TechnologyConsulting Summer Intern Review

I think my overall experience was okay, and I was lucky to really get on with one other intern and a few of the people on the grad scheme. I got to work with an internal team that trusted me to do work and produce things that they will use, so it was good to know my work would be useful.

Among the team I worked predominantly with, I was really values as a member (as I was the fifth member of the team). They trusted me to do real work towards the project and were friendly and helpful towards me. Members of the team definitely valued my existing abilities to code to help them out.

I feel like most days I had a fairly coherent idea of what I wanted to complete that day, although the first two weeks I was really unsure what I should be doing. My colleagues were really helpful in trying to answer my questions when I asked for there help, which was a great support.

The first few training days were busy, and so were the 4 days I spent working away from the office on a programme. For the most part I've had enough to busy myself for a day, but a lot of my work was really not challenging or using me to my best ability.

I was able to be trusted to go and create resources for the team I was working with, being given some guidance and guidelines then going off and doing it how I chose which was a good sense of responsibility. All my work will be checked over to make sure it's fine.

I think the most important skills I've developed here are my interpersonal skills, as this was the dominant area they wanted us to focus on in training. These skills are of course useful in any job and in general. I haven't developed any technical skills that will help me with my degree studies here.

Within my small team and the young grad/intern area, there was a good sense of atmosphere, and I felt comforted to walk in and see these friendly faces in the morning. As a whole, I think the office was not as friendly as previous places I have worked, and lacked an invited atmosphere from the perspective of a new starter.

The initial training we received in the first week of the internship was really well planned and structured, and it felt as though I'd learnt a lot. However, once getting to the office it felt as though what they'd planned had fallen through for a lot of interns and the training and job thus appeared very misaligned.

The team I worked with were really keen for me to learn some Python programming language in order to help them, and being allowed some time to learn this was really great as in investment in me for them to get something back. I think the training at the start was definitely a big investment to try and get new starters submerged into PwC in an active manner.

I think the company definitely has lots of appealing reasons to come back and join a grad scheme, especially with the ability to move sideways and locations within the firm that they advertise. I think if I was able to join the organisation but in a location nearer to my home I would definitely consider coming back.

Myself and the other interns did a few things as a group, and within that group smaller social activities arose which was really great to feel like I'd made some friends. The grads were really friendly and I went for lunch with them often as well as doing a few after work things with them too. I know that work have a monthly Friday after work event which is really good too.

The cost of living here is fairly reasonable, rent is relatively cheap, however transport and drinks out etc. are still quite expensive so you do need to watch your spending. Belfast is great in that it's fairly small so you can walk or taxi most places without it being unreasonable. The area I lived in (near QUB) felt really safe.

Belfast is great for going out for drinks and getting food. I personally didn't go out clubbing in my time here so can't comment on that, but there are lots of nice bars and pubs around that I would recommend. The only downside is that buses don't run late here, so if you plan to stay out til 11:30pm you need to be prepare to taxi or walk home.

I think with the other interns I probably found myself doing things about once a week. I was lucky that at weekends I had friends to see outside of work, and after work was busy with sports a lot. There's a good park run in Belfast, I would recommend if it's not a super rainy day!