Risk Assurance Intern Review

My placement was a bit long I thought as it was 11 weeks but there were days when I really got bored because there was not much work and responsibility. In the start I was very excited and the first few months were really interesting.

My colleagues were very friendly and the environment was very good. I was allowed to ask any questions I would like and no question was considered 'stupid'. Any employee of EY would treat with respect and was humble.

My manager was not really good and he did not have proper communication with me. He did not give me the exposure/varied work which I would have liked and would be challenging for me. In 11 weeks, I did not spend even a day on client site.

In the first week of the internship I found I did not have that much work as my manager was failry busy. When I was free I spent time researching about the different clients I would be on, or completing the online training sessions. All of the interns were also involved in a Dragons Den competition, to think of and to develop an idea of how to improve healthcare, so I also spent time on this. As the internship progressed I was naturally assigned more work. I never felt as though I had too much work though, so it was not too stressful.

As the internship progressed I was naturally assigned larger tasks with slightly more responsibility. This was because I knew more about the company and the systems used, than when I first joined. I enjoyed the amount of responsibility I had as it made me feel as though the work I was doing was worthwhile, but at the same time I never felt as though I had too much responsibility.

I study Accounting at university, so working in core assurance was extremely relevant for me. I was able to see how the theory of what I have learnt in my lectures and seminars is applicable to an audit on real life clients. I was also able to learn skills in networking and building relationships, which has given me confidence in meeting new people.

In the EY office you are not assigned a desk, as you are often out at client sites. Therefore they have hot desk in place, where you can book out a desk on your floor. This means that you will often not know the people who are sitting around you. However, whenever I was in the office I always met up with people from my team when they were setting me work, and I met the other interns for lunch, so it was never lonely. When you are on the client site your team will be sitting together in a room, and therefore you have slightly more chance to build up a relationship with them. Overall I would say the atmosphere at both the client site and at the EY office was fairly relaxed.

The internship was extremely well organised. At the start all of the interns attended a three day residential course in Northampton. This allowed us to learn both skills and knowledge to use throughout the internship. It also meant that you were able to meet interns from all over the country.

One of the things all of the interns kept saying at the three days in Northampton was just how much EYinvested in us. There were multiple sessions relevant to our lines of service to give all the interns basic skills that would be useful in the internship, rather than just throwing us straight in the deep end. EY really wanted us to meet as many people as possible and ensured that the table plans for dinner enabled this, as well as organised a Director and Partner dinner, to allow us to network with people throughout EY.

Throughout the internship they kept mentioning the graduate offer process and what we should be doing in order to be able to come back as a graduate. Many of the younger people I spoke to in the company had themselves been interns and had then gone into their final year of university with a graduate offer. In the final week of the internship the people manager that you have been assigned to looks at the feedback received from your teams during the internship and discusses with a Director or Partner whether a graduate offer should be made. I have not had my final week of the internship yet, so do not know if I have a graduate offer or not.

All of the interns would organise events between ourselves and normally would meet up on Fridays. Some people struggled to attend these if they were away on client sites or if they were working long hours. Being in central London many of the interns in the different offices, such as Embankment Place and More London would meet up, as these offices are fairly close together. The interns in my department were invited to the summer ball.

I live in London anyway so was staying at home. The nearby food and socialising was fairly standard London prices.

The nightlife was really busy and fun, as would be expected in Central London. There are many pubs and restaurants. The nightlife in London is really good.

There are many opportunities such as playing football with other EY workers, that some of the other interns got involved in. I personally found that I did not have much time to do things like this, as when I finished work I wanted to see my friends from home and my family. However, if I come back as a graduate this is definitely something I would look into more.