Operational Management Intern Review

I am thoroughly enjoying my internship. The immediate thing that struck me on arrival was how friendly everyone was, this is a stand out feature at Fidelity and helps to explain the high staff retention rates. The work I have done has been varied and largely interesting and I have worked closely with my team who are a fantastic group of people who are always willing to help and provide advice despite their large workloads.

I felt valued by my colleagues, I was regularly asked for advice on certain aspects of their work if it related to my project work. I was invited to work lunches and I also attended the weekly team meetings and was encouraged to contribute to these as the team were genuinely interested in my project work as it related to their day to day role.

My manager said from the beginning that he does not believe in micromanagement, instead he set out the project aims and largely let me develop the projects as I saw fit. However I was still able to ask when I needed guidance from my manager or the rest of the team when needed.

As my work was mainly project based, I was often as busy as I wanted to be. This flexibility was ideal as it meant I tended to work longer hours earlier in the week and then slightly shorter houses on Friday etc. It largely depended on how many internal and client meetings I had, which altered how busy I was significantly.

One of the big appeals of the internship for me was how willing my manager was to give me responsibility right from the start. My team was very much focussed on delivering for our clients and therefore I immediately got exposure to a large number of our clients. The success of a lot of my projects depended on building strong relationships and therefore I was given a great amount of responsibility.

I gained a much deeper understanding of the pensions industry and the wider asset management industry, a series of Lunch & Learn sessions were put on a regular basis which enabled all the interns/grads to dial in and listen to people from across Fidelity talk about their area of the business. Which was certainly an interesting aspect.

The company invests a great deal, with generous pay and perks including a subsidised canteen and sizable pension contributions (even to interns).

Very appealing, I am awaiting the outcome of a final presentation to find out whether they have an opening on their graduate scheme.

The social aspect is hugely appealing, HR put on a large range of socials for interns/graduates often with free food and drink which are always great fun, but also things like dragon boat racing in Canary Wharf. Also over the 8 weeks I was with Fidelity a lot of the interns all lived together and often went for drinks/dinner together on the weekend, so the social scene is excellent overall!

Fortunately the company paid for accommodation whilst I was working on my 8 week internship, which dramatically reduced my living costs. I simply had to pay for my travel costs to the Surrey office (which wasn't that expensive) and then the canteen was subsidised. My main expense was the cost of drinks and eating out which of course are very expensive in London.

As I stated previously, there are a large number of official work events such as drinks socials and other activities. Equally someone (often me) is always organising meals/drinks after work, therefore there is always some interesting things going on! There are also plenty of chances to meet a large range of people at lunchtime networking events for example.