Virtual Summer Intern - Tax Service Line Review

Although there were certainly parts of the experience I enjoyed - for example meeting the other interns - in terms of the experience provided by EY overall I would have to say I didn't enjoy it on balance. I really dislike being negative, but being totally honest it became a chore logging on by the end of the week. This was largely due to a lack of discipline demanded of the interns - sessions regularly started a few minutes late and participation within them was largely limited to Menti quizzes or chatbox Q&A at the end. I was not required to think critically or analytically in most of the sessions.

The student recruitment team seemed like genuinely lovely people who were trying their best on the whole and they did make us feel valued. However I would have felt more valued with more face to face interaction and genuine conversation rather than stilted Q&A. For example during one session the camera wasn't turned on because the presenter didn't like the look of her hair, which is understandable, but just made me feel quite remote. This is obviously largely down to the virtual nature of the internship. Furthermore, the competition that was running for for the best LinkedIn content felt a bit cheap in the end given that only 2 out of 50 candidates won EY merchandise when all of us had provided them with free marketing to our networks. I would have felt much more valued if everybody who entered was rewarded at some level for their effort.

The internship got off to a bad start with the email instructions saying to log on between 9-9.15am on the Monday morning but in fact the first session started at 10am. This was frustrating as there was no one you could contact for tech support or reassurance at that point except a general internship mailbox which was unmonitored. A phone number or the name of the session leader would have been more useful. With regard to specific support in terms fo tax knowledge we received essentially no training in tax bar one 1 hour long session and then began a case study where the implication was simply to use Google. This is slightly unfair because we also had access to an EY mentor for two sessions to discuss with but I would have preferred to learn some basic theory and then apply it rather than just googling of facts.

It's tricky to answer this question because on the face of it sessions covering mindfulness, wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, professional qualifications sound great. However they were pitched at an almost primary school level which came across to me as quite patronising even if it wasn't intended this way. Fair enough to do diversity training when you join the firm but to spend time on it during a week-long summer internship is a failure of prioritisation I would argue and more of a marketing tool rather than a genuinely useful skill. Clearly time management is crucial but I could learn those skills anywhere - there was nothing distinctively EY about those sessions. Headspace provides free mindfulness too for example, you don't need an hour long session on learning breathing techniques which the vast majority of people already know.

Structure was fairly loose given that no agenda for the week was released in advance. To be fair the agenda for each day was generously structured with ample breaks and an hour for lunch but again this just felt a bit like a cop-out even if it wasn't meant to be. A fifteen minute "comfort break" after a session with no engagement is not really required for example. It would have been far better to earn the breaks we received.

The general atmosphere was fairly insipid given that 50 interns spent 99% of their time on mute with no cameras and the student recruitment team talked at us via death by powerpoint. A fair attempt to improve it was made on the final day with a fun Kahoot quiz but by that point there was no camaraderie and nobody knew the three people who had won the quiz - they were just faceless names unfortunately.

Similarly to the skills question it's tricky to say - they invested a lot of time in us in the sense they paid professional to teach us mindfulness and time management but we were also being paid to be there so I think for the amount of money invested in us there probably could have been a greater payoff in terms of personal development. They would have invested far more in us during a 6-week placement and it's hard to get that out of my head.

I think I definitely understand the full time role I would have within the company but I'm not sure this is a particularly goof impression. EY definitely talk the talk on their purpose and values and the strength of their people but it is the latter that doesn't seem to be as strong as they make out. It seems to be a fairly corporate organisation that has a lot of great features such as the badges programme - but relatively little uptake of these schemes by their people. This may be a false impression but it's the one I got.

The company culture appears to be very relaxed and very friendly. It certainly doesn't seem to have the cut-throat environment that you might expect from a professional services firm. However I think this over the top positivity slightly masks weak performance. Sessions that were incredibly boring were greeted with a gushing endorsement by the recruitment team but this came across slightly fake. In their heart of hearts they must have known that they were not good presenters but they couldn't say it.

The content was certainly helpful in determining my future career path but probably ultimately for the wrong reasons. Several EY tax specialists joked about how boring the service line was but none of them gave a convincing answer as to actually why it is a stimulating path for a young person. I appreciate them not sugar-coating in this sense but it's hardly inspiring to say that you will get to research tax law and fill out VAT returns.

I was paid for the week a fairly average pro rata rate, but I can't hide my disappointment at only receiving one week of pay rather than 6 which would have actually made it worthwhile. Obviously no one can help coronavirus but several firms paid interns for the whole contractually agreed period pre-pandemic whereas we had to sign a new contract which reduced the total remuneration by 5/6. It might have been nice to increase the hourly rate for the one week as a small gesture.

Not really, we had access to three members of the student recruitment team, one EY buddy and one EY mentor. Beyond that we could reach out to any session speakers but it might have been nice to have opportunities to meet interns across other service lines and even within the tax service line. I only met the five members of my team but there were 50 tax interns - so I didn't meet the vast majority of my internship cohort which was sad.

There were no social events. Belfast interns apparently had a social event but for those of us in England and Scotland there was absolutely nothing which was quite poor in all honesty. Somebody made a London meet up in the LinkedIn group but it was very much intern led - there were no formal networking or social events that were organised by the student recruitment team for us to take part in. Again cameras were not turned on at all.

Yes we received death by powerpoint about the EY foundation and the networks that employees can join. They were at pains to specify the greatness of all of these programs but then slipped in the fact that each employee only gets two days of CSR a year. All of these activities are done on top of studying hard for professional qualifications so it doesn't seem like many juniors get involved. The networks were all solidarity groups rather than sport or music for example.

It is with a heavy heart that I would have to say I would not recommend this virtual experience to a friend. The same amount of money could have been earned from working a part-time job this week and it probably would have been more stimulating. The case study was the most interesting part of the week but a miscommunication by the SRT meant it came down to a five minute audio presentation with 9 groups presenting exactly the same content. I would dearly love to give EY another chance and I think the full 6 weeks would have been radically different but this one week was dull. There is no other way of putting it. Nobody can come away from that program and say "I was genuinely interested in the content of all those sessions in and of themselves" - participation was sustained only by the dangling carrot of a graduate job at the end of it.