Investment Intern Review

I believe it’s relevant to give a little background. I am a non-finance undergraduate with previous internship experience within financial services. This internship was two things for me- (1) a chance to develop my personal skills (2) an opportunity to find out if Investment Management is the correct career path for me. 8 weeks later I can now write that I have achieved both of these things. Full credit goes to M&G - the high standard of training and insight has been testing and I’ve heard from many employees about their genuine experiences within the Industry which has been very helpful. It has been an incredibly rewarding and enjoyable experience.

M&G’s longstanding graduate scheme has resulted in a large number of employee’s having previously been interns/graduates at the company. This is a fantastic cultural feature which means many of the senior employees are happy to give their time to Interns and are understanding of what can be a difficult position as a very junior employee. My colleagues always ensured I was involve me in all aspects of their work, my opinion has been valued and I have had the opportunity to make arguments during team discussion in support/or against the consensus.

The company as a whole have been particularly supportive. HR keep in touch with all interns throughout the process- this has been done in the form of catch-ups Week 2,5 and 8 of the internship. Both HR and my management have always been available and I feel would have been supportive of any queries I had.

This is very much dependent on your team. The 8 week internship is a fixed scheme in a single team so work is tied directly to them. Personally there have been a number of developments happening within my particular business area, this has led from a range of research and reporting jobs. I was given a lot of creative license during research so the format of work has been diverse and engaging.

I worked in a deal based team. My main responsibilities have been geared towards the due diligence aspect of certain deals. Within this work I was given multiple areas to research, some of which have been key to the progress of certain deals. In this sense I feel I’ve been given a lot of responsibility.

As the content is very different from my degree it is more relevant to discuss the skills developed. I have not only improved my technical understanding but also softer skills such as my ability to work in a team and network. However it is the key investment related skills, which are very difficult to understand without direct contact, that have been the most valuable. Certain ways of thinking about the investment process and learning how to approaching problems which at first, may seem unsurmountable, are important takeaways for me.

Within my team there was a very collaborative and social atmosphere. Being a fixed investment scheme you are tied to your placement- this does prose some risk that you will be placed in a team you are not compatible with. There is value in being fixed as opposed to rotating during an internship. Short rotations, more common in banking internships, make it difficult to “get to know” a team properly, personally I prefer the fixed style of the M&G scheme for the reasons listed above.

A lot of time and effort goes into the interns. Before you arrive a calendar of events is organised. These range from out-of-work social events and in-work “insight to” sessions which are very useful for getting to know colleagues/the business.

The internship is a pipeline for the graduate scheme. Much of the training/development is meeting people/teams and less content/technically focused. They don’t provide technically focused training, this comes when you join the firm as a graduate, and instead as an intern it is a much higher level introduction to the business. I feel the training and development was appropriate for the short 8 week period we had.

As discussed previously, the internship is a pipeline for the graduate scheme. Hiring from the internship fluctuates significantly; it is based on demand from the floor and the quality of the intake. I believe if you are able to make yourself stand-out and deliver value to the company, the prospects of being hired are good.

The large group of interns- 22- were a very social bunch. Despite being a competitive process the atmosphere was good with drinks almost every week and occasional events together at weekends.

London is an incredibly expensive city- it's a well known fact. Interns are compensated appropriately (relative to an internship based outside of London) although you must be prepared to spend considerably more than whilst studying.

London City is very social- there are opportunities for all tastes and most are within walking distance of the office.

This is dependent on your team. My team were pro-active in inviting me to various events out with the office.