Technology Risk Consulting Summer Intern Review

The internship was moved online due to Covid. The online internship was very informative but also very speaker/panel heavy so it was difficult to stay engaged through the entirety. The best part of the internship was by far the group case study. It was really nice to meet other interns and feel like I was doing some active work. My particular EY office made a lot of effort to make me feel looked after; many team members reached out to me and they even threw a quiz to welcome the interns. One negative is that because the internship was reduced to one week instead of six, I only get a sixth of the pay I was counting on having. This financial aspect has never really been spoken about but I imagine has affected many other students negatively and made the internship inaccessible to some.

My colleagues put in a lot of time and effort to make us feel welcomed. Many partners took time out of their day to speak to us and make sure we were happy with the internship. The members of my office all individually reached out by phone and WhatsApp to check my progress and all of the interns were added to a group chat months before the internship started so that we could ask any questions.

I was contacted by at least one of my managers/supervisors/mentor/buddy/colleagues daily. They were eager to answer my questions and took time out of their day (outside of internship time) to make sure I had no questions and was settling in well even though the internship was online and only lasted a week. They made sure to answer all the questions I had and my buddy even listened to our group presentation and gave feedback ahead of the final day.

All of our activities were talks given on MS Teams so were quite passive. Each day had a full timetable but there were also very frequent breaks. At times I felt like I wasn't really working and there were a lot of overlaps in what people were presenting to us. I didn't really feel that I had done much work aside from the one case study but I do feel that I have an extremely good grasp on the company as a whole.

Since the placement was carried out online, we weren't really asked to complete many tasks. There was the group project case study which was engaging and the right level of work but it was clearly made up so did not feel responsible. Although the placement was limited by Covid, I think I would have preferred feeling like I was actually working and trusted to help. It would probably be more difficult to organise but I would have left the internship with a better grasp on the work and having learnt much more.

The daily learning sessions were interesting and useful but because they were passively learned I worry they won't stick. The group project also allowed us to build on teamwork, researching and presenting skills that I'm sure I will use in the future. I felt the internship was more skewed towards learning about the company rather than learning skills that we as interns could use and I hope that if it has to run remotely again this is something that can be improved on.

The internship was carried out online so we didn't get a chance to experience the office itself, however the office members all made a concerted effort to include us in their remote socials and answer any questions we had so I feel that I know the office fairly well without having worked there. They all seemed very welcoming and like they are genuinely friends outside of their working hours. I felt very included, even if it was only for one week.

Given the current climate the internship ran with virtually no issues which is impressive since it was so tech based. There was a lot of link changing in terms of calls which could maybe be refined but all in all I thought it was very well organised given how quickly they had to come up with an online alternative. I am very impressed with the work they put in for the summer internship, it speaks volumes about how much they value incoming graduates.

In terms of time, I felt EY invested heavily in the interns. Many partners and colleagues from all different strands of the firm gave up time to speak with us. Financially, we were only paid for one week of work and it wasn't living wage which is disappointing considering how much money the company makes. We had daily learning sessions but I would not go as far to say that we were particularly trained. However, I would say that given only a week, there is only so much training we could do.

We have been told that many interns get offered grad jobs with EY. Many colleagues spent a lot of time 'selling' working in the company to us and making sure everyone was aware of the benefits of working with EY. I feel like every intern got many opportunities to display their skills to the firm and feel confident in my abilities to get accepted in the EY grad scheme. Job prospects seem positive to me.

Since the internship was online, the socialising was about as good as it can be. Doing a group project with other interns in the same cohort gave each of us a chance to get to know each other and some online social activities were organised for us by our teams. Everyone was extremely friendly so I have no doubt that if the internships were held in person, I would have made many great friends. Online worked a little in our favour as I had the chance to interact with interns from offices all around the country.

The internship was held online and everyone dialled in from home due to Covid. Therefore the costs were entirely dependent on where each intern is from. The internship was not paid living wage which is disappointing given how much money the firm has and especially since we will only get a sixth of the pay (the six week internship was reduced to one week). I was, however, given an uber eats voucher from my team en lieu of a team meal at the end of the internship.

The internship was held online and everyone dialled in from home due to Covid. Therefore the nightlife is entirely dependent on where each intern is from. This question doesn't really apply since Covid means that all clubs are closed and most bars are operating on limited capacity. Most EY offices are in decent sized UK cities so I imagine they all have good nightlife when those places open back up.

My team ran a quiz but due to everything being run remotely this was the only activity that was available outside the internship. Considering it only ran for a week I thought this was still decent and I imagine that if the internship had run as normal there would be many opportunities for activities outside of work hours. EY seems to be an extremely friendly and welcoming company to work for. They seem to run many social opportunities.