PwC Assurance Summer Intern Review

This internship is very well designed. You are looked after from start to finish by everyone you meet. Although this is probably not the career path for me, it was a very valuable experience in helping me decide what to do next. Everyone provided helpful advice about how they had come to join the business.

Everyone at PwC welcomes you to the firm. The ethos of the company means that every member of the firm is valued. We had a residential at the start of the internship with all of the other interns from across the country. This was a great way to welcome everyone in as it meant you could network with your peer group.

I was assigned both a people manager and a buddy. My buddy was someone I could go to for any odd questions I had about life at PwC. She reached out to me before the internship started so that I could ask about the types of clothes people wear and what I should expect. My people manager looked after the work side of PwC. He helped me to gather a whole variety of different experiences throughout my internship, without him my internship would have been very different.

Some days I had enough to do, and some days not enough. but I think this varies depending on which clients you get put on and which part of the firm you join. As you're interning during the summer months it tends to be a bit quieter than usual. This is an excellent opportunity though as it means you can ask for shadowing experiences. I got to shadow a partner in risk assurance for a day half way through!

More responsibility than I expected. Although my work was checked by reviewers, everyone else's is too. It felt like I had just joined the company as an associate 1 and so I was actively contributing to the file on each of the jobs I worked on. even when I was shadowing I was given responsibilities such as taking notes and summarising meetings.

Suddenly an excel wizz... I think that doing any internship will provide you with skills to take forward. Communication, organisation, time management, networking. You gather many soft skills too, such as knowing how to cope with a working day and learning how to receive feedback in a positive way. If i did go into PwC as a grad job then the skills I have learnt on the internship would definitely give me a head start.

As the office life at PwC varies so much, it's hard to comment. If you go into core assurance then you'll be out at client sites mostly working in the office spaces they give you. This is often quite nice as you're with a team of about 4/5 people, who are always friendly. The PwC office itself is very well designed and the atmosphere is very friendly. People you met once will come up to you to ask you how you're getting on and it's really easy to find people you know if you have a problem.

I was amazed at how well the PwC internship flows, with over 250 interns in each intake across the country it must take quite a bit of effort to organise. Each intern is looked after and given both a people manager and buddy to make sure they're doing okay. Resourcing will help you find work, IT will help you when your laptop breaks. There are many people you can go to if something goes wrong.

At the residential at the beginning of the internship we spent a good 2 days in tutor groups learning the basics of accounting and the way PwC works. This was a really good experience as you get to meet the other interns in a school setting. You are assigned a coach on each job you work on to help you through learning how to do your work. This is a great idea as it means you aren't always asking the wrong people for help by accident. The company have invested a lot of time and money in you by the time you get to the end of your internship. They want you to succeed and enjoy your time with them.

You are very likely to be offered a job at the end of the internship. This is great if you know this is what you want to go into as you then have your last year of University without worrying about applying to jobs. Accounting is not for me, but I am certain that most of the other interns will accept this graduate offer and become Associates next September. I can't recommend PwC enough though if accounting is your thing. They really do look after and value the people that work for them.

We had an intern whatsap chat for the interns in my office. This was set up by one of the interns. It worked really well as it meant we could coordinate lunches and plan socials after work. The first week is where you do most of your socialising with the other interns. Depending on what line of service you're in, this continues as much as you want it too throughout the other weeks. You're given the chance to catch up with the other interns on the last day.

I commuted from home and so the cost of living was rather cheap. Train tickets can be a faff, but as the internship is paid, you really can't complain too much. As an assurance intern you never really know where you'll be next week so sometimes you'll be really lucky and have a job within half an hour of home and other weeks you'll be a 2 hour train/tram ride away.

I didn't really try out the nightlife in the area where I worked. Too busy recovering from a hard week at work! From what I've heard the nightlife in Manchester is very good, so if this is your thing then I think it's a really good city to choose. We went for a drink or two after work some friday's and everywhere was busy so clearly many other people think so too.

During our first week, at the induction to the local office on the Thursday and Friday, we were told about all of the different sports societies that meet each week. PwC were actually in the process of organising a sports day for their employees, but this will take place for the second intake of interns. All of the interns were invited to an away day half way through our internship at the Royal Leeds Armouries. This was really cool as we spent the afternoon, running around completing challenges such as origami and treasure hunts with all of the Risk Assurance employees from the north of England.