ABS Intern Review

I really enjoyed my placement. I learned a huge deal about accountancy and got to work as part of a great team. I also really enjoyed the work itself as I find it very satisfying to put together files and produce a finished product (accounts) for our clients.

I did feel valued my colleagues. They trusted me to get on with tasks and gave me good feedback when I did something well and constructive feedback when something needed improving. I very quickly felt part of the team.

I was given great support. Managers were extremely patient and willing to explain even very basic concepts, which is crucial for someone like me with very little prior knowledge about accountancy.

I was given plenty of work to do and rough guidelines of when to do it by. This allowed me to plan my time so I usually wasn't too rushed, but still had plenty to do. The only exception was during the last week when I worked very long hours to make sure everything was left in a good state, but this is to be expected when finishing a job.

I was given as much responsibility as every other member of staff, I had my own tasks assigned to me and had to personally report to managers about my progress on them. It was a lot more than simply shadowing which was very refreshing.

I can't rate it any higher since it won't help my degree - this is not the fault of S&W, I simply haven't been able to take any accountancy modules and all the economics modules are far too theoretical to consider what happens in the real world. It will however help a lot with my career. Having ten weeks experience should give me a head start if I do get a job in this industry as I hope. More importantly it has confirmed to me that accountancy is the ideal career path for me, which will affect my actions next year.

The atmosphere was great. People were always working together and helping each other, and the general vibe was very friendly. It was also quiet enough to concentrate and work hard which is crucial when you have a lot of tasks to do.

Quite well. I was assigned people to look after me and give me some guidance on my tasks, however I did get the feeling that some of the tasks I was assigned were particularly awkward ones which no one else wanted. Some training would have been useful to help tackle these however I do understand that in such a short amount of time this might not have been possible.

They provided me with a fair amount of on the job training which was very useful however there was no specific time set aside just for training so I had to rely on my desk mates a fair amount to tackle jobs.

I would really like a job with S&W. Having spoken to staff there the feedback is universally positive and I can tell its an organisation that really cares about the well-being and development of its staff.

I was the only placement student there for any significant time, at least in my department so I can't really answer this. My colleagues were very friendly however it might have been nice to have others in my position.

Not bad at all. I was able to rent a room in shared accommodation within walking distance of work which my allowance easily covered. Socialising was fine with prices of entertainment (e.g. pubs and restaurants) being about average for the UK and much cheaper than a large city.

Fairly poor - although that is probably to be expected given the size of town that I was in. I do have a fairly high point of comparison being at university but it is certainly something that might put me off living in the town I did my internship in.

It wasn't bad although it didn't always work out due to the size of the office. Even organising a 5 a side football game seemed difficult due to a lack of people and drop-outs. Fortunately I was quite friendly with my housemates and I could travel home or to university at the weekends.