Intern/Trainee Review

General low importance business tasks; proof reading slides, updating spreadsheets. Generally not asked to do more meaningful project tasks, though sometimes I am asked to step in and do these. Not making use of Computer Science degree at all - it's entirely business stuff. The "Tech" part of the role is a bit of a misnomer - it's business.

Was given a small amount of training - one to two days (new joiners at PwC usually get 8 weeks!) There is the opportunity to gain certifications in various things, such as Azure, AWS, Salesforce etc which are fully funded by PwC which is nice as they can be used for other roles too.

Do not enjoy the work at all. Either high stress with tight deadlines or very dull with few tasks assigned. Never really feels rewarding. That said, the people on the course are great and I've made lots of friends. The university side of the course is great, and it is a good deal. It's just the work that isn't very good.

Structure is pretty simple; time is broken up into full time university and full time work - it's nice to not be doing both at the same time. The work placements themselves however are poorly structured; we are not provided much information about when we will be changing projects or what they will be.

Plenty of support is available - we are provided with a "career coach" which is a senior employee meant to provide coaching and advice for your career. Level of support depends on how interested in helping you your coach is. Often there isn't much they can actually do to help however, other than just follow advice.

Some support is provided, depending on the qualification. In general it is up to you to find resources and time to study - some projects will not give you the time to work towards them so you will have to put it on hold or study in your own time, which is not ideal.

I have not used any of the qualifications for my role at PwC - as far as I can tell resourcing for our level pretty much ignores experience and qualifications, placing everyone on random projects even if we have found one ourselves that would be a good fit. Do not expect to choose what you are working on.

There are lots of opportunities for socialising and meeting new people. Regular after work meetups (strong drinking culture though, which is not for everyone - I do enjoy it). Regular in person meetings with lots of different grades in attendance, along with occasional in person training classes which usually come with social activities.

Yes

Despite all the problems with the actual job, they've paid for my degree and given me a wage for 4 years while at University which is a great deal. The degree apprenticeship overall is a great thing to do, but afterwards I do not plan to stick around - I will be looking for a company that is interested in making use of my skills and pays a competitive salary for someone with a computer science degree.

Don't apply if you aren't a fan of business. Some roles are advertised as "tech" but by that they just mean using software that is slightly technical in nature. If that is for you though, you will probably enjoy it here and I imagine a lot of the problems will go away once you have more experience/are more senior.