Vacation Student - Tax Review

I really enjoyed my internship at KPMG. The work was very challenging and stimulating, I had exposure to clients through meetings and calls and the people and culture at KPMG very much resonated through. People were always willing to chat with me, help me with work and organise meetings to answer any questions I had and aid my development. The other interns I met were also very friendly and open to the social side of the internship. The friendly atmosphere of the office and nature of my colleagues, in particular, made the six weeks I spent at KPMG very enjoyable

Everyone is the office was very friendly and would happily take time to explain pieces of work, concepts or just chat to me and answer any questions I had. Both junior and senior members were always willing to talk to me, take me to meetings and generally make me feel somewhat valued.

All of my managers/supervisors were very helpful in supporting me and my development. They were always willing to review my work with me, give me feedback and support any requests I had. They were very good at generally checking up on me, making sure I was being given work and getting what I wanted out of the internship.

Variable - some days were very busy and others had very little work on. There were more busy days than quiet ones but on the whole the balance of work during the day was about right and many of the busy days were when I also had meetings/calls on top of my workload. Even during the quieter days, there was plenty of things that could be done such as training and other research. Generally, the balance was about right.

During my placement, I rotated across teams, which meant that I was never with a team long enough to get stuck into a project and be given large amounts of responsibility. Having said that, during rotations, often ad hoc assignments would turn into me getting involved as much as possible and receiving some responsibility and autonomy.

Working in Tax, it was important to recognise that I wouldn't be able to absorb a huge amount of technical skills due to my lack of training that graduates and colleagues had. However, I was able to gain some technical skills and exposure to concepts. Moreover, this internship has strongly developed my soft skills, gain exposure to clients and assimilate all the prerequisite skills required for a career here. Talking to senior colleagues who gave me their advice and view of my own skills will help me greatly in my studies and future career.

Everyone was very friendly and sociable generally willing to have a chat, get to know you and help if you had any problems. There is also a strong team spirit with everyone being quite close e.g. going for lunch together, organising social events together etc.

The internship was quite well organised as I was able to rotate through and gain exposure to a wide variety of teams. There was some flexibility as well for me to get involved in projects and areas I was interested in, within my rotations but slightly outside of the teams I was working in.

The people in the office were very willing to invest in me through organising feedback meetings with me, organising chats to answer questions I had and allowing me to get involved in areas that I wanted to, in order to facilitate my development. For example they were very willing for me to attend more meetings and talk to more people in order to develop areas outside of technical skills. The company also gave us access to self-training materials and I was invited to technical training sessions.

The combination of the culture of the organisation and the people within in, support for your development and the dynamic, challenging nature of the work make future employment prospects very appealing to me.

Nothing was specifically organised by KPMG but generally, the interns I met were willing to get involved in the social side of the internship. My colleagues had a good social scene and were always willing to invite me to things.

Standard London living costs and working in Canary Wharf is a pain to your wallet. KPMG pay you during the internship though, which helps to balance out some of the costs.

Working in London, there was a huge amount of nightlife.

My colleagues were always willing for me to get involved in any activities and would always invite me.