Summer Vacation Student - Audit Review

The internship was quite enjoyable. Although some tasks were repetitive, due to the time in the audit cycle and the fact that I had no prior experience in accounting and thus was unsuited to more complex tasks, supervisors explained how my work fitted into the wider audit and would tell me what they were doing which made the work much more interesting.

Despite changing clients every couple of weeks I quickly felt like I was part of each team as colleagues checked up on me to ensure I knew what I was doing and to check how I was finding the placement more generally. Supervisors and other colleagues were always happy to take time out from their workloads to help me with something I hadn't done before.

I felt like I had a good level of support as everyone was willing to exlain how to do tasks I hadn't done before, which was helpful considering I came in with no formal experience in accounting, and I felt comfortable asking for help if I got stuck half way through.

Some weeks I was very busy but there were also times where I was a bit short of work to do. People were always willing to try to find something I could help with however and whilst some clients weren't as busy as others I think getting to see the audit process on multiple clients was better than being busier but with less variety.

Whilst many of the tasks I carried out, once explained, weren't especially difficult in themselves I was left to them once it had been explained to me which was quite good as it meant there was time to try to figure things out for myself. I was asked to speak to clients to obtain information and even got to sit with a client to carry out some journals testing.

I think I gained more computer skills from using the internal system for timesheets, expenses etc and also with various programs such as Excel and eAudit. I also think I learned more about when and how to ask for help with tasks in order to make effective use of time striking the balance between solving problems myself and asking supervisors where necessary rather than getting stuck on something for too long. I think all of this will be helpful for my final year of university and my career.

The atmosphere depends to a large degree on the client you are working on so the variety is good. The atmosphere in the office itself was quite laid back. At client sites there was a good sense of team spirit and commitment to the audits. The good atmosphere was boosted by the fact that the audit department went out for lunch one Friday and had a half day at an outdoor activity centre with lots of food afterwards.

The internship begins with an introduction in london and then the next day an introduction in the regional office. After that the first few days were in the office doing odd peices of work to help out with various clients. After this I was booked on three different clients of varying size and had different jobs to do on each. The extent to which work was available was somewhat constrained by the particular stage in the audit cycle for each client but the experience of working on different clients was worth the price of a varied work load.

After being flown to London for a day for the first introduction to the company I was treated as a normal member of whichever team I was on and shown how to do a wide variety of tasks. The summer vacation programme provides a good insight into the kinds of thing you will be doing in the graduate job which is when the serious investment comes in the form of helping you to study for professional qualifications

Good. There are opportunities afterwards to jump to the final stage of the graduate recruitment process for Audit in your office and potentially elsewhere too.

Everyone seemed to get on well and people from across all the departments had lunch in one room together so it was quite sociable. There were weekly badminton sessions, irregular nights out and other activities all with open invites.

Costs aren't too high. The salary more than covers any expenses.

Fine. No shortage of places to go.

Weekly badminton amongst other things.