Government and Public Sector Assurance Intern Review

I found the internship was very interesting and a great experience to have. I learnt very quickly and had variety of experiences. The social side was great with lots of trips and events organised and my colleagues were engaging and supportive. The Birmingham office was also great although I was largely based three hours away from the office which was difficult at times.

I was given meaningful and important work and able to contribute to a real audit which was a very valuable experience which I wasn't expecting to get as an intern. My buddy gave me lots of support and was happy to give up his time to help me with my work. I was treated as an equal by my team members.

The support system at EY was great. I was given a buddy who was a recent graduate in his first year at EY. He was very helpful and friendly and was very happy to help me with work. I also had a more senior counsellor with whom I had regular meetings to discuss my progress and targets. I was given feedback by my buddy and audit managers to help my counsellor decide whether or not to refer me for a graduate job.

The nature of audit work at EY was very variable but generally I was very busy most days. I was working on an audit which was under-resourced and therefore I had a large number of complicated tasks that I was responsible for completing. Despite this, my working hours were mostly good and I rarely worked past half five, unlike some of the other interns.

I was given lots of responsibility as I was working on an audit which was under resourced and I therefore had a large number of important and significant tasks that I had to complete in order to contribute to the completion of the audit. I had to use my initiative to complete these completely by my deadline.

As I study History, the majority of the technical audit sills that I developed will not be directly helpful to me. However, if I were to join EY as a graduate, this experience would be incredibly helpful in helping me to get ahead in understanding the principles and practices of audit and would help with my professional exams.

The atmosphere in the office was incredibly supportive and helpful. The hot desk system meant that every day I would be sat next to a different person in a different position working on a different job. This made it easy to learn about the business from lots of different perspectives. However, I was based away from the office for the majority of my internship at a client site.

The internship was quite well organised. The induction with all of the regional interns in Manchester was fantastic. It was very informative and fun and gave us all a great opportunity to meet new people and ask questions. Thereafter, we were all assigned to clients and allocated work. In my case, my initial client fell through meaning I was assigned to a client much farther away with work which was more demanding than would usually be assigned to an intern.

Employment prospects at EY are very good. After three years on their graduate scheme you will have taken all of your professional exams and qualified which is a very valuable qualification to have. Moreover, EY is experiencing a lot of growth at the moment due to a change in audit regulation which means that they are taking on lots of graduates.

The social scene was great. There were plenty of networking and social opportunities at the regional intern event in Manchester which gave us a chance to meet interns working across the country. After that the Birmingham interns kept in contact regularly and organised drinks ourselves. Moreover the staff at EY who looked after the interns organised trips for us such as to the Snowdome. There was also a final event at Marco Pierre Whites.