Audit Intern Review

The internship as a whole was a great experience and something that I would recommend to others seeking out summer placements. The residential trip at the start of the placement was a welcomed addition giving us an informal chance to meet the people we would be working with while allowing us to network and get a feel of the types of people who work for PwC across the country, something I personally found really useful.

I found that this varied from job to job. Understandably due to our lack of experience, interns are often given tick boxing type activities but on a number of occasions I found that I was being given real work which was contributing positively to the outcome of the audit and saving the more experienced members of the team time. After every job I was thanked properly for my contribution which went a long way to making me feel like what I had done was appreciated.

I was fortunate enough to have Mark Tunnell as my career coach who I can't praise highly enough. As with my previous placement at Rolls-Royce I find in the first few weeks it's really important to have someone to ask questions of and help you find work when you are finding your feet. Mark and my buddy Winnie were instrumental in this, helping me to approach people for work and finding projects I could join while I was waiting for my TalentLink to be populated. Once I started working more client side, Winnie and Mark both made it clear they were available as and when I needed and regular catch ups ensured that I had a platform to voice any concerns or ask any questions I wasn't comfortable asking the incharge on the project.

This varied a huge amount over the course of the 6 weeks. On several occasions my TalentLink was completely empty for days on end. This was however often solved within a few hours as I talked to my career coach or buddy to see what smaller pieces of work I could pick up around the office to help get EGAs over the line. The majority of the time while on client side I felt I had ample work to be getting on with which would keep me busy from 9-6pm.

As with previous answers this varied on a job to job basis but on the whole I felt that I was being trusted with responsibility and the more tasks I delivered competently, the more responsibility I was given. On the whole I thought given that I came in with little to no experience of audit I was happy with the level of responsibility given.

Given the nature of my degree with the focus being away from accounting, the accounting principles and training won't directly relate to my final year of studies. Having said this the soft skills around interaction with the client and learning to test my understanding of tasks to ensure what I deliver is what exactly what was asked will be very useful going forward.

The atmosphere in the office was one of my favourite parts of the internship. As I mentioned in my end of placement presentation, the young average age in the office made it a lively and fun environment which made some of the more mundane office jobs easier to get through. Combined with the pool table and good lunch area downstairs I thoroughly enjoyed being in the office.

This varied from intern to intern. I felt on the whole that the scheme was well organised with the intern event at the start being a great edition. I feel where the organisation fell slightly short was ensuring that everyone had work to do once they got into the office. After week 2 my TalentLink was full and I knew what work I would be doing, but I know of several cases where interns consistently came into the office without work to do and despite their best efforts struggled to increase their work load.

The majority of the training came in the form of the initial induction event which was well organised. Past this initial session a lot of the training was dependant on how accommodating the manger was. On the whole however senior associates and graduates were really accommodating and happy to spend time to talk me through new tasks.

I have mixed feelings about this question due to the feedback I have received from graduates. A lot of the responses I have had around future employment has met with the advice to 'stick it out' for 3 years to gain qualification and then leave. On the whole it's easy to see the path that you can take through the company, but I think I will need to consider my career ambitions and keep in touch with graduates to decide what I will do.

The social side of things was good. Everyone was between Loughborough and Nottingham so we were able to easily organise nights out, trips to pub etc. I would say that the induction at the start was really useful in ensuring that we did meet outside of work as it gave us an opportunity to informally meet before getting busy in the office

Because I am at university in Loughborough I had no issues with the cost of living or socialising. It is something I have become used to and in comparison to Bristol where I am from the Midlands is a cheap place to socialise.

The nightlife in the midlands tends to be pretty good. Going to Loughborough University everything is pretty familiar and good fun.

To an extent. Every few weeks there were netball fixtures that we tried to get involved in, but I would say the length of the internship restricted us from getting to involved.