Public Sector Assurance Summer Intern Review

The placement completely exceeded my expectations. The continuous quality of feedback that we enjoyed as interns was very valuable. Also, a week of solid training at the start of the placement has proved useful upon entering my final year. Furthermore, the chance to interact individually with clients has improved my confidence.

All of the vairous audit teams that I engaged with provided feebback following my efforts which was mainly positive. Also, your were often thanked for contributing to the task in a sincere manner.

This is where I believe PwC excelled. Constant career advice was offered from staff at every level. Also, a coaching culture definitely exists in the firm whereby colleagues often strive to ensure that you improve during each audit project.

My eight weeks were often very busy and at no point was I bored. Certain periods of the placement require that you take a proactive approach in attracting workload, however this is acheivable. That said, some fellow interns did not have an audit client at the start of their placements following training which is my only observed source of criticism.

I found that from the moment I finsished my weeks training I was encouraged to meet with clients on my own and also take responsibility for my areas of the audit file. This made the experience a real confidence builder and also stretched my knowledge of finance. I think that the level of responsibility I was allowed to enjoy was because I am studying a finance degree.

As I have mentioned previously my eight weeks of PwC contained a week of initial training and other training opportunities including a whole day building on presentation skills. Most of the valuable training I received however was from on the job training and coaching during the various audits I intended. All of this has proven vary valuable and relevant for my final year and my career in finance following on from my studies.

This is a harder criteria to judge PwC on as I was very rarely in the main office due to the various on site audits. However, whilst on the audit clients although the locations were not always comfy and welcoming the audit teams were always cheerful and freindly.

The placement was very well organised with audits set up an organised early on so that we knew what was expected of us and where we were expected to be. Also, an intership project was organised and conducted very professionally over the eight weeks.

A week's long training opportunity in a very posh manner house was how we began the internship. This was followed by other training opportunities, also we found that partners time was used just to give interns advice and provide us with an opportunity for learning. Furthermore, whenever expense claims were posted we were reimbursed promptly.

The employers are very keen to retain their interns following their investment in them, however, this is obviously this is based on performance and behaviour over the eight week internship.

Because we spent the week all together training near london we all got to know each other on a social level and broke the ice. This relationship continued as we attended each others birthday parties and nights out over the course of the placement. We remain freinds upon finishing the internship.

The East Midlands area is very reasnoble to live and cheap student accomodation is always available in the summer.

I never had a great chance to sample the night life around client sights and the home office is in an industrial park. However, whenever we were together in the Birmingham office area we made sure we sampled the decent night life.

We were never really encouraged to engage in activities outside of work during our eight weeks with the firm, however I am aware that opportunities do exits had we been at the firm longer, especially for returning graduates.