Intern Review

It was really useful to get a detailed knowledge of what working in audit would be like. I enjoyed contributing something to the team whilst finding out how the firm worked from my own experience. I would definitely recommend considering an internship or similar for anyone unsure or anyone who wants to gain a better understanding.

I felt like the work I was doing was making a contribution and was helping them finish the overall job. I felt like they valued my opinion and the work I was doing, the feedback process helped with this as it reassured me that I was actually benefitting the engagement.

I was given enough support and guidance from my peers to carry out the work I was doing but not too much that I felt looked down upon. I would say that this was a good balance although sometimes it was a little daunting to ask questions if they were in the middle of a task.

I was busy enough to have enough to do during working hours but not so much that I felt like I needed to do work at home or work late. The work wasn't too overwhelming and the tasks took long enough that I didn't have to ask for more work too often.

I was given enough responsibility to feel valued by the team but not too much that I was out of my depth. I was responsible for certain areas and testing, but I knew that I could always ask for help if needed and that if there were any issues with my work these would be picked up.

My degree isn't in a particularly relevant field to audit, but an insight into the firm and and skills required, those specific to audit and professional skills will be useful later when working or applying for jobs. The specific training we received was quite overwhelming and too broad to be used in practice, the audit skills I learnt came from actually carrying out the engagements.

The atmosphere was lively and there were social events to make sure that everyone was on good terms with each other and nobody was left out of these events. There is a good balance of work and social time in terms of interaction with colleagues both in and out of the office.

Sometimes it was quite difficult to find out what I was supposed to be doing the next week due to a technical flaw with the system, once I had contacted the right person for the engagement they were keen to help me and wanted to ensure a smooth flow.

The internship was well paid and social events were organised with a good level of financial contribution to subsidise the cost for us. The training induction was essentially free as food, drink and travel were all provided/reimbursed, we felt like part of the team in terms of company expense.

I had a good relationship with the other interns in my intake and we regularly socialised together, including out of the office. We generally ate lunch together and sometimes went out for drinks and dinner in the evening, it was really good to spend time with other people in the same situation on a more social level.

I don't have much to compare this to as my placement was in my home area and so I lived at home. Socialising was probably around average for a city so didn't really come as much of a surprise. Living costs are probably around similar to other cities.

There were plenty of opportunities to engage with others outside of work, including sports day. This was a good opportunity, especially as it was so early on in the placement, to get to know other people, including the other interns. There was also the opportunity to socialise on a Friday evening with colleagues.