year end audit and an interim. Because of this I feel like I can see the pressures of the job which others didn't get the chance to experience. I would recommend that all interns experience both, though I understand that it does depend on what projects are available and also what time of the year it is. Being on client site and also having the opportunity to talk with the clients meant that I learnt how important it was to develop a good professional relationship with the client.

I felt like I could really understand KPMG's values and culture by working with them and filling in My Passport, which directly showed with behavioural capabilities we had gained from certain tasks. I worked in the office during my last week of the vacation scheme which definitely helped me understand the work environment as well as the company culture- as everyone is always happy to help everyone with their respective project.

It was really valuable, as we were able to experience the daily tasks that occur in the job as well as the usual problems that arise (e.g. delays in receiving documents from the clients or eAudit!). It is experiencing this that allows us to determine whether this is something we want, as well as having a meeting with one of KPMG's partners. He spoke to us about progression in KPMG which was very informative and helpful. A suggestion would be that, in addition to sending us to client sites, we should shadow a director/manager to see what they do and how they manage several projects at once.

I was really happy with the pay as well as the reimbursed expenses, as travelling to client sites was expensive. Also it was very generous of KPMG to reimburse for lunches eaten at client site, as well as giving us daily credit at the KPMG canteen. A previous suggestion that I wanted to flag up would be to give us an advance notice of where our client sites are so that we could purchase tickets in advance, as sometimes they were quite expensive for students when travelling daily! At my second client site I could spend £20 a day on expenses, which was quite a lot for a student and especially as expenses are only reimbursed once a month.

Plenty of opportunities to meet other employees! I volunteered to work at a KPMG teach first recruitment fair and met quite a few employees from the London office in consulting. This allowed me to ask about their sector and what they thought. Also in the office it was easy to meet and talk to other auditors as well as at your client site.

Plenty of social opportunities! KPMG student recruitment team did a great job of integrating all the northern interns, with the escape the room being a fantastic experience! Also the interns were invited to go to the York races (unfortunately I could not attend) and we were taken out for lunch on our first day.

I didn't find out much about other activities employees can undertake. I knew that there are various societies that KPMG offer, such as Breathe or the Womens network. Apart from this I was unaware of what else there was to do. However, with the interns only being at KPMG for 4 weeks I can understand that there wasn't much time for us to apply to there different groups.

Definitely, I thought it was a fantastic experience that made me want to work here in the future. The skills gained were great, and even if you leave not wanting to do audit the connections you make are really good. Also, working with one of the Big four companies is a massive opportunity and I think we all felt very privileged to be there!