Summer internship Review

As a virtual intern I was given a wide variety of professional learning sessions. As a full intern cohort from across the UK I heard from both internal and external speakers. From EY I was given information about the EY foundation, D&I at the firm, learning and development, as well as more general information. There was also a variety of sessions on resilience, personal brand, wellbeing, and business etiquette etc. We were also split into service lines for specific learning and took part in partner Q&As. As a small team I completed a case study on a hypothetical fashion brand’s audit and presented this to the group’s mentor as part of the assessment process for a grad role.

There was a large focus on skills building throughout the internship. Although the virtual experience limited the technical knowledge that could be learnt specific to my service line in audit, I was given a mentor who I could ask questions to about the type of work that was carried out and who could also assist in the case study. The case study was a great example of what a real audit would look like, which provided a good foundation for learning. The external speakers also gave me lots to think about and gave hints at tops on how to do things like develop a personal brand/elevator pitch, how to have confidence with clients, and how to build emotional intelligence.

Unfortunately due to Covid I wasn’t able to get access to or interact with any of the firm’s clients. Also, for security reasons, we could only complete a case study virtually rather than look at any official documents of EYs clients. The case study did however involve a variety of information and sample documents that are very similar to what would have been produced on a real audit. There were understanding business documents and financial accounts for the hypothetical company.

My team of five (all in the same office and service line as me) were given a mentor and buddy for the duration of the experience. Our mentor helped with the case study element and was able to answer any technical questions we had about audit. We also met up twice with our buddy who was a first year graduate. He was able to talk about the exam structure, culture at EY and give us hints and tips for the final interview.

Throughout the fortnight EY really came across as a people-focussed business. Everyone seemed very friendly and spoke very positively of the wide range of experiences EY has to offer. It was clear from the sessions that diversity and inclusion is a large part of EYs culture, and they want everyone to feel comfortable at their work. Unfortunately due to the pandemic it wasn’t possible to get into the office but EY are hopeful to open up a hybrid working model later this summer to get employees back to work.

I thoroughly enjoyed the placement. There were a number of fun Kahoot quizzes scattered about the two weeks and some internship challenges. There was a social media LinkedIn competition for the best post and also all interns could complete a steps challenge for some great tech prizes. On our final day we had a race around the world challenge and an online magic show to watch. There was also an online escape room at the end of week one.

Yes

Before starting the application process really brush up on maths skills for the numerical testing that is carried out online. Also really research the firm and what initiatives are important to them. If you can, try to speak to employees from the firm (or one day, get to the office) to fully understand the culture. It’s also important to note that the online tests say they take around 40 mins ish to complete but from my experience it takes a lot longer (up to two hours).