Tech Risk Summer Intern Review

It is a nice place to work for, with friendly and supportive colleagues, lively culture, relatively relaxed environment and good working hours (varies from team to team). Both the offices are at excellent locations and nicely furbished, It is pleasant to go into work everyday. However I feel that I didn't get enough opportunity to really get involved with the work of PwC. The 6 weeks internship time is too short, and I didn't really get involved into the core of any project.

Members of the team are very friendly and supportive. Everyone is assigned with a buddy and a careers coach. Even senior members of the team are happy to spend some time having a catch up with you. However I feel like I didn't have enough opportunities to add in my own value.

Everyone is happy to help when you have difficulties. The careers coach and buddy are normally around. People normally give clear instructions for the work they ask you to do. However there isn't a person assigning work for the interns. Interns need to ask for work themselves. Sometimes I asked around really hard but couldn't find any work.

I was normally quite free, especially in the starting 2-3 weeks, there were days I was just asking around for work, or trying to arrange some catch up with people. It got slightly better towards the end, but then the leaving day approached. I felt that I have tried really hard to ask for work and offer to help with team members, but it is hard for them to give suitable work for interns (especially I was only here for 6 weeks).

I didn't get enough chance to get involved in projects. I needed to ask very hard for work to do. Even if I got some work, it would mainly be simple things (e.g. formatting, excel sheet editing). When helping out with these types of jobs, I couldn't gain good understanding with the work people do here. I had access to the reports, but without the need (and guidance) of understanding the contents. I felt a bit scared to keep asking questions because everyone seems to be quite busy, and they normally said "I don't have any work for you at the moment". Then I received reviews about I wasn't initiative enough (I guess they want me to dig deeper into the projects I was given? ), which I thought was a bit unfair.

I have learnt some useful software and gain good insight into the business area. PwC gives you a lot of learning opportunities. For example, I attended an Alteryx training workshop, even if I wasn't in the data team. People are normally happy to spend some time having a catch up with you. I used this as an opportunity to learn the work from different teams.

This is one of the things I like the most about PwC. The atmosphere is lively and relaxed. People in the team are friends with each other. It is very easy to reach out to colleagues for discussion or help, even if they are at senior positions. Everyone is friendly and helpful.

It was quite structured in terms of the onbording and offbording process, and the training. All the interns attend a 3-day residential training, followed by compliance e-learning. However the actual work was not too structured. There wasn't really a program. The interns had to ask for work to do themselves. Sometimes I had the feeling of being left out.

There are plenty of opportunities for personal development, including e-learning and software trainings. There is also a 3-day residential training in the beginning of the internship (same applies for all the new joiners, with even longer period for proper employees). However there isn't too much specific training for interns after we start working. I still don't understand most of the work people doing here (details about tech auditing, GDPR, etc)

It is a nice place to work for, with caring colleagues and lively culture. However, it is not the best suit for my skills. As a professional service company, all the work requires documentation and report writing, which takes up most of the time. Personally I prefer more technical environment, so I didn't get offered for a job, and probably won't come back.

During the period I am interning in PwC, there wasn't much social with fellow students/colleagues. Some of them come back to visit their friends, but none of the gatherings are official. There was a talk given by people leaving PwC to start their own business, but was a more formal occasion comparing to a social.

Both of the offices are in central London so you'd expect quite high cost of living, including the transports. The socialising in the area is great. There are plenty of shops, bars, pubs, restaurants around. (because of the central location). A lot of people go to the pubs nearby after work.

I didn't really go out so couldn't say much about it. The embankment office of PwC is very close to Piccadilly, Covent Garden and Bankside Centre. There are plenty of places to go if you like nightlife. There is a popular club called 'Tiger Tiger' at working distance. Though I personally have never been.

There was a annual summer ball happened to be on the first day of my internship. It was great fun. Occasionally there were trainings or team lunches. Or some team building activities. I can imagine there are a lot of opportunities outside of work, however a lot of them don't really apply for interns.