Technology Risk Summer Intern Review

I really enjoyed my placement, the work was very interesting and for someone with very little prior experience, I found every experience was beneficial, even simple communication tasks. I felt valued as an employee and a colleague and I felt confident to contribute during meetings and ask questions. Working with clients was something I found particularly interesting as it allows you to see the big picture.

I felt extremely valued by my colleagues and this has been reflected by the quality feedback which I have received. All of the managers and senior members that I have worked with have taken the time to compliment my work and thank me for my contribution. All of my colleagues have been really nice and considerate when explaining things, and they are really grateful to receive your help. However, in terms of the social side they have not been as inclusive as you may want.

Everyone that I have worked with have been happy to help me, regardless of how small the question is and how busy they are. Everyone has also taken the time to fully explain the tasks and broader subjects such as their role in the firm which is something I found beneficial to hear. When working with a colleague who is out of office (at a different site or working from home) it can be difficult to get their support on the job, but the colleagues around me have always helped the best that they can.

On an average day I was not very busy at all. Unfortunately I have spent a lot of time doing training, which is good for personal development but not a fair reflection on the work load you would receive as a full time employee. However, I think this is just because of the time of year, and some of the work being intermittent. Once I received a task to do, I did become very busy and it often became quite demanding.

I felt that I was given a lot of responsibility during my internship particularly when working on client work. Quite a lot of the work that I did ended up being presented to the client in reports or presentations, and the pressure/demand of this is something I really enjoyed. However, if you are unsure they will support you through the work so that the client still receives high quality work.

Whilst I had a lot of free time, I was given access to Udemy training which has a range of training courses available to you. Using this I developed my skills in Excel (including VBA), Microsoft OneNote and Python. Each of these skills I intend to use when I return to University, for note taking in lectures and creating tables of data for my engineering labs.

The office is usually very quiet, and as some of my colleagues have occasionally been at clients and working from home, there is not always the same group of people around you. This can be good as it allows you to meet more of your colleagues and speak with them about their experiences, but it can also be quite intimidating not knowing the people you're sat with.

Overall my career coach and buddy (the 2 people in place to help you during the placement) had structured my placement well. However, they were away for a lot of the time (on annual leave and on client site respectively) which made getting work to do difficult. Also, one of the managers made things difficult by telling me I needed to do work for him when I was already doing work for another manager, and this took a while to resolve. I think it could have been better organised by having work for me to do planned before I joined but this might not be possible.

The company invest a lot of money into your training, mainly through a nation wide induction residential. For me this was in Windsor, where I was set up in a really nice hotel and was fully catered for. The training during this was mainly focused on accounting which is not my interest, but it was interesting to see what the company do in other sectors. I was also given an expensive work laptop, on which I have access to a lot of training resources, namely Udemy.

Future prospects within the organisation are really positive, with continuous opportunities to be promoted and move up the hierarchy. This is something which I consider a huge advantage as I am always looking to improve and I believe I would get such an opportunity at PwC. The financial benefits to moving up the hierarchy are also very good.

There was not a very good social side of the placement. I was the only intern in my department so I did not see much of the other interns and the company did not make much of an effort to encourage socialising between interns so I was very much left to my own devices. The social side of the organisation also seems very limited unless you actively seek to do something (its unlikely you would be just invited). However, I think this is just because of the time of the year, and I believe they are organising a lot more activities towards Christmas time.

I commuted by train everyday which cost me approximately £10/£15 depending which Birmingham station I went to. This also limited my social life during the placement as I had very little time in the evening after my commute. I was also required to drive to Leicester and Derby for work, but they cover expenses of this. Overall the cost is dependent on your habits. (i.e. if you eat out at lunch and get coffees).

The nightlife in Birmingham in general is very good, but the social side of work didn't give me the opportunity to explore it. Near the office there are lots of bars and places to eat, and it is within walking distance of the city centre where there are lots more things to do.

In my department there were not many opportunities to get involved in activities. However, the interns in tax took part in an away day where they went paintballing and did a range of activities. I think this was just because of the time of year as the department I worked in were planning activities for later in the year.