Summer intern Review

The internship had the freedom to roam around freely to learn more about other parts of the bank, including from different departments and senior people, and I really valued this. However the work I was specifically given to do was not very challenging, and so was done fairly quickly, and so it was possible to become bored.

They had a nicely relaxed work style which made it very easy to settle in and have my own schedule and priorities. Many also gave us time to talk about what they did at work, despite being generally busy. At the same time, my offers of helping with their work generally were not used and I was tangential to them most of the time.

I had weekly meetings to go over my work and schedule with a supervisor in the team, and also had reviews (where I would fill out half, and them the other half) at halfway and at the end (in addfition to HR meetings). However some of the feedback seemed to actively look for negatives, took a while, and occassionally was a bit petty - e.g. "I don't always know exactly where yoiu are".

My tasks were fairly easy and so did not take very long to complete, and so it was possible to become bored. This meant, inadvertrentluy, my schedule became very flexible and I could organise meetings with others in the company to learn about their area - which was a definite benefit. Towards the end, the work understandably tapered off.

My work generally was reports etc. and I doubt it will be used in future by people there, and I didn't have a chance to present it to anyone over the internship. As a result the work seemed to be a little futile, even if I learnt things from doing them at times, and didn't seem to matter much what I did.

I think it has been very useful in terms of giving me a better sense of what work there (and at simialr places) would be like, and for also allowing me to set my expecations for work generally more accurately. Conversely, I did not learn/use much in the way of transferable technical skills which would be used again - perahps except for some legal analysis.

The atmosphere was generally relaxed and nicely jokey most of the time, and in that way it made it pretty easy to settle in working there. At the same time, the pace of work was generally slow (perhaps related to being an advisory section) and so it could get a bit boring at times and a little unsatisfactory.

The organisation generally was competently done - in term of speaker events, HR meetings, objectives set out at the start, timetables set out for reviews and for offer communications. The events were also generally of a high calibre. There was something of a lack of organisation at the lower levels where it concerned feedback during the internship (which was often late) or after-internship details.

There was some useful training, e.g. about financial markets, both at talks and (if you tried very hard to find it) online - but there could have been more, and it seems that in previous years there used to be more training before starting/at the start. However the level of senior speakers and other sessions we were able to go to was generally very high and very valued.

I would like to stay but I am planning to switch functions within the organisation and this seems (if there is space) quite possible given my background and already being in the same 'recruitment silo'. Saying that, there has been a degree of opacity about what is/isn't possible with regard to switching within the company.

I commonly went for lunch with other interns, and most weeks went for drinks/food (after work) with others after work at least one night per week (though not every week). There were also other events which were a useful chance to get to know other interns from other departments. There is also a leaving party at the end of the internship.

The area (Canary Wharf) was expectedly pretty expensive - from the cost of lunch, to the cost of buying drinks after work. There was at least subsidised cafes and a canteen within the building to alleviate that however (though i generally wanted a walk). The pay from the internship was also certainly sufficient to sustain yourself, even given the high prices in the area.

There was a large selection of bars in the area that meant you did have a serious choice. Maybe more importantly, people there were generally young and of the same attitude so they were fun to go to. Saying that, I probably didn't explore the nightlife as fully as it is possible to do and certainly not in the nearby areas.

There were a lot of varied opportunities to become involved in activities outside work - charity challenges, Fin Tech challenges, helping with website design, and a Code playground scheme (helping young kids to begin learning to code via the use of user-friendly software and fun tasks) for instance. Sometimes people seemed to be going through the motions with these - but generally they were valuable.