Tax summer intern Review

Interned with the tax team at Pwc where I was assigned to the Large Corporate team. On a day to day basis I was given some work such as excel formatting, powerpoint presentations, or calling HMRC. I also shadowed some people, was involved in some client meetings where I was asked to take notes etc. There were also plenty of team socials and activities with other interns such as a project that we presented to a client.

I gained a little bit of knowledge of the tax landscape and got an understanding of what the team do and what I would be able to do if I got a grad job offer. Developed teamwork skills, research skills and presentation skills as I was involved in a project with the other interns. Was expected to take notes in some meetings which developed my note taking skills. Learnt just general skills about how to behave in an office environment.

A little - mainly I was doing fairly menial tasks either on excel or powerpoint. I was given some responsibility to call HMRC on behalf of a client, occasionally I drafted emails to clients but these were usually altered quite heavily before being sent out. We did complete a presentation with the other interns in which we were given responsibility to organise the team and run the project exactly how we wanted with little intervention from our helper.

A bit, everyone is assigned a buddy who works in the team who is your point of contact at all times. They were great and were very happy to help with questions I had throughout the internship and generally when I was doing work for people they were very happy to help out if I asked. Only problem is I was given very little work to do

The general atmosphere is very good, we have flexible working hours and summer working hours which allows you to leave at lunchtime on fridays in July and August. You don't feel monitored like you're lunch breaks are being recorded or anything. The company culture is good too they seem to be very ethical and upfront about everything. There are plenty of paid for socials as well either going out for lunch with the team or coffee.

Personally I didn't really enjoy the internship at all. Plenty of the other interns did though which is important to note. Tax definitely isn't for me and I worked that out quite quickly. I also spent a lot of time with nothing to do which was quite tiring. Everyone is lovely and approachable and happy to help but just the actual work that I completed and the work I saw others doing I was not interested in and I won't be coming back.

Yes

It's definitely worth applying to PwC for an internship as it's only a short amount of time and it gives you good experience and a good sense of whether this would be a good fit for you. If you are applying for a grad role or a job though I'd make sure you know about the field you're getting in to and make sure you actually could see yourself enjoying that.