Consulting Summer Intern Review

I took part in a one-week virtual internship programme, as a replacement for the 6-week in-person scheme originally offered. Given the circumstances it was a great week, learning from a variety of people within the organisation, and with some good opportunities to meet fellow interns through a group project. Occasionally the more general sessions, streamed to all interns, lost engagement a little, but interactive tools such as Menti meant this was rarely an issue. Very grateful to all involved.

The buddy and mentor I interacted with during the programme were both incredibly helpful and supportive, and I hope to stay in touch with them, helping me feel valued. The positive feedback gained from the group consulting case study also helped build my confidence. Inevitably, being virtual it was difficult to get all that much individual attention, but the impression the company gave certainly made it seem as if I would be valued in future.

Individual guidance was necessarily limited, but the mentors and buddies were helpful on this front, and the team coordinating my service line's sessions were engaging and made the week light and enjoyable. The more general guidance in terms of whole-cohort training sessions was of mixed quality, but all the interns I spoke to seemed to take a lot away from a presentation skills session, so that seemed particularly valuable. The team were on hand throughout.

Skills-building was a little limited in a single week, but I built my confidence presenting and working virtually in a professional environment. The information received was fantastic, particularly from my buddy and my mentor, in smaller chats where both parties could be a little more honest about the realities of their working lives! I had a host of questions going in that were all answered, and I am now much more confident in perusing a career in this area.

The internship was only 10-4 rather than 9-5 as contracted, but it is difficult to complain about this! They days were pretty packed with agendas shared in advance of each one. The week sagged a little in the middle where there were more larger 'Teams Live' calls and less in my service line, but starting and finishing on a bang was probably a good way of doing it. Microsoft Teams, without proper breakout rooms and with frequent quirks, is not a great platform to conduct such a week, but the team did everything they could to work around it.

Overall the inters and staff from EY were positive and enthused throughout. It would have been great to see the faces of some of the other interns in my service line before the case study presentations on the Friday, as I got to know those in my group but only saw the writing of / occasionally heard the others. At one point we were given a bit of a stern talking-to and reminded that we were being paid and expected to attend all sessions, so clearly there had been problems with some individuals.

There were some generic training sessions for all interns, such as regarding presentation skills, time management, managing personal finances and mental health (mindfulness). Some of these were fairly common-sense stuff, I don't know how much practically I'll be taking from them all, but your mileage may vary depending on your level of prior experience. Some more training specific to my service line would have been appreciated, / maybe topics that were a little more advanced.

If you're prepared to make the most of the few individual / small-group interactions you have with employees then you can gain a very thorough understanding. It's always a challenge to see past the utopian recruitment spiel and see the downsides and well as the advantages of a particular job / organisation, but full credit to the individuals I spoke to for being honest and having a go. I have a much fuller understanding of what my life would be like as a graduate.

It helped to an extent, mostly simply by the way in which sessions were conducted and employees interacted with us interns. We got the usual sales pitch about the EY values and 'NextWave' on the first day, which had some value but ultimately such slogans are relatively generic. The people I encountered were a clear indication of the type of organisation EY is, and made me excited by the prospect of working there. The fellow interns were great too!

Absolutely - although it wasn't always the most interactive, and I'm sure tweaks will be made in this regard if internships are held virtually again in future, it was a great opportunity to meet people, gain a lot of insight into the company, and build some practical skills. If offered something in-person or longer then I'd take that instead, but for what it was I couldn't have asked for all that much more from the EY team.