Spring Insight Review

It was a fantastic all-round insight into the company, its businesses, the nature of its work and even its history! The week was very well planned and executed by HR, who ensured everything ran smoothly for everyone involved. Clearly a lot of effort had gone into making the Insight genuinely useful for students curious about a career in finance, and more specifically one at Rothschild.

I felt very much valued during my time at Rothschild; we were afforded a great deal of exposure to bankers from analyst to MD level, and all the employees were friendly, personable and cared about answering our questions to the best of their ability. Once again, HR remained personally involved throughout, taking care to ensure that we were getting the most out of the activities scheduled.

We received just the right balance of guidance/support and independence, such that we felt neither abandoned and overwhelmed by the tasks at hand nor patronised as students. We were given serious and challenging tasks, namely the Team M&A Project, and throughout the process we received excellent support all around from everyone involved.

The Spring Insight Programme has been hugely valuable to me beyond simply equipping me with a deeper understanding of Global Financial Advisory at Rothschild. In particular, the communications workshop organised for us with Swordpoint will be of great use not only in oral presentations as part of my degree but in interview situations, seminars and any situation in which it is essential that I communicate with maximum clarity!

The Insight was extremely well structured overall. We were given a clear timetable of activities that struck a balance between presentations, networking events, volunteering activities and active participation. It left plenty of flexibility for using Rothschild’s facilities after hours for the M&A Project, and the agenda was enjoyably varied, including a fantastic afternoon tea with a surprisingly large number of senior bankers.

The atmosphere was fantastic! A part of that I suspect was down to the genuinely friendly culture at Rothschild itself, but the HR team made the entire experience hugely enjoyable, taking a genuine interest in the work we were doing, participating alongside us in the volunteering and setting up socialising events so we all got to know each other.

The company invested a great deal in our personal training and development, not only through professionally organised communications workshops and presentations by bankers on how to prepare effective presentations but also through the Team M&A Project, interview skills sessions and the sheer volume of interactions with successful bankers at Rothschild!

The insight was hugely valuable in helping me understand what it would be like to have a full time role a Rothschild, not only through the wide range of engaging presentations of the constituent departments of Global Financial Advisory but also through the broad range of networking events, where employees were happy to answer all of our questions about working at Rothschild to the best of their abilities.

I felt I learned a great deal about the company culture simply by virtue of the volume of interaction opportunities with Rothschild employees both in a conversational setting and through work shadowing. Even just walking through the cafeteria gave us a sense of the friendliness of the environment at the bank!

The week’s contents were enormously valuable in helping me decide on a future career path. I applied for the Insight Programme to evaluate my suitability for finance at Rothschild and whether I would enjoy it. Both of these key questions were very satisfactorily answered by the end of the week!

Trains to and from London, as well as Oyster Travel Pass

There were plenty of opportunities for networking and meeting other employees at Rothschild, from work shadowing in pairs to having lunch with freshly graduated analysts to having afternoon tea with senior bankers from all sorts of sectors of Global Financial Advisory. Moreover, the employees seemed genuinely interested in talking to us!

The networking and social events were great and varied. As explained above, almost every event was presented in a different format, from the afternoon tea in which MDs rotated around groups of insight students to a stand-up buffet lunch with the analysts, to welcoming drinks and food at a local bar.

Yes, not only did we participate in a volunteering morning at Body & Soul, but we also had representatives from the charity and from Rothschild’s volunteering manager come and speak to us. Also, the sheer number of networking opportunities meant I was able to find this out simply by asking employees!

Absolutely!