Vacation Student Review

I was a vacation student so I helped out with whatever jobs people needed. This involved working on Excel spreadsheets, case law research, and presentation drafting. As well as work, there were a lot of meetings with employees both within and external to the tax department I was working in. This gave me a chance to find out what life was like at KPMG, as well as the roles of different areas within the company. There was also a lot of learning about tax.

I have learnt a lot about the world of tax, with different definitions and how to form a case when working on client work. I have also learned how to research case law effectively, in order to find the relevant references to the case. My Excel skills have improved through having to efficiently process large amounts of financial data, whilst still keeping a high level of rigour in the analysing. Finally, I have learnt how to communicate with people professionally and conduct myself in a manner that reflects well on KPMG.

I was given a fair amount of responsibility. Obviously, being a vacation student meant that I didn't take on any client all on my own, but I was given projects to work on that proved to be highly beneficial to the client work I was helping on. The research I did always started with guidance from whomever was giving me the work, but I was trusted to complete my research on my own, and learn how to use certain software on my own, or with the help of KPMG's learning resources.

The amount of support I recieved was tremendous. Both my performance manager and buddy were extremelly helpful, always finding me work to do and people to talk to in order to expand my knowledge of the tax world and also other departments. Whenever I showed interest in a specific area, they were always there to talk to me and answer any questions I had, and if they couldn't answer them, then they would find someone that could. The support and guidance from my team was greatly appreciated and really helped me.

The company culture was extremely welcoming. Everyone that I talked to, not just the graduates, were so nice and happy to answer all of my questions. The general atmosphere was laid back whilst still keeping a professional atmosphere whenever work was being discussed. I never felt nervous talking to people, and even when I slipped up or needed some extra explaining, everyone was happy to talk to me about it and educate me. It was a lovely environment to work in.

My placement was only 4 weeks long, which may be on the shorter side. My first week was an induction week, leaving me only 3 weeks to work. However, IT issues meant that I didn't get my company laptop, which I needed to work, until the third week. Whilst the work that I did do was rewarding, it was very frustrating not being able to do any proper client work for half of my internship. On the up side, my buddy and performance manager were extremely helpful, finding me little bits of work that I could do, as well as a lot of reading to expand my knowledge of tax.

Yes

Before applying really research the area that you're interested about joining. I have to admit, tax was not what I expected it to be, mainly being research and presentation work. I really enjoyed it, and the change of how I usually have to work on my physics degree was refreshing and expanded my thinking. However, even if you're not sure what you want to do, whichever department you end up joining will most likely have lovely people in it, so don't be afraid to apply.