Commercial Auditor Review

From the very first day of the six week internship I was warmly welcomed into the firm. I was assigned numerous tasks for each audit that I assisted in conducting. The variety in the work that I was assigned and the proliferation of responsibility that was assigned to me during my internship made it a very valuable and joyful experience.

Because of the nature of conducting an audit, I felt extremely valued by my colleagues (as we were all working together to complete an audit). When on client's sites I was given a lot of responsibility in conducting certain parts of the audit, such as cash. I was also encouraged, and did, create a good rapport with their finance teams. This responsibility made me feel valued by my colleagues.

Whilst undertaking audits throughout the duration of my internship I felt that I received guidance from various differing sources. Firstly the incharges for each audit would ensure that I knew exactly what tasks I needed to complete and even guided me through how to complete differing parts of the audit. However support was also given by all members on the auditing team. We were also guided efficiently through the internship through the use of differing educational experiences, such as attending Grant Thornton's training facility called Bradenham Manor.

Every day, within the first five weeks, I was busy conducting sections for an audit or attending training. Each day from 9am to 5:30pm I had sufficient amounts of working that I needed to complete and never worked longer than that normal day. However during the last week of my internship because of having to conduct a presentation of our internship we did have a lot of free time in that week which could have been shortened in length.

On each audit I was assigned differing but set tasks, in which to help in the completion of an audit. From the first day completing an audit I was run through the processes that I would be going through in order to help complete the audit. As the internship progressed the responsibility of my work increased and I was assigned harder tasks.

The six week internship had no impact upon my degree as I study a completely different subject to accountancy. However it was extremely beneficial in the fact that it gave me an insight into what an auditor does on a regular basis. This made me decide that I wanted to become an auditor after I graduate.

During the working day everyone was professional and conducted their work but was able to do this in the comfort of their own clothes. However there were multiple office celebrations and even a quiz which helped everyone settle in to the office easily. Overall the atmosphere was professional but very relaxed.

There was a fluent structure for the entire internship.

Grant Thornton invested a lot of time and expense in training all the interns. As an intern I was sent to London in order to receive training and how to help raise funds for Grant Thornton's micro-finance initiative. Furthermore all of the interns were sent to Bradenham Manor for a few nights in order to improve our confidence in presenting. The experience in Bradenham Manor proved to be very beneficial in helping to present the final presentation at the end of the internship.

I have been given a graduate offer.

There were numerous events that my fellow placement colleagues took place in. A summer Grant Thornton party was thrown by the Birmingham office in which there was a free bar and everyone was able to socialise with other colleagues that they hadn't necessarily worked with before. There were also other events that were held so that we were introduced to other Grant Thornton interns from other offices rather than just those from Birmingham. This was through going to a bar in which we had two free drinks the night before a training day in London.

Socialising was easy but could be expensive.

There are a lot of bars near by.

There were multiple opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work. For example, there was a cricket team in which I participated in which was played after work on a Tuesday. There was also a Grant Thornton netball team that you could join. During the internship there was also a football tournament held in Sheffield in which was played against other Grant Thornton offices all over the country.