Associate Review

I thought it was a really good six weeks overall. I was nervous before starting my placement as I haven’t worked for a big company before but I was made to feel welcome and I met some great people over the placement. I found the work hard at times but I learnt a lot.

I felt valued by colleagues. I think I must have met about 50 people over the six weeks in various teams and everyone was very nice. Even the white senior staff like directors who were always nice and took time to speak with me despite there being a lot of work on in the team.

During the six weeks I had counsellor who is responsible for linking in with me and who gets my feedback, and links in with any problems or just for general support. At times it was difficult to reach my counsellor by email but I realise it was a busy time for them too.

I had a good balance of work. I was surprised I was given work to do straight away even as I was getting to learn about my laptop and how it functioned! At times I did photocopying and made tea and coffee but I did much less admin than I expected beforehand.

I was given a good amount of responsibility overall. This helped me learn a lot about the audit work I did and how it all linked in to the process of signing off the financial statements. At other times I did more admin tasks but overall the difficulty was about right.

I’m not doing a business related degree so overall this work placement won’t make any difference to my degree next year at uni. But I chose EY as they don’t require a specific degree. I’m not sure if I’ll stay in finance after university it depends if I’m made an offer!

The office atmosphere was actually quite quiet and I did not get to meet all that many people in the wider teams which is a shame. But I figure they are busy. It was good to meet at office socials but in the office itself it’s a bit quiet overall.

I think the placement was well set up. We had a nice welcome when I got to meet dozens of other interns. Then it was getting my laptop and induction and straight into work. It was good to have socials and a final day when we all got together again which was fun.

Yes the firm invested in me and I really value how they made me feel welcome and gave me the tools I needed to do the job (both in terms of physical things like my laptop, but also knowledge training such as the technical sessions when I learnt how to do the day job).

I figure I would like to work in EY at the end of my uni course because the firm invested in me and I was made to feel welcome. The firm is seemingly in a good position as it has been immune to some of the scandals elsewhere in the industry.

There was a good social scene perhaps I would have liked more interesting socials as we did a few bars and sports things indoors but it could’ve been nice to do some outdoor socials too as it is the summer. On other days we had rain so might be difficult however.

It was really expensive where I was based but I expected that. You don’t get reduced rates as a new starter so that’ll be a big hit if I start work full time and the cost of transport is high too. I might not afford a car and public transport

The nightlife was really good. There were lots of bars and clubs. I think if you went to one every night you wouldn’t run out of places to go even after the six weeks! It was a bit like being at uni but with no student offers which was a shame.

Yes outside of work I was involved in the EY community day when we did some volunteering work, so a sort of giving back which was quite cool. The firm have a branch called the EY foundation which I didn’t know about which that was linked in with. That was great fun.