Risk Assurance Summer Intern Review

It really was a great 6 weeks. The work was interesting, the networking opportunities great and the investment in interns was second to none.

All the people I worked for seemed genuinely grateful for the contributions I made. Everyone from top to bottom of the firm was approachable and made you feel welcome.

Although I was given a lot of responsibility my managers were always willing to check my work and would often take time out of their schedules to make sure I was doing okay and explain anything I didn't understand.

There were very few days where I was not already booked on to a specific job. Even then it was easy to approach those I knew in the department and find other work. Although I often had a lot to do the kind of work I did varied tremendously throughout the six weeks.

I really wasn't expecting to have quite the levels of responsibility I did. Obviously you are unable to do some things due to lack of technical knowledge but responsibilities included going along to client meetings and co-ordinating communications between global subsidiaries.

As I study Accounting and Finance some of the knowledge learnt will directly help me in my degree. However I don't think a Business related degree is necessary to do the internship - many interns on seemingly unrelated degrees really excelled. There are also many 'soft skills' such as communication and teamwork that the internship really helped develop.

The London offices seem to be very different from regional offices. They are always busy and you don't know who you'll be sitting next to from one day to the next! However the offices are absolutely great and you really felt a good vibe. Everyone was really really friendly and was always willing to help.

On the whole it is a very well organised internship. HR were sometimes a little slow in providing information before and during the internship but once you were aware of what was going on everything was great. I really think it is an internship where you have to drive parts of it yourself to get the most out of it. If you want to do something tell your manager and 9 times out of 10 it will be possible.

I would imagine a lot was invested in our training. Over the 6 weeks at least a full week was on proper training courses and there was a lot of other support throughout the internship.

I have been offered a graduate role in Risk Assurance.

As the London offices were quite big there were quite a few interns in my department. We regularly went out for lunch and drinks together and there were several firm organised events that we went to. However there weren't really any inter-departmental socials to meet the other interns. However the first few days training course enabled you to interact with interns from all of PwC's offices.

London is definitely not cheap. I commuted in to save a bit on living costs but even that was quite expensive.

There's always somewhere to pop out for a quick drink in London - you literally just had to walk outside the office.

I ended up playing in a dodgeball tournament on my first day in the office! There were also a few department drinks evenings organised. There are many clubs and societies although these aren't really available to you on the internship.