Assurance Intern Review

Overall I feel that I've learnt a lot from my internship and I got the chance to work with a good group of people. There were times when I really wasn't enjoying my time, although this was probably more to do with myself/getting used to long days working rather than the content of the work itself. I most enjoyed being exposed to the workings of large companies, including PwC as well as the client firm.

Being the only intern on the job and also being the least experienced/qualified person on the job meant that there were times at the beginning of my placement where I felt slightly like the odd one out. However, by the end of my placement I felt that I really become part of a team. I was on large job and everyone in the team was friendly and supportive. Its strange in PwC because everybody is so young, it's rare that you meet someone over 30. Consequently there can be a really good mood in the office because everybody is in a similar position.

My people manager was going through a really busy time but he still made a big effort to make sure he spoke to me regularly and was available if needs be. Furthermore, as said above, all other staff members are so friendly and supportive that it would be unlikely that I'd ever need to go specifically to senior staff. I was also given a "Buddy" although we didn't really communicate much. If you needed anything or had any questions, everyone was happy to help.

The nature of the work is that the vast majority of it demands some experience/knowledge of Audit/accountancy, Despite this, from my first day the other staff members were good at finding me work that I could complete - obviously the sort of work that I was capable of/trusted at completing increased as my experience on the job grew. 90% of the time I left around 6 or before, and I was almost always the first to leave. One day myself and another intern stayed until 9pm (still first to leave), because it was the night before the Audit was signed off, although we were given free takeaway. On the other hand, there were a couple of days where I reckon I completed maybe 2 hours or less of actual work. Most of the time however, there was a good balance of work.

Obviously it's all relative to the rest of the teams work, so I wasn't delegating work to other team members or anything. However, I was tasked with many tasks concerning confidential and important information, contacting high level individuals in the clients firm, and completing work for the audit that played important/crucial roles. Of course, all of your work is closely reviewed, but in an audit, everybody's work is.

I don't study a finance related degree, although I am interested in business/financial news. The knowledge and skills I've developed therefore won't hold a direct assistance in my studies, but I don't believe there's such a thing as useless knowledge/experience. Also I know feel a lot more confident working with numbers/in business than I did prior to the training and development I received.

Audit is client based so "my" office was primarily the clients office. My experience was based on one big job, so there were usually between 7-11 from PwC in each day. There was a fair bit of banter and chat which was good, although it still is a professional working environment so some topics are avoided, Also towards he end of the audit the mood was a bit more intense as pressure and tiredness levels rose together. Generally though, as long as you could still get on with work, people were more than happy to chat.

Overall the organisation of the placement was really good. We had an enjoyable training week at the beginning, clear supervisors/people to go to if we needed support/info, we knew where/when we would be working, there were meetings about our progress in the middle and end of our internship, and there was really good communication. Any slight issues that did occur could be resolved very easily.

We had a training week, the first 3 days being spent in a hotel in Windsor. All payed for, food, alcohol tokens and a hoodie/other pwc branded freebies. We were tutored by Senior associates for two days at the hotel, before spending the Thurs/Friday at our local offices. As mentioned previously, we had lots of support available from staff members of all levels.

I received an offer at the end of my internship. If you want to go into finance, there don't seem to many better places to start your career. Initial pay isn't great, and it's no secret that Audit work isn't necessarily thrilling, but, as I was told, "short term pain for long term gain". Plus they pay for your ACA exams and training. Outside of the daily work however, the firm itself seems to offer really good perks in terms of social events/drinks and training opportunities.

The interns went out together following meetings probably abut 3 times. There was also a sports day social event for a whole day with all of the Assurance team from the office. From what I picked up in conversation, it seems that there are fairly frequent drinks meet ups, I don't know how often these are firm backed or just organised by staff, although both occur.

I live at home. Manchester has a bit of everything in terms f budgets though. You can find a pint for £2 or £5 depending on where you look.

I didn't go out in town during my internship - but Manchester has a really good nightlife in general.

I'm not big into football, although I did get involved in one match after work. There were also multiple offers for other matches. There was also a competition called "Dragon's Den" among the interns nation wide, although I didn't get involved in this.