Intern Review

It was really enjoyable, there was rarely any time when it wasn't.

Every single person made me feel welcome and made sure I knew my contributions were valued.

I had to do a lot of independent work within the team, but I feel as though if I had needed/asked for help it would have been given.

Most of the time the work balance was about right in order for me to be occupied all day with room to manoeuvre in terms of being given extra tasks to complete. However there were times when the workload was very slow in coming through; this applied to everyone in the department not just me as an intern.

I was very surprised when I found that work I was doing would be used in client reports, and that I had a charge-out fee which meant that clients were paying for my services. However I still assume that most if not all of my work would have been checked over before being included.

I doubt the skills will help in my degree as they are very industry-focussed (accounting) and I'm doing a maths degree. But for anyone, including myself, who wants to go into the accounting profession, I cannot stress how good this experience is in terms of gaining new skills and insights into the field.

Pretty much as you would expect - everyone was friendly and easy-going, but also very focussed on their work, so there wasn't much time for laughing and joking around. Although I personally don't mind this too much

Seamless is the word: they shipped us all up to Manchester for a three day induction and we were treated like kings. Then when I came back down to the office, they had a buddy for each intern to introduce them to everyone, and help facilitate them into the department very easily. They had clearly planned for my arrival as I had work in the department as soon as I arrived, and everyone was happy to chat and get to know me.

Whilst they would have recouped a lot of the expense due to my work being chargeable to clients, the firm clearly put a lot of investment into my time here through the time of managers and even directors who spent time with me discussing the company and it's operations, the industry and the way EY work with their clients. I also travelled around the Midlands in order to attend client meetings, which the firm were happy to pay the expense for.

A very, very high percentage of interns get graduate offers from what I have heard. Based on the internship there is no way I would turn the job down if I was offered it.

There wasn't a lot of time to spend with other interns at work for me personally, as of the 20-something interns in the office I was one of only 2 in the TAS service line. However, they were all of a similar mindset to me, several of us often went for lunch together and for drinks after work on a Friday.

I commuted from home as I live close to hear, so my personal cost of living wasn't affected.

Birmingham nightlife is decent, but nothing to get worked up about. There are a few decent bars/clubs

There seemed to be a few things going on, but any information I received was often vague and as such I didn't attend any work-related activities outside of working hours, other than previously mentioned team socials which I wouldn't necessarily quantify as 'activities'.