Summer intern- Audit Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my internship at Grant Thornton. From day 1, I entered into a friendly, welcoming office in which I was given work that was interesting and challenging, up to the level that I was capable. The internship felt well organised and ran smoothly, giving me incite into all areas of the business so that I could really grasp the full experience I was after.

Everyone at Grant Thornton was extremely friendly and welcoming. There is an atmosphere that is relaxed whilst professional and this gave access to be able to talk to whoever, whatever level, just to find out as much information about their job. This gave me the maximum experience and knowledge that I could get.

I felt extremely well looked after throughout my 6 weeks. After setting goals at the beginning, we then had several meetings with our peoples managers in order to keep on top of our progress and how we were enjoying it. Aside from this, we also had buddies that were around the office all the time who we could ask questions and who were friendly faces to talk to.

Although we did experience a lot over the 6 weeks, there were times where we had less to do than others. If you are proactive and search for work when needed it was possible to keep busy the entire time. Sometimes having a bit of time off work on final projects was important .

As a audit intern we were given a laptop and training and were involved as a trainee member. This included working on parts of the project that would then be directly fed back to the client. Although everything we did was carefully monitored I did feel as though what I contributed was important and valued as part of the audit process.

I am currently studying an economics degree, so the knowledge gained working within an accountancy firm is extremely relevant for many modules. The skills gained from just working around the office and working with software is invaluable. We also received a 2-day training course working on our presentation skills.

Professional, yet there was a fun atmosphere in the office which meant it was not boring. There are many charity and fundraising events that encourage people to talk a lot. There is also a social area in the office with a pool table and lots of events organised by the business park team.

I thought it was extremely well organised, although delivered in an informal and relaxed way. When visiting the London offices for training, the structure and layout of the 6 weeks was shown to us and everything that we were to take out of the experience like our project was outlined to us.

We had a 2 days training and introduction course in the Finsbury Square in London office. This outlined what the role was about and encouraged us to network with other interns from around the country. We also had presentational skills training at Grant Thornton's training centre in High Wycombe for 2 days.

There is great appeal to go on from this internship to work at Grant Thornton. I hope to secure a graduate placement in order to work after I finish uni. This then goes on to support career development within accountancy including completing qualifications as an employee of Grant Thornton.

Everyone at the reading office was very friendly and there were often out of work activities. For the interns this included welcome drinks at a bar in Reading in order to meet people before the internship started. The firm also organises days out for employees at places like top golf.

The location of the office was perfect for me to drive in, only 15 minutes. When without a car there is a train station within 5 minutes walk from the office which was ideal. Bars in the local area are not necessarily cheap but are not excessively expensive.

Reading nightlife is alright, there are around 10 clubs, some of which are good and some of which are not so.

We organised a charity event during our 6 weeks at Grant Thornton which included working in a team with the other interns. This included games for the office and a cake sale in order to raise money for Alzheimer's society charity.