Associate (Summer Intern) Review

During my time I worked on three different clients. The variety in work and the business experience were fantastic, and by the end of the placement I found myself wanting more. I have subsequently accepted a full-time graduate position with the firm.

An audit is by nature a very busy undertaking, with many tasks needed to be completed in a short space of time. My colleagues were always grateful for any work that I completed for them, and I was made to feel like an asset rather than a burden to the team. I found this to give a large boost to my confidence.

The importance of coaching is deeply ingrained in the culture at PwC, and as such I found that people would always make time for me in order to train and educate me on the job. When they did so, they seemed like they genuinely were happy to coach me rather than seeing it as a necessary chore. This creates a very fertile environment to work in.

At no point during the placement was I sitting there with nothing to do. As soon as I finished one task, my team were more than willing to offer me more work to do! However they also appreciated that certain tasks would take me longer, and as such never overloaded me.

I was given more and more responsibility throughout the placement, and on the last cleint was given whole sections of the audit in which to complete myself.

During my placement I further developed my organisational and professional skills. Although I do a technical degree, this is still required in group work and report writing.

If found working in the teams that I was placed in to be most enjoyable. They were all hard working, however we would also have conversations and friendly jokes, which made the work all the more bearable.

There can be no complaints about the organisation of the placement, from start to finish everything went perfectly.

I was surprised at how much time and effort the firm poured into our training and development, from an all expenses paid residential training course to the day to day coaching on the job.

I have accepted a full-time graduate role, which they offer to most of their summer interns.

I got to know my fellow summer interns on a personal level, and although due to the nature of audit I did not see them from day to day, I am still in contact with the interns from my office.

I lived at my parental home during my placement so personally the costs were low, however to live and work in Greater London is rather more expensive than other areas of the country.

Uxbridge nightlife is rather notorious, however I have always had fun on nights out there. It is also relatively close to central London (although it takes around an hour on the tube).

Every 3 months the office has a quarterly event, in which there is usually a social activity and departemental meeting. This fell during my placement. Due to the fact that the department is scattered round the country on client sites, it is relatively hard to organise activities outside of work.