GFA Spring Insight Intern Review

I very much enjoyed the Programme. The talks where interesting, the fellow interns very nice, HR very proactive and there was a lot of time allocated for the interns to get to know staff within GFA, ranging from MD's to first-year Analysts.

I felt very valued and not just looked at as "just the Spring Week/ First Year students". A lot of time was allocated for us to get to know the firm,its divisions and its employees very well, so much so, that Directors took time off to have afternoon tea with us.

Having had to evaluate the potential merger between two companies as group project for the week was not the easiest of tasks. However, analysts were very supportive and happy to review the pitchbook we've made and also added comments for improvement.

Assessing financial data is very much applicable to everything, as it gives systematic guidance of how to go through a source of information and pull out the key points. Furthermore, public speaking and presentation skills workshops on top of actually presenting own ideas to a group of senior bankers are very much applicable to any kind of pitch or presentation you give in the future.

Very well structured in the way that no minute was wasted. On the other side, it was also not so 'jam-packed' that you didn't have time to work on the group project or meet with Analysts for coffee.

Very positive and comradely atmosphere between the interns. There was no undercurrent of people trying to beat each other for places in the summer internship programme. The best way to describe it is as: "We are here together, lets try to get to know everyone as much as possible and make the best of the week!"

Very difficult to invest more into Spring Insight Interns. Directors took time out of their days to sit down for tea with the interns and talk about their experiences. Furthermore, sessions where not only made to inform or assess us, but to also develop our e.g. presentational skills, interview skills etc.

Very much so. The Divisional Overview sessions gave great insight into what the divisions do as a whole. In addition to that, work-shadowing the analysts in the different industry and product groups helped to understand not just the day-to-day responsibilities on the job, but also how the role/ job of the analyst changes over the life-cycle of a transaction.

The mixture between spending time with the Analysts and the Directors illustrated the firms culture very well. Mainly, this was due to the fact that both set of employees thought very similar about the firms core values and mutually valued each other. Furthermore, actually going out to volunteer shows a firm's charitable commitment much better than just giving a presentation on it.

Very helpful. It showed that there is more to a Financial Advisory than just M&A. Furthermore, the deep insight it gave allowed everyone to really see what suits him best.

Lunch with Analysts, Tea with Directors and a lot of work-shadowing! Absolutely no chance to not get into conversation with someone from the firm during the week!

Very well organised. It wasn't a hectic environment where everyone eagerly tried to leave a mark. Especially because of the amount of the firms business representatives present at every event, everyone had the chance to really engage in conversation and ask the questions they wanted to ask.

Mainly volunteering. Having had a talk about the firms volunteering effort and then spending a whole morning doing volunteering work really showed how easy it is for employees to get involved with the efforts of the firm and the charities it supports.

Definitely! Great insight, great people, great challenges and an overall very fun week!