Business and IT Analyst Review

The people were great, and had a lot of opportunity to spend time with the other interns. The work life balance is very reasonable, left work at 5 everyday. And plenty of socials to keep us entertained in the evening. Because the summer is a quiet time, the work was slow in starting and being delegated but that's standard for most places when everyone is on holiday I imagine.

Everyone was very friendly and willing to answer questions/arrange meetings to discuss more about their roles/my project. The culture is relaxed and comfortable so it is easy to build a rapport with colleagues. The head of one of the departments actually personally reached out to me because he liked my C.V so we're definitely not overlooked.

My manager was very busy but always happy to point me in the right direction, even when she couldn't help out herself. Also had a lot of support from the other interns manger who interviewed me for the job. The work I did was pretty independent so I was happy to be left to it, but knew guidance was also available should I need it.

Late July and August are quiet times where everyone is on holiday. Also a lot of the project were either finishing up or waiting to be started. A lot of the work my manager had planned for me didn't work out because of this reason. I'd advise taking initiative and arranging meetings with other areas of the business (people are always happy to do this) and suggest going over to other similar areas (if your manager is ok with it) and shadowing them for a while.

My project involved migrating the current work analysts do onto a tool that the business wants to use more of. As a lot of people in my department don't really use the tool much at the moment - I was definitely given the opportunity to prototype it how I best saw fit and this was great because it means everyone was very interested.

While they wont necessarily help with my degree - which is very niche -, I've definitely developed professional skills that will help me when I graduate. It's given me a good example of what a working life schedule is like and taught me a lot about how to be pro-active and network with colleagues. It's also taught me a lot about what I do and do not enjoy and given me insight into what roles I would like to do in the future, and what I would avoid.

The atmosphere is a wonderful and friendly one! Everyone gets along well and is supportive - the horizontal structure helps as it means even managers and heads of departments are accessible and easy to talk to. There's a lot of joking and moods are relaxed - a great place to wet your feet if this is the first internship you've done.

It is immediately obvious that the scheme has had a lot of thought put into it. Despite everyone having different backgrounds, somehow the project we were all given fit us perfectly. The first two weeks are full with insights into all the business areas so that keeps you busy while you're still getting the hang of things. There are catch ups with HR to see how you are getting on and to provide feedback which is always very helpful as an indication of how you are doing.

I was given two days training when I went to a different area of the firm to see how their tools worked. Ideally it would have been good to have a bit more training into our personal development (presentation skills/team leading/meetings) throughout the scheme but 8 weeks is a very tight schedule so I can see why this wasn't done. The grad scheme I believe has the first month of pure training which makes sense.

Interns ha their own group chat where evenings out where scheduled on a weekly basis - this is independent of the company so is up to the interns themselves to organise.

It is very expensive to go out in central London however we were also paid generously so it balanced out.

This depends on the team you're with. While mine didn't really have any, a lot of the other interns would go out for various sports with their teams, and we were always welcome to join.