Operations Intern Review

The internship was extremely engaging, useful and fun. There were many events organised throughout the time such as a fun charity day, but also the professional development and training sessions were very enjoyable. Moreover, I found being around such well motivated people really enjoyable. Regardless of whether you go on to work as a grad with Goldman Sachs or not, the internship was a fantastic experience which felt like 4 weeks, not 10!

Goldman Sachs places a huge emphasis on its people and it describes itself as a consensus-driven organisation. This means that every member of the team has a valuable opinion and insight which should be listened to. Especially as an intern they were extremely aware of providing us with great training, but also they really encouraged us to be honest about what we thought of the practices and processes we saw there because we had a fresh pair of eyes to look at things, and identify where improvements could be made.

When you join they give you a team who are your immediate support network: your manager; your buddy (typically an analyst or associate from within the same team); and a mentor (anyone from associate - VP in any department of the firm). These three people are there to support you in your development, networking and your work in various ways. Beyond that the general attitude of the firm is that everyone makes time to help everyone else out, so I felt it was a very supportive environment.

This varied day to day based on your personal deadlines. Work consisted of day to day tasks set by your manager (90% time at the desk) and a global project with other interns (10%). As part of my day to day I was also set 2 further projects formally, and helped out on other ones too. Then there is also the divisional training and professional development sessions, and the global speaker series and many network events. All in all it was a pretty busy time, but not to the point where I couldn't manage. Also the team were very supportive - I made them aware of my deadlines in advance and so they were aware of the workload they were giving me and what was reasonable etc.

I was given quite a lot of responsibility in that I had my own time to manage, my own workload and the results of my projects were going to be used in client meetings. But because I was working in a highly sensitive area I was limited in my level of client interaction, which was a large part of the role had I been a graduate. However, there were days when I was the only person trained on that function and so I was running the show but from behind the scenes as I was briefing someone else on how to handle the client query.

It will assist me hugely in the years beyond my degree, but in my remaining time at university only the motivation and habit of working hard with be useful. 10 weeks was a really good amount of time to get used to a working environment and I learnt how to network more successfully, how to make use of those around me to best effect, and other soft skills like knowing the right questions to ask to find out about someone's role.

The atmosphere was generally quite studious. I worked in a room with about 40 people in it. This is unusual as most of the firm is quite open planned, but there were good reasons for it. Because it was a smaller group of teams it meant that there was generally less noise, so people didn't chat as much as they did in other teams. However, it was in no way unfriendly or intimidating.

The internship was exceptionally well and highly organised. Human Capital Management did a fantastic job arranging our schedule - generally speaking it was a lot busier in the first few weeks when we were still finding our feet in the office and the work load was lower. But by the end when the pressure was on with project deadlines etc we were still meeting interesting people and having intern socials.

Future employment prospects are very appealing. It seems to be that if you are doing well, you and the company decide together what the next step is for you and try to provide what you'd like to do, be that international travel and work or staying in the same seat. Also those that have come to the firm from other banks say they the environment at GS.

It was a really good group of people who did a lot of social things together. People also split into smaller groups to have lunch together etc. The company itself didn't do too much to aid this I think it just happened by itself - there were about 70 interns/ work placement in my department who were all there to have fun over their summer, so it was a nice atmosphere and scene.

I spent around £150 a week on food and transport but I didn't really go clubbing or drinking very much in London. Whenever I was out with colleagues they always bought my drinks for me because they didn't want the intern to have to buy drinks. Lunch costs anywhere from £3-£10 per day. There is a sainburys outside the office, but also loads of nicer places doing hot food for more money. It's your choice - it is possible to live cheaply, or you can splash out more.

There was a charity day organised by them which happens every year for interns. This year we were doing some land conservation work in one of the greater London parks. but apart from that day and the regular informal sports competitions they organised there weren't really any other opportunities. However I'm not sure what they could have done more...