Assurance Review

I enjoyed being given a significant amount of responsibility over the 6 weeks of my internship - this allowed me to apply everything I learned on the job into real work. Furthermore, I thoroughly enjoyed having the opportunity to travel to client sites and liaise directly with clients on audit matters.

My colleagues were all extremely helpful from the first week to the last week of my internship and were understanding of the fact that I lacked the knowledge and experience compared to the rest. They gave me specific jobs which I felt had a significant impact on the audit process and as a result allowed me to feel valued by the company and my colleagues.

My managers were all very helpful and easily contactable during times where other seniors were unavailable. They were also empathetic towards my lack of experience and were happy to explain things repeatedly when I did not understand certain aspects. Moreover, they were friendly and often engaged with the rest of the team throughout the day.

Having been fortunate enough to be assigned to a different client every week/two weeks, there will very little time to do nothing. I was always busy completing a variety of tasks regarding company audits, and when these had been completed, I made sure to ask if there were more things I could help out with.

As mentioned before, I felt as though I was given a very significant level of responsibility during the internship. This was daunting at first, but having been put in such a position allowed me to learn quickly and effectively about the structure of an audit, and develop my client relation skills.

The skills that I have developed over the six weeks, will definitely help for my final year of university. As I will be taking a few finance modules, my newly founded knowledge of understanding accounts and being able to analyse financial statements accurately will help my analytical skills for other subjects/modules.

Generally the office had a very professional but relaxed environment in the sense that everyone was easily approachable and helpful. Because of the professionalism in and around the office, it motivated me to carry myself in the same way and as a result of this I was able to work productively

Overall the internship was very well organised in that I never waited around for anything. I was assigned to a different job almost every week without any clashes. Furthermore, I was given prior notice about the nature of each job and given access to their files well in advance which was very helpful.

The company clearly invested a lot into its interns and graduates, specifically during the first week where all the interns were invited to a 3 day residential induction. During this time, we were involved in a number of classes where we were introduced the principes of audit and experienced using audit software such as Aura.

After my experience during the six weeks, I am definitely attracted to potentially coming back to work after I graduate. The culture in the firm and the people who work here make it a very welcoming environment, one that I feel I share the same values as everyone else who works here.

There were often social events amongst fellow interns where we would discuss our intern experiences on our various jobs. There were also a few times where I would have social events with my individual team on my specific job - this allowed a good work like balance and helped develop a bond within the team

Cost of living was fairly high, travelling from greater London into central but in terms of accessibility, it was very straight forward. Unsurprisingly the cost of socialising in central London is not cheap but being lucky enough to earn a salary throughout the internship made these costs a lot easier to deal with

Generally in Embankment, there is not too much nightlife however places such as Covent Garden, Picadilly circus and Leicester Square are just a few minutes walk away. These areas have a number of bars which are easy to get to and all close to tube stations, in the case of not walking.

There were opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work, for example sports such as football - I joined a football 5-aside group where they often organised games during the week. However during summer this apparently happens less often so unfortunately I didn't get to play throughout the six weeks