Intern in Core Assurance line of service Review

The ability to travel was an exciting experience. However, not all of the tasks were as interesting as they might be.

Sometimes there was very little to do and it was clear that my colleagues were finding additional work for me to complete. On the whole, however, the work was varied and mostly interesting. All of the feedback from my colleagues was positive, and even some of my colleagues mentioned that I had been valuable in the work place.

PwC has a very strong management system. I was assigned a people manager (who is a senior manager within the department). Moreover also had a 'buddy' as well as an 'in charge' on whichever job I was assigned to. I was impressed by the management sytems in place.

I was very busy on some days, however, on other days the work was very quite. It was explained to me that this was partly due it being the 'quite season', being in July-August time. Nonetheless, sometimes it was the case that I had to stay beyond my standard work hours in order to complete the tasks I was given.

On my first client, I was surprised to be asked to go and interact with a client. This was initially a daunting prospect, as I knew very little about the company and what I was supposed to be asking the client. However, I became increasingly confident at undertaking client-facing work. In terms of the documenting tasks, and casting, this was mostly very basic. Although on occassions I needed to ask my colleagues precisely what it was they wanted me to do. I'm not sure if this is a reflection on the amount of responsibility I was give, or simply that the tasks were sometimes more complicated than I had anticipated.

Very few of the actual accounting/audit practice techniques will influence my degree. In fact, it was more the other way around. The economics element of my degree informed some parts of my work: for instance, calculating Net Present Values.

People took the work seriosly and, as far as I'm aware, got on with it. However, there was a very friendly and fun atmosphere in the office. I enjoyed the company of the majority of my colleagues in the office.

This is an incredibly well directed/structured internship. It gives the intern a broad variety of experiences. With opportunities to travel, and work across a number of exciting clients as well as fantastic training in London (and, of course a brilliant all-expenses paid stay in the hotel there). In addition, there were opportunities to interact with people of all levels within the company, from partner to associate.

I think PwC invests heavily in its staff. This is evidenced by the training opportunities and the social aspect of the company.

I have an offer of employment with PricewaterhouseCoopers. One thing I would criticise is the lack of willingness to allow interns to transfer from the office that they applied to (and worked in) and then a different office. For instance, I wasn't allowed to transfer to the London office after my Newcastle placement. I think there needs to be more flexibility in this, and a realisation that people will often seek to return to their home town (in my case Newcastle) after a period of time elsewhere.

I enjoyed interacting with colleagues at work and outside of the work place.

It wasn't crazily expensive. Nontheless, situated in the centre of the city it is always going to be a little more expensive than futher out.

Newcastle is renowned for a fantastic nightlife. Although, I have to say, I didn't really spend much time immersed in it. On a number of occassions I went to the pub with colleagues and fellow interns.

There are a relatively large number of sports societies. I went along to a 5-a-side football match. I'm not sure about the opportunities outside of sport.