Consulting Virtual Summer Internship Review

The internship was hosted on EY's dedicated web platform which gave a clear and downloadable agenda to follow and clear links to either live video streams, a group video chat function, Teams calls or Zoom calls. Day-to-day activities include informational sessions on EY's service lines and networks, panel events with consultants and skill-building sessions. There was also a group case study project in which we were in a team of 5 and guided by our mentor who works in the consulting service line. Though there were many panels/presentations, there were not many other opportunities to network with many current employees or fellow interns.

Definitely have developed my skills through the many training sessions that were in the programme as well as the group case study project that was spread out over the first 10 days of the internship. The best skill-building sessions in my opinion were learning about EY's problem solving methodology, improving presentation skills, and learning how to communicate more effectively and confidently with clients. Hands-on case study project work enabled me to put the new skills into practice.

It was good that they introduced the many service lines EY has at the beginning, and ensured that panel events etc had at least one person from the service line who we could hear from. Coming into the internship, we are fast-tracked to interview for a graduate role in the service line we applied for, and there is less flexibility to switch service lines until after the grad role. However during the internship, there was not much distinction in content between technology and business consulting, and content was mainly on the core consulting skills and types of projects we would likely face across both streams.

EY has a great company culture and it feels like this has shown through the virtual internship experience. Everyone I've spoken to were happy to share their story and were very helpful. We had dedicated sessions on better wellbeing, as well as frequent encouragement to take our breaks. There was also a 'steps challenge' which encouraged us to walk as far as possible, with prizes at the end of the internship for the top 3. There are many networks from faith to gender equality to diversity, and they highlighted many opportunities to get involved at graduate level.

I enjoyed the virtual experience very much based on the excellent panel events and questions, which gave me even more insight into consulting than the Discover EY day. The skill-building sessions were especially useful in the long term, and I feel more confident on how to approach case studies and engagements with clients in the future. Group working on the case study was a great way to keep engaged, chat to fellow interns in the group and work alongside our mentor who was with us for a fairly good amount of time.

Yes

Get involved early with Discover EY programs that will allow you to progress more quickly to further programmes like the summer internship. Make sure to be curious and inquisitive about the service line/s you are exploring and don't hesitate to ask questions. People in EY in general seem to live up to the company's core values of leading with courage, integrity, respect, teaming, and perhaps most importantly building relationships, so find out how you've demonstrated those values in previous experiences. Finally, be confident in yourself!