Finished second year and don't have a summer internship. Am I screwed?

It's only recently I've decided I might want to do accountancy / financial services / mc as a career. Unfortunately, I've had little motivation this year (personal circumstances, family member extremely ill etc) and I haven't managed to secure an internship and although i have a lot of volunteering / extra-curricular and some work experience, I have absolutely no accountancy or financial related work experience. I'm standard RG uni, just finished second year, on track for 2.1, non business or numerical degree (though my degree did have a 10 credit statistics module which I got a first in).

Am I going to struggle in getting a place on a graduate scheme in a company like PwC if I have no internship? Do most successful applicants to such companies have some sort of internship on their CV? Do all of them have relevant work experience?

Thanks.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 1

M1011

Work experience gives you a lot to talk about in competency interviews. However it is not a requirement for the likes of PWC to have relevant experience, you only need to show a genuine interest in the area (commercial awareness, read relevant news). They train you when you get there, so don't worry so much about having relevant experience, just focus on making yourself a good candidate in general. Extra curricular's, volunteering and work experience's seem to suggest that you have a good mix of things to talk about, so I don't think you'll find relevant experience a problem. I'm joining one of the big 4 this year and have no background experience in finance.

Reply 2

IJustWantAnswers

You need no background in finance, but you will need to be okay with numbers as you'll have to do some numerical tests (you can practice these online to get an idea of the level of maths you need). You are on track for the 2:1, so that is perfect, just make sure you work hard this year and get it, otherwise you'll cause some porblems for yourself. As M1011 said, you've done well to accumulate experience, because it'll help you to talk about a variety of situations in competency interviews.

As for not securing a summer internship, you have not missed the boat in any way. It's true that the majority of summer interns get offered a full-time job after graduation, BUT most of the big 4 still employ the majority of their new graduates via graduate role applications, not thorught the summer internships. I would say that there is absolutely no need to worry, but make sure you're fully prepared and apply as soon as applications open, so you can get that early offer and focus on your studies for the year.

Good luck, i'm sure you're going in the right direction at the moment anyway.

Reply 3

86501

To give you a clue, my intake at a big 4 firm had 8 people in my department, but the year before there was only one internship place. So only 1 of the 8 of us got the role as an offer after doing the internship. I did no internships in my penultimate year.

Reply 4

Guybrush Sheepgood

Original post by M1011

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Original post by IJustWantAnswers

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Original post by 86501

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Thank you for the info

Reply 5

anonymousaudit

I've never done an internship and have been offered a training contract for a big accountancy firm.

I do recommend getting some form of employment, though, as it gives you the skills they're looking for and something to discuss at interview. Most of the people I know who did internships (but didn't have a 'proper' job) failed at interview, people who never interned and just worked hard (in shops/whatever not high powered offices) all got given the jobs!

Finished second year and don't have a summer internship. Am I screwed?

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