EY US is retiring the traditional summer internship for a longer, deeper model. The firm this month introduced its Career Residency program: an 8 to 12 month paid arrangement that blends real client work with structured coaching and skills development, run alongside students’ academic studies rather than as a separate eight-week block.
“EY Career Residency is a bold step forward: giving the next generation of trusted professionals the hands-on client experience, coaching and future-focused skills they need to lead in an AI-driven world,” said Dante D’Egidio, EY Americas CEO and US Managing Partner. Successful residents can move into an elevated analyst role at EY US, and some can enroll in 360 Careers, a structured track spanning audit, tax and technology risk with a path toward CPA credentials.
Why it matters for HR leaders: EY is one of several large professional-services firms that have quietly concluded the pandemic-era internship model undertrained a generation of entry-level hires in the skills, like client judgment and workplace collaboration, that used to be absorbed by osmosis in an office. That gap sits on top of an entry-level career ladder that was already narrowing before AI started automating the routine analyst work junior hires used to cut their teeth on.
The original insight here is not that EY added more training. It is that the firm redesigned the calendar itself, collapsing the wall between student and employee so judgment and AI fluency get built in parallel with coursework, not after it. Ginnie Carlier, EY Americas Chief Talent and Culture Officer, framed the stakes directly: “In an AI-powered world, cultivating the distinctly human capabilities of judgment, curiosity and trust will continue to be our greatest competitive advantage.” As AI absorbs more of what a first-year associate used to do, the skills that stay scarce are the ones already commanding a rising wage premium, and firms that cannot teach them fast enough will lose the entry-level talent war regardless of starting pay.
Source: EY
