Corporate Tax Intern Review

It should be noted that I moved to a different city for my internship which may affect my judgement. The office environment was very relaxed and modern - nothing like I was expecting. I enjoyed shadowing staff, and felt it gave me a really good idea of what I wanted to do and what it would involve as a graduate. However I didn't feel like the office was social (no one ate lunch together and there was no socials while I was there) and that it something I value highly in a job.

When I did pieces of work for people they always said thank you and told me how the work would contribute to the overall project so in that sense I felt valued. Even if I was given a very minor task eg scanning, they would acknowledge it wasn't the most exciting task and would apologies which was nice.

My people manager was not helpful at all in terms of guidance, she was not based in my office either so it was difficult to get a hold of her. However the senior staff in my office made up for it and gave good guidance for tasks and career progression questions.

There was very little to do and some managers were unwilling to delegate. Even the graduates seemed to have not much to do. I had to work really hard to get tasks and felt like I was constantly asking managers, but I would be sitting with nothing to do for at least a couple of hours a day which could be very de-motivating.

All the tasks I got were low responsibility and I spent most of my time shadowing so in terms of work I didn't have much responsibility. however we were given the responsibility to manager our own time, very much left to our own devices so in that view we had some responsibility.

We received a week and a half for training at the beginning of the internship however it did not think this was relevant to my service line (Tax) at all, it was tailored to Audit. I had an office job before I started this position and do not feel like my skills have improved, nor do I think what I have learned would assist me in my degree.

Everyone seemed to keep themselves to themselves. I felt this was unusual especially for the junior staff. Everyone ate their lunch at their desk and there was never any drinks after work, in my department anyway. I asked staff members about social opportunities and they said it was pretty much non-existent except the Xmas night out and PwC day.

The internship is well organised at the beginning. We were taken to Windsor for 3 days at the start of the internship for training and ice breaker exercises and this was very well organised and really fun. Then we had an office induction for 2 days which may not of been useful but it helped me to get to know the other interns. After that there wasn't much structure.

We were invested in well in the first 3 days of the internship in Windsor. The accomodation and food was to a very high standard and it was clear the company invested a lot into it. I asked to go along to a graduate technical skills training day during my internship which was also very useful and it was nice that i was allowed to go even though I wasn't a full time employee.

I think in PwC the promotion prospects are clear and to me that is very appealing. There also seems to be opportunities to travel or to do secondments and that is extremely appealing to me. However I will be requesting to move to another office due to the lack of social opportunities here.

There is no social scene in my department however I've heard in the Audit department it's a lot better. Everyone eats lunch alone at their desk and no one goes for drinks after lunch (they stopped a couple of moths ago apparently because no one showed up). This may be different in other offices though, this is just my experience.

Cost of living is reasonable (I was based in Manchester). Obviously its no where near as expensive as London but rent is more expensive than other cities but if you move slightly outwith the city centre, travel is very reasonable (via trams, bus etc) and a lot of people in the office also cycled in. Nights out seemed quite pricey and I would recommend carefully selecting the bars you go to based on price.

Manchester is really good for a night out. There are loads of good food places and pubs especially in areas like Deansgate and the Northern Quarter. It is quite expensive, especially at the weekend but there are some happy hours and student nights during the week that are a lot more reasonable,

I personally found there was very little activities outside of work. I know the audit department had a Sports Day which I heard was great however this didn't involve my department. I think each office has a social committee so it just depends on how keen they are in each individual office.