Business Academy Intern Review

We completed a three day online Academy via Microsoft Team, and had a series of panels and talks from lots of different employees within EY, which told us more about how the company worked, the roles which we had applied for when we signed up, and how we could develop our skills and apply these at EY as an apprentice. We also had some experience completing tasks similar to those completed by employees in our desired roles.

I learned about business writing skills including those involved in writing up a report for a client, as well as etiquette for emails and documents used in business. We were also give advice and training on how to create an elevator pitch about ourselves, and how we could make ourselves sound appealing to employers. This pitch was set as a sort of competition between us, motivating us to create the best possible pitch using the advice they gave us.

The experience was very enjoyable and also gave me lots of information and insight into the company. It absolutely exceeded my expectations going in as I was not sure to what extent I was going to be interested in and follow through on what I was going to learn, but by the end I felt like I had definitely learned lots of useful things in an engaging manner which made the experience very enjoyable even though it could have been confusing.

Our Business Academy was conducted online via Microsoft Teams, which as a software is very well adapted to this sort of experience. Emails about the Business Academy was sent well in advance, and both the application process and the event itself were both well organised and communicated to us. We did experience minor tech issues on the days of the event, but people were on hand with advice to help sort our issues out, as well as any other problems or questions we had.

I learned a great deal about the company and its culture on the programme, and I definitely feel like it would be a really good place to work going forwards. Having heard about both the company as a whole as well as individual offices, I would definitely say that I could see myself working there in the future, as the people all seemed really nice and positive about the company, and gave excellent reviews or the offices, the people and the support at EY

As I have not definitely mad my mind up about my future career path, I would not say that the work experience has one hundred percent made up my mind about working in the specific roles set out, but it had definitely helped my to see what my future career could be like and as a result had gone a long way to helping me decide what I would like to do with myself going on to working life.

As the Business Academy is an internship, I was paid for my time by the hour at a very reasonable rate, especially given the transition to online learning and talks. While this was definitely an upside on its own, I would say that the information I learned would be more than worth going unpaid for my time, especially how this programme helps a fast track through some hurdles into employment at the company. The only drawback is that had it not been online, I believe I would have had to pay for travel into London, which is not cheap.

Throughout the three days, we met a great many employees at lots of different positions and levels in the company, and we also encourages to create profiles on LinkedIn and connect with each other, as well as with the people we met who gave talks and helped with the event in all capacities. It was especially useful to meet people who had gone through the same experiences that we were going through, as we could see how they had found it and dealt with any difficulties.

Yes

The experience as a whole has left me much more knowledgeable and experienced in terms of being aware of the business world and how EY operates as a company, as well as the fact that the Business Academy has given me lots of skills and lessons that I would not otherwise have had. The company were also very welcoming and receptive, and definitely gave a super positive review of the company themselves from what we learned about what it was like to work there.

It is a relatively tough programme to get onto, and the best advice I could give is to be open and available for contact during the application process, as the contact you regularly with updates and things you need to complete to help your application go through. Also, during video calls it really helps to be open and positive, as well as knowledgeable about the company and your application, as it saves time and makes you seem even more smart and efficient.