Summer School Intern Review

Summer School Intern in the Corporate Tax department - I have been assigned a buddy who has provided me with lots of tasks and client work in the office every day, such as drafting corporate tax computations and writing emails/letters. I have also been assigned work from the other tax departments such as researching potential clients and summarising legal cases. I've had the opportunity to discuss job roles with many managers and employees in different departments.

I've learnt a lot of tax related terminology and learnt how to use specialist software such as Alphatax. The work experience has also developed my time management and organisational skills.

I have really enjoyed working in the office environment and the opportunity to discover more about the job role of an accountant. The culture of the office is very welcoming and it seems as if each individual is very valued by the company.

Throughout the two weeks the level of responsibility I have been given has drastically increased and towards the end I felt very involved in projects and tasks. Everyone seemed to really appreciate any help I could give them and therefore I felt very valued in the office.

We received a training day in London before starting, but this was based more on teamwork skills rather than accountancy based ones. However once I arrived in the office I was introduced to all the necessary information, software and skills on a day to day basis in a very interactive manner. At first my buddy found it hard to find stuff for me to do but throughout the work experience overall I was kept busy and was delegated tasks from many different departments. I had meetings with a mentor throughout the weeks to monitor my progress, and the other staff were very keen to offer support whenever I needed it. Overall, I felt the program was organised in a way that gave me a key, in depth insight into what accountancy work involves.

I have been contacted at various points throughout the programme by student support staff to ensure that I was coping well at my office. Any queries I had were quickly answered, and I was given a detailed overview of how the program works prior to commencing.

My buddy and my mentor have been on hand whenever necessary to answer questions and provide me with support in any task I was given. The other staff have also been very approachable and helpful, answering any questions I had and taking the time to review any projects that I completed with me. When contacting IT services and HR, all my queries were answered and the people were very helpful in sorting out my problems.

I've been paid a fair amount for the work done within the two weeks, and all my travel expenses for the two weeks have been covered, as well as travel expenses for interviews prior to the summer school programme.

We had a welcome lunch on the first day, and on my last day the department happened to be having lunch out and drinks in the afternoon as a reward for reaching targets within the year, which I was very kindly invited to.

Yes

I have really enjoyed the atmosphere here in the company and the work I have been asked to do has been interesting and rewarding, and even though my work experience lasted only two weeks I feel much more prepared to make a decision about my future career now that I have experienced accountancy work for myself. The staff have provided me with all the support I needed to complete work to the highest standard and I have felt very valued throughout my time here.

Be honest about what you know and why you are applying - you are not expected to have any prior knowledge of accountancy work, just a keen interest in the job and a willingness to develop the necessary skills. The values of the company are really key to their work - make sure you are familiar with the company culture and the 4 key values.