Discover EY Women in Transaction Insight Day Review

This virtual women in transactions insight day was filled with lots of different woman speakers who gave a great insight into what it is like to work at EY. They went into great detail and were very encouraging for the candidates to ask any questions they had on different issues. Overall, very enjoyable

We were made to feel very welcome by the employees and student recruitment team on this virtual program. They spoke about how people orientated the firm was and it really was shown. So much detail was put into the day, in such difficult times. With any email enquiries, they were very quick and helpful to respond

For this insight day, there was a great amount of support given to the candidates. Before the day started, we were all given very detailed instructions to access Microsoft teams, the platform that this virtual day was run on to make sure everything ran smoothly. During the insight day, there were also good instructions given to make sure we knew exactly what was expected

There were many skills developed by myself during this application process. These include building confidence through personal resilience, personal branding, and through the creation of our own 'elevator pitch'. It was great to gain this confidence boost to transfer in group work in university and when giving presentations, as well as more confidence for further applications

The discover EY insight day was very well structured. At the start, a timetable was displayed on our screens. This pinpointed exactly what program was going on at each point in the day. Each speaker kept to their allotted time slot to ensure the day ran smoothly. Good breaks were also given to the candidates

The general atmosphere during the insight was overall positive. We were told by all the speakers how well we had done to get to this stage in the process which was very encouraging as these processes are lengthy, and at times quite stressful to manage alongside university coursework. After applying to many insights and hearing negative feedback, it was nice to hear from human beings that we were doing well.

The personal training and development given by EY during this virtual insight day was of really good quality considering these exceptional circumstances. As previously mentioned, the personal development exercises such as building a personal brand and being more personally resilient will be both good to improve the quality of my university work and become more confident in my own abilities

This insight gave me a good understanding what it would be like to have a full time role with EY. By talking to different employees on their question time style panel, and by having an online chat function made it very easy to ask questions. It would have been good to have had videos simulating a day in the office would be my feedback for this section.

I feel this insight helped me understand the company culture better than I did before. At every stage, it was very very clear how people and client orientated EY is. By having a counsellor assigned to each employee and new graduates getting assigned a buddy, it is clear that they want their staff to feel comfortable in their working environment

I think the content was very valuable in helping me to decide on my future career path. It is very hard to make sense of all the different areas of accounting from different webpages. I would definitely still consider a career in transactions, but at this early stage would not rule out a career in different sectors of the firm.

Initially, the day was meant to be held at the London bridge office, and candidates who lived more than 1hr30 minutes away, were offered accommodation either by EY or if you had somewhere else to stay then this was reimbursed. Unfortunately due to COVID-19, we were no longer able to go to the office, so expenses were not needed to be reimbursed as I had not booked accommodation at this point.

Initially, the day was meant to be held at the London bridge office and it was discussed that at the lunch break we would be able to network with different employees of EY. Unfortunately due to COVID-19, we were no longer able to go to the office. However, we heard in talks from a huge amount and variety of employees at the firm at different stages of their career.

Due to the nature of this insight day, we were based on a laptop from our homes. We were not made aware of any additional opportunities to network at our local EY bases around the UK. I think this would have been beneficial to have discussed which has therefore reflected in my lower rating.

I was able to find out about many different activities that employees can get involved in outside of work. For example, they are given two days a year to get involved in volunteering projects, However, they did not discuss different sporting activities that the different offices get involved in which is of interest to me.

I would definitely recommend this insight day to my friends in the year below me studying all subjects. EY seems like a great place to work if you can get in the door and the insight day seems to give you a good start out the blocks. It does seem however, very tricky and limited to get a summer internship, which at some points was not portrayed. Overall, I enjoyed myself on this insight day.