UKI Assurance Intern at EY Review

Interns almost always spent the morning in live sessions/lectures detailing different topics. This included: - Service line learning - Wellbeing - D&I speeches - Highest performing teams learning - Health - Presentation Skills - Emotional intelligence - Business etiquette - Personal branding - Office Managing Partner meeting - Business development - Sustainability - Partner Panel Q&A - Interview prep - Client learning As well as plenty of activities like an escape room, race around the world games, and even a magician. Afternoons were spent working on a case study in which interns were put into teams of 4/5 and were asked to conduct a presentation on the auditing of a made up major retail company, Harkins' Emporium Limited. Interns had to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the company in terms of impact on the auditing, changes in financing, and changes in the general business. On the Wednesday of the second week, interns then had to present their findings to their mentor who gave feedback. Interns were finally given the opportunity to interview for the graduate conversion programme, which would then turn their EY experience into an ICAEW qualification for UK Assurance interns, or equivalent.

I have developed general skills including emotional intelligence, presentation skills, business etiquette, personal branding, and being resilient. I have also learnt specific skills: I now have a much better understanding of how an audit is conducted, how the process works, the client-employee relationship, and how to handle such clients. My teamworking skills have been enhanced greatly through working in an "audit" team daily, and this has enabled me to come out of my comfort zone and really step up as a leader.

It was very interesting. Before the internship I did not have a very good understanding of what an auditor does on a day-to-day business and had only a very general understanding. Whilst because of COVID the internship was only two weeks online and this did not give them a lot of time to be able to fully invest in training, I did learn alot about all the potential roles available from the Forensic integrity and advisory services, to auditing, to even Tax or consulting. The internship also highlighted how many qualifications were available within EY! This included the MBA, EY badges, and funding for a masters.

The company culture was without a doubt the most excelling part of EY. Everyone was super friendly, super comforting and also super encouraging. I without question would feel at home here as I am sure would many of the people I worked with throughout the internship. EY's culture-driven ethos has certainly paid off. On top of people being so friendly, interns were also shown that there are many staff perks at EY, many funding opportunities, and many chances for promotion and secondments (moving abroad or to another company temporarily).

I very much enjoyed the insight into the business. Whilst at times there were technical difficulties, lulls or even some areas where not much was insightful, the overall experience was really great and I learned alot. I do wish that they did include a bit more about auditing and stuff that would really help out however - one problem I found with the internship was that many of the sessions seemed like common sense to me, e.g., we had a session on health and I feel like that was stuff that I learnt in primary school. Other than some of the sessions being on too much of a basic level (and I would have wanted to learn more!), the overall experience was compelling.

Yes

1. Prep yourself comprehensively for all sections of the application e.g., the interview, the assessment centre, and the video interview. The more you know about EY, the better and the more you can bring up at each of these different points. 2. Always include others when talking and really strive to be inclusive. It will go a long way with your colleagues as well as your bosses. 3. Be warm, smiley, comforting. 4. Emotional intelligence is so important. 5. Think about your personal brand - why would people want you? Make sure you are noticed!