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To summarise, I have enjoyed the summer internship at PwC. I enjoyed the variety of work and teams. I was looking forward to learning and gaining experience over the summer and initially had expectations that I would be doing meaningless work as an intern, I was wrong. PwC’s summer internship programme was well organised and worth the time.

I felt valued to the team and firm. I was given large responsibilities and meaningful work. I was always involved in projects and partners granted me opportunities to shadow important meetings. From day one I was trusted by employees to do work and was welcomed to the firm with various social events. Everyone is easy to engage conversation with and happy to discuss any problems.

The support at PwC is immense – we are given multiple people that assist us if we encounter any problems. You are provided a buddy (a graduate new to the firm) and people manager (more experienced manager) to discuss any problems or go to for help. I stated my interest in certain areas of tax (e.g. M&A) and was given guidance and help to attaining work in this area. You have regular meetings with both your buddy and people managers to discuss your progress and are given feedback by people you work with.

I was fairly busy on a day-to-day basis. I was given multiple projects to work on which took up the majority of my time. I had regular meetings and conference calls to attend too. When projects were complete there would be the occasional few hours with not much to do, but employees always had things for you to do. PwC also counter this by providing e-learning and extra things to do such as a Dragons Den challenge.

I was given a large amount of responsibility from day one. Interns are treated similarly to new graduates (Associates), and so are given similar work. I was given sole responsibility for a detailed report for use in PwC Sweden. Some tasks were minor like calling HMRC. But with each responsibility given to you, you were given guidance on how to do it, and then trusted to do so.

The skills developed were useful. A lot of work was undertaken on Excel, which allowed me to increase my ability on this programme, which will be useful for my final year studies and in the finance world after graduation. I was able to develop both my teamwork and individual working skills during the internship as it has the right balance of both. Combined with this, I also have a greater understanding of the tax environment and have improved my analytical ability.

The office had a nice atmosphere, it was always friendly and collaborative. Everyone is happy to help, even if they are not on the project. They are also easy to talk to and you feel valued at the office and not just an intern to be used for work. The office was very social and relaxed - having dress down Fridays, coffee chat sessions every Friday morning and a quiz every Friday afternoon.

The internship was well organised, this was as expected because PwC have a large and well-structured internship programme. The internship begins with a residential induction and then office inductions to allow interns to get to grasps with what they’ll be doing. After this, you were given people managers and buddies and certain objectives you set and try to achieve. You are given a work laptop and so are able to do your own work instead of shadowing others all the time.

I was not expecting such investment by a firm for just an intern. PwC do go the extra mile to ensure interns develop and get the best out of their internship. We were given quality equipment like laptops to do the work on and thorough e-learning and classroom training. After the initial training, you were given thorough on the job learning as employees would be willing to teach you about things.

Very appealing. PwC seem like a sustainable and long-term thinking firm that care about their people and clients. The firm has a clear promotional structure when you join as a graduate and also sponsor you for relevant qualifications e.g. ACA. There were many perks of a graduate job and opportunities to move around Line of Services or office locations.

This was mixed, a lot of the assurance interns were out of office a lot, and resulted in me seeing a few people only a few times over the 6 weeks. However, for the interns that were more office based, there are a lot of opportunities to socialise in the office with pool tables, table tennis, air hockey and other areas to do such activities.

The East Midlands is relatively cheap, I didn't rent or stay in hotels during the internship but I know this because I lived at my parents here during the internship. However, the cost of eating around the office was a little higher than it should be, this is because the office is centrally located to the airport and motorways, meaning food prices are higher.

The office is on the border of all three main locations in the East Midlands - Nottingham, Derby and Leicester. This provides ample opportunities to experience a variety of nightlife. However, within walking proximity of the office, there were very limited bars to socialise right after work like you would have in a bigger city like Birmingham or London.

There were ample opportunities to get involved in. There was an away day one month before the internship had even started. There was also weekly activities such as football. In addition to this, we were invited to summer garden parties and other networking/socialising events. I was surprised there was this many opportunities with it being a regional office.