Financial services audit intern Review

It was a very rewarding experience and I definitely learned what life would be life as a first year on the graduate scheme. I was initially nervous but settled in straight away and enjoyed the internship. There were quite a lot of intern as it is a big company so I made some friends along the way.

Everyone here was very welcoming and so lovely to speak to. They all made an effort to introduce themselves and check up on me to see how I was doing which was very thoughtful. They treated me as a colleague or a first year on the graduate scheme rather than just an intern and I very much felt a part of their team.

The team I was working on a project with made sure they talked me through every step of the work I had to do and explained it in a way that I understood, so I wasn't confused during the tasks. And I felt like I could always approach them and ask questions. I also had a buddy who I could go to for support. My people manager who was in charge of me throughout my internship was a bit more distant.

There was always work I could do which was good as I didn't want to be bored. But I wasn't pressured to finish tasks within a certain time so I could take my time and make sure I did it properly. Some days I had to wait for work but they really tried to make sure I had things to do.

I was given much more responsibility than I was expecting. I was interacting with clients and asking them to provide documents and I was making spreadsheets that they trusted were correct so I felt I had to do a good job. I did have to use my initiative which was a bit scary but rewarding.

I have definitely built on the accounting knowledge gained from my degree and understand how it is applied in real life which is really helpful. And my IT skills have improved dramatically. Also just learning about what life is life working in a corporate job will definitely help me in any job I go on to do.

There was a reasonably clear structure in terms of training and inductions and then which projects we would be working on. However I wasn't booked to projects for the last couple of weeks. We knew well in advance when our final presentation would be and the 6 weeks went quite quickly.

Here they invest heavily in each individuals personal development. There were many online training courses that would be useful throughout my career and they even sent us on an overnight training trip at their training centre outside of London which was really fun. There were also optional talks and training I could do and I attended one.

A very high proportion of interns and placements students are offered a gradate role which is reassuring and means we aren't all competing aggressively against each other. There are also many opportunities to move around internally between departments and do secondments. It is also a very good place to complete training before moving to another company.

Everyone was really nice and wanted to make friends. We made an interns group chat and went out a couple of times. The company also arranged a couple of social events as part of their expenses for the interns which helped us to get to know each other. In general in London offices it is very social, with colleagues going out for food/drink at least once a week.

Unfortunately the cost of living is very high in this part of London, so it is impossible to live very close which means a long commute. Food and drink in this area is extortionate as everyone around here is from a corporate office. I am from London and even I was shocked by the drinks prices at some bars!

There are lots of ways to socialise here. For example there is a choir and sports clubs (I attended netball). And probably many more that I am unaware of. And they hold many socials such as end of month drinks. These activities are a great way to network between departments.