Risk Advisory Summer Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed the Deloitte Risk Management placement. The length of my placement in particular (6 weeks) meant that I was able to get a real feel for what it's like to work for the organisation, whilst also leaving plenty of time for holiday, before and after. The way we rotated around different departments means that if I start as a grad, I'll have a strong understanding of Deloitte's abilities.

The structure of the internship meant that colleagues were alway clear what work we were able to take on. They were told in advance that we would be working with them, so I always felt that I was assisting in their work, rather than being a burden. One of the best things about this placement was that you really felt like a part of the organisation.

At the end of each engagement with each of the departments, we were provided with written feedback from our manager. The quality of support did vary between managers, but we were also given support by both a personal buddy, and by the designated grads who were organising the summer vacation scheme.

The workload varied between the departments, so I never felt like I was under too much pressure. The hours were also very agreeable, rarely having to work after 5:30 and often finishing earlier than expected. We were encouraged to take the full hour for lunch, so I had plenty of time to socialise with the other interns.

Responsibility varied significantly between the departments. In the digital risk department, it was mainly menial data entry work. However, in the Crisis and Reputation Management and Strategic, Regulatory and Operational departments I was given a far greater amount of responsibility. I was able to take on the planning and execution of an entire section of one audit.

I wouldn't say that the skills provided by the placement will be particularly useful to my degree studies, but they will undoubtably be invaluable for starting my career. I was able to work on my problem solving skills, and get used to engaging with a wide range of stakeholders from a number of sectors.

The general atmosphere in the office could feel a little clinical at times. The hot-desking policy meant that I never really felt like I was working in an area that was 'mine'. It was quite quiet in the office, and there wasn't too much of a social atmosphere, which was very different to the atmosphere at the socials.

The internship was very well organised. There were a few slow parts during the induction process, such as having only one person to take ID photos, but once the actual placement had actually started, it was very well organised. We always knew which team we were on in which particular week, and who our managers would be.

The firm really seemed to invest in us, even though we were only working there for six weeks. We had to complete a lot of on boarding online courses, such as in financial crime or spotting insider trading, so I would feel really prepared for starting as a graduate. They were also very clear about the training process, should we be offered a job.

Very appealing. I was lucky enough to be offered a job, and the career path following graduation was made really clear to us during the internship. They seemed to take on a lot of interns, which is understandable after the amount of application tests we had to complete to get to that stage.

We had at least two socials every single week of the internship. The fact that we rotated around the desks meant that we had out intern socials, the individual desk socials and the overall department socials. These always had great free food and drinks. There was also a big spread of events, from bars and restaurants to sports days.

I commuted from home, which was quite expensive. However, the amount of socials that were paid for by Deloitte meant that we rarely had to spend much of out own money on nights out. Admittedly, being in London did mean that when we went out on a normal night, socialising was quite pricey.

The nightlife in the area was fantastic. It could be quite expensive, given that it was in central London, but that did mean that there was plenty to choose from every night we went out. The ping pong bar just down the road from the office was one of the major nightlife highlights!

Understandably, as the internship only lasted for six weeks, there weren't any opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work. It perhaps would have been nice to see some sort of after work sports club, or some type of sports club at lunchtimes. As the work hours weren't particularly long, this is definitely something that could be provided for interns.