Audit Summer Intern Review

Overall the placement was mostly enjoyable. The work itself was not always interesting, although this varied a lot, but the environment at BDO and the structure of the internship was good.

Again, this varied. Most people went out of their way to make you fit in and give you enough exposure to typical work.

My guidance counsellor was extremely approachable and encourage me to update him on my progress as much as possible and if there was ever a problem someone would try and fix it.

Very rarely was I left with nothing to do and usually there was more work available if I were to finish earlier than expected.

As an intern I was generally given the same kind of work as the rest of the graduate junior auditors. The level of responsibility was enough to feel like you were being challenged but not too much that you would ever be accountable if something went wrong.

I gained good exposure to working in financial services during the six weeks and also picked up some general work skills. If I were to pursue a career in audit after graduation then the placement would definitely help towards that.

The office atmosphere was always enjoyable. Everyone was friendly and even the partners got involved in some of the social activities.

The placement consisted of a week's training in London followed by four and a half week of audit experience in the regional office and a further two days in London at the end. The time in London was organised extremely well and everything was well structured. The actual audit experience was also well organised and I had been assigned jobs before I even arrived.

As mentioned above, the training week in London was a good introduction into the company and the work. In the office the employees were happy to let me get involved with most things and often went out of their way to find things for me to do that they thought might give me a broader experience overall.

From my experience there, BDO is definitely a good organisation to work for and there are a number of programmes available for those that want to develop themselves professionally and move about within the organisation. The exposure you get from working with client like BDO's and studying the ACA is likely to make you extremely employable in the future.

Social events made up a big part of BDO's culture. My office had a number of different sports teams and during the internship we went to Manchester to take part in the firm-wide football tournament. Many of the social activities are subsidised and employees are encouraged to create events or run activities if there's something they feel others might enjoy.

Fairly normal.

Again, pretty normal.

See the section on the social scene,