POV: A day in life of an EY's intern

HA NOI - “Beep, beep, beep” – My alarm clock went off, signaling the start of a new day. I stretched my shoulders to wake up and looked at the clock: "Oh, It's 6:30 am already". I quickly got out of bed and a day of my summer internship started here.

This summer, I had the opportunity to intern at the EY corporate in Hanoi for 2 months, from early July to around mid-September. To me, securing an internship at EY, one of the biggest four consulting companies, within the first year is such a privilege that perhaps only VinUnians have, and I really appreciate this opportunity.

I would usually start my day by making my bed before doing my morning routine, refreshing myself with a full glass of water and some breakfast. I would prefer to prepare my lunch at home and enjoyed it later at the company pantry during lunchtime with my colleagues. After changing clothes and saying goodbye to my parents, I was ready to kick off a new working day.

I did my summer internship at EY Technology consulting team, which hosts around 30 members at both the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City offices. As I observed, different teams at different service lines have different working cultures. At our team, the working hours usually start at 9 am and end at 5 pm, while other teams often work overtime in the office, especially the audit team. It was fortunate that I can be flexible between working remotely or on-site, as long as the work is completed on time.

My "morning ritual" right after my arrival was to have a quick conversation with my mentor to update on daily tasks. As a Business Administration freshman with limited technical background, I was majorly responsible for basic works, such as conducting market research or assisting seniors in preparing deliverables for customers, including document synthesis, translation and designing PowerPoint slides. However, I also had many distinctive opportunities to join discussions with EY leaders, attend meetings with contractors at Keangnam Tower and participate in interviews with high-profile customers. Thanks to these invaluable real-life exposure, newbies like me could easily obtain insightful scenarios of the professional consultant's world.

Talking about the people here, the seniors and managers at EY were super friendly and enthusiastically supportive to us as interns. I still remember on the on-boarding day at EY, the core team members took it upon themselves to familiarize us with everything, be it the company's vision or the employees. Acknowledging that all interns are just upcoming sophomores, they always guided us step by step, from reading and understanding documents to making the deliverables.

During my internship, I have been taught to adopt a professional working style, as well as deliver high-quality work. My English competence had reached next level as well. Gradually, I learned how to use the right word to serve each customers’ purposes in different fields, how to design the most professional and logical slides, and how to put forward our team’s ideas.

Besides working hours, we still had extremely fun bonding time at the company. It was at the Mid-Autumn Festival that I got to know most people in my company. Through the Mid-Autumn cakes prepared by the senior manager and “cut” by his credit card and the little chats with other colleagues, I was able to understand deeply the culture and humans of EY, thereby pinpointing a few directions for my future career path.

Now that my internship at EY had come to an end, sincerely saying, two months of working here left me with tons of lessons and unforgettable memories. After this, when getting back to the hustle and bustle of my university life, how can I not miss every time my colleagues called me “Hey Huy, could you help me translate this document?”

What a wonderful piece of my youthful life!

Sincerely,

VinUnians.