Assurance Summer Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed this experience. Without exaggerating I believe that the experience was the best it could have been given the unprecedented times and the minimal time to prepare. The Case Study in particular was the closest thing we had to an actual audit task and I found it an extremely valuable and enjoyable task. I also found the various talks surrounding the non-financial aspects of EY and EY assurance to be eye-opening and will definitely make it easier when transitioning into the graduate scheme next year.

Again, given the virtual nature of the programme and the complete reliance of 200 participants on technology, I felt that I was valued as well as was possible. It was great to be able to split into and work in smaller groups and the interactions with EY employees were the times I felt most valued. Like I said, in terms of a more personable experience I do not believe this was possible given how quickly the EY team had to adapt and out on a virtual replacement.

The best way to sum this up is to say that I never felt lost at any point throughout the week. Given the experience was completely virtual it could have been easy to slip off the radar and become distanced from what was happening. This never happened to me, I was given as much guidance' support as I had sought. Working and getting to know other interns in smaller groups also provided a form of a support network.

The soft skills were hugely beneficial to life, both working and normal. Various learning and development sessions including mindfulness were extremely eye-opening and something that assists in a healthy state of mind. Presentation, time management and health talks were all highly valuable and transferable skills for my degree and for my upcoming years in professional employment. Applying the skills learned to my life I believe will make a significant impact and it is something I had not given much thought to before this experience.

It is worth mentioning that none of the other Big 4 Accounting firms apart from EY had put the time and effort in to provide an experience and learning opportunities for their incoming interns. This is a huge point. Not only did EY take it upon themselves to buck that trend, they had also made it in a way that I personally got so much out of. The structure of the week was very easy to follow and the only slight disruptions were at the fault of technology not personnel.

The general atmosphere was highly energetic and inspiring which I found motivated me highly throughout the week. Every member of EY staff was extremely approachable and extremely welcoming. My experience and interactions with the other interns was nothing but positive and I thoroughly enjoyed working together with some of them on our projects. The mentors that helped us with the project were all very friendly and open to answering questions (no matter how difficult) that we had about EY and their experience working in Assurance.

I did slightly cover this in a previous post but I am happy to emphasise this point. EY not only focussed on the technical side to excelling in Assurance but they also made it a priority to educate us on the other sides of working life that really have an effect on you as a person. Whether this be managing a work-life balance or prioritising employee wellbeing, the importance was emphasised to us all. In terms of technical development, the concept of EY badges and the promotion structure was also highlighted.

This was something that I believe was heavily emphasised throughout the experience. Testimonies of the values of the company were clearly authentic and genuine. I saw for myself proof that EY really is a people's firm that puts their people first. There are clearly various support networks available to EY people and everyone is extremely friendly. To put it simply, it genuinely is the culture and the people of EY that differentiate it from the other Big 4 and make it such a special place to work.

I had already received an offer of full-time employment with EY after passing a partner interview before undertaking this virtual experience. However, I was initially planning on using he 6-week summer internship to verify that Assurance and EY was the path I wanted to follow so the impact of coronavirus had negatively impacted me in this sense. However, I felt that this virtual experience was extremely good at portraying what EY and Assurance is really like and I now feel 100% confident and excited to start a career with them.

The firm was extremely generous to make this week a paid experience. In a usual internship, the interns would work on actual clients and EY would charge the clients a rate for our time. The intern would then be paid a faction of what was earned so the firm actually makes money from hiring interns. In this virtual experience this was not the case. We were not working on actual client work and therefore we were not making the firm any money this summer. They still decided to pay us for the week which I was extremely impressed with and it felt like they had actually valued our time.

I would 100% recommend this virtual experience to a friend, or anyone really! There were no real drawbacks to this week at all. In simple terms, you get out of the experience what you put in. The scope of learning opportunities throughout this week was vast yet there were ample breaks built into each day. The Case Study in particular gave is all the opportunity to work on something tangible and was a source of great value for us all.