Audit Intern Review

Had an amazing time. Learnt a huge amount and really got into the 'buzz' of working for a major corporate, it's really quite addictive. The office was incredible and really beautiful. Staff were always really friendly and helped you as much as possible.

Appreciated more by senior staff than graduates. Managers tend to look after you and are genuinely interested in your wellbeing. Unfortunately some graduates could have been more welcoming, see you as only being there for a couple of months so why bother getting to know you.

You're meant to be assigned a one-contact manager, this never really happened for me, or anyone else I know. It didn't really matter as the manager team supports you well anyway. It just meant that you often ended up with contradictory instructions from your department and central graduate recruitment and you sometimes get passed around the managers as a responsibility.

I had a good combination of being in the office and out at client. There were a few days when I didn't really have anything to do, but most of the time the balance was about right. If you go and ask people for work it would generally turn up. Basically be proactive, and they really love people being proactive.

Sometimes bordering on too much. Graduates sometimes expected too much from you in terms of knowledge which as an intern you simply don't have. Although they're happy to explain everything, you can sometimes feel like you're asking something incredibly simplistic and stupid.

You learn incredible skills, living a corporate lifestyle, and for that reason alone the experience is essential. It really helps guide your future career choice and makes you understand what the potential benefits are from a career, not just the salary printed on it at the end. KPMG make accountancy not seem what the stereotypical view of it is.

Really good jovial atmosphere generally. Everyone is pretty youthful and loves a good laugh. It's more like a school classroom than a library. When your managers roll into the office from having been out on the town till 5am you realise that it's just a continuation of university. It's great fun. The Secretarys really run the offices, and they're very happy to dish out criticism where they think it's merited, even to a partner. They are essential to the office being down to earth.

My department did a really good job of setting up a programme for me and working with me to suit it to my needs. The issue of your contact not being particularly well defined sometimes caused problems. General problems of miscommunication between central graduate recruitment and your department were normally the main cause of problems and confusion.

All the staff will give you loads of support and advice and really invest their time in you. They really emphasise that the experience is for you and the company really does care about your progress. Of course, if you have a good time you are far more likely to return for the graduate programme.

I was offered a graduate job shortly after leading in the same department and in the same office. You were free to switch offices if you wished, but I would have liked an opportunity to switch to Advisory, which was not permitted.

Met some great friends, some of whom I'm still in contact with and see fairly regularly. There were of course some people who just saw it as a job and just refused to get involved.

Compared to where I go to uni it seemed pretty cheap, but was regarded as fairly expensive by locals. Paying for accommodation sucked, but at least your salary helps you forget that.

There was a fair bit of nightlife available in the area, but I didn't really try much of it due to not living in the area. The Bullring is epic of course and there's loads of good pubs near the office which you'll almost certainly have a few lunches in.

There are loads of clubs and societies on offer at KPMG, everything from fencing, sports clubs to Breathe, their LGBT society. There's something for everyone if you go out and look for it in the company's intranet. It is worth having a serious hunt through their system and you will find something.