Assurance Summer Intern Review

I have taken part on a few audit teams each having different responsibilities. I have mainly been doing different forms of testing, which developed my understanding and also improved my excel skills. I also checked accounts were internally consistent and that they casted before they were signed off. I was allowed to work from home or in the office but I was also given the opportunity to work on client sites. I was also allowed to join in with team calls where if I was able to give input and learn further, these calls could also involve clients meaning I would be representing the business a lot more. The internship, like the office in general, operated a dress for your day policy. This meant I could where smart casual clothes while in the office allowing us to be more relaxed, when on client site it was preferred this changed to business casual. While working on certain projects I was introduced to EY developed apps that allowed for the task to be completed to a higher standard. During our induction events we travelled down to London with flights and accomadation paid for, whilst down there we taken part in diversity and inclusiveness, better mental health and general EY experience talks. We were also given the opportunity to take part in a CSR day where we helped a local farm in association with the Trees for Cities project. During our time we had many opportunities to socialize with our peers and develop a great team relationship, this was all expensed through the business which helped to ensure no one missed out.

Upon joining I had limited practice of using excel but through working closely with many people on my teams I was shown lots of shortcuts which has made me much more efficient at doing tasks on the software. EY also give us the opportunity to complete EY badges which is accredited and covers many subjects. Personally I completed the better us- Teaming badge, analytics- data integration badge and the finance badge. This improved my leadership skills and gave me a way to better understand how to cooperate effectively with different cultures or work efficiently with teams spread across different time zones. I was also able to better understand software programs like Apache and previously mentioned excel. The finance badge was a good refresher of knowledge I had learned earlier in university, however initially when coming into the business it was hard to apply this knowledge. By completing the finance badge the knowledge was fresh and could apply it effectively. By working in the career that I am studying for I have gained a general better understanding of many the concepts that I have only learned about in theory.

As I was an intern was limited how much responsibility could be assigned to me. However, when appropriate I was given a high level of responsibility with an assigned person there to ensure that the task was completed to the expected standard. In another way I have been given full responsibility as while working on the projects I was expected to keep full client confidentiality and also to adhere to the independence set by EY. We were also left to training on our own time and given the responsibility to do this properly to ensure we properly learned the important information that we could apply to our career, this was things like cybersecurity

Personally I found everyone extremely welcoming. Within the structure of the internship program you are assigned both a buddy and a counsellor. your buddy is someone you can ask anything and who provides regular check ins, this is someone who is normally closer in level to you. your counsellor is someone more senior who you can still ask for any help but they are more responsible in the coaching and shaping you while you are in the internship. Personally I found it was easier to ask those in my team just because I was working so closely with them. It was often 1st year grads assigning me work so they themselves understood what it was like to be the new guy so they were extremely helpful and constantly made sure I was comfortable

The culture is incredibly social and welcoming. The company constantly run large social events and have many societies and committees you can join. this aids theyre diversity and inclusiveness and helps create a good sense of community. in the office theyre are little hotspots around the breakout areas where you often become engaged in conversations with people as everyone is friendly and talkative. teams collaborate effectively and sometimes encourage people to come in for office days, this allows people to develop better working relationships

I thouroughly enjoyed my internship. I loved going down to london and getting to go to the kia oval for the talks. It was made more enjoyable as everything was paid for so if you were struggling for money you could still take part. The social events for the interns were incredible and allowed us all to build really good relationships, not only did we attend intern socials but we were also able to experience the summer parties thrown by the office which were extravagant. The work-freetime balance also allowed for the internship to be enjoyable as I never felt weighed down with work at anytime. Finally I would say that the people at EY made it the most enjoyable, everyone is incredibly friendly and welcoming

Yes

Dont hold back, apply as soon as possible. Be yourself during interviews and dont be nervous. Also dont be put off by the size of the firm although it is huge it still scales down to small teams which make you feel really welcome. Although I said everyone is extremely chatty they would also respect your wishes if you were a slightly more introverted person so dont be put off by that either, i worked on teams that had both chatty and quiet people and everyone still knew how to get along and work efficiently towards goals