Summer Technology Analyst Review

I really enjoyed my internship. It was challenging and exciting, and I was able to gain so much insight as to what kind of job I may be doing when I leave university. My line of work was not the most cutting edge or exciting that it could have been, but I still enjoyed the fact that I could learn a little about the financial world whilst developing my programming skills.

Some colleagues, including my manager, gave me valuable feedback and made me feel like I was contributing to the team. Obviously it is a busy place and every one of your colleagues can be expected to praise you. In no way did any of my colleagues act negatively towards me or treat me as an outsider to the team.

My manager was always able to talk to me if I had an issue and always gave me valuable feedback that I could act on it I ever asked him for it. There were also other members of my team who I was very comfortable with asking for help from, as I recognized they were far more experienced than me and had knowledge that would greatly benefit my work.

I was pretty busy for the duration of my internship. There was never a time where I had no work to do, as my project was fairly challenging and is still ongoing with just over a week of the internship left! I was also given other tasks to supplement my project work.

I was given a fair amount of responsibility, no less than how much you would expect an inexperienced intern to be given. My project was a fairly valuable piece of work for my team and I was trusted to deliver it, showing that my team and manager believed in me and trusted I could deliver it.

I have learned things over my placement that will be invaluable to me in my honours year at university. Java in an enterprise setting is far different to being in the academic world, and realising this has allowed me to pick up a lot of hints and tips as well as tools and ideas which will make the quality of my honours work better overall.

The office is very lively and it does not have the feel of a massive corporate bank. It feels more like a software development environment. In my closer team, there was a great social atmosphere. Team members often organized drinks etc. and there were always treats on the window that you could enjoy with a free coffee!

It was organised to a fairly high standard. On our first day, we were given a calendar plan of what events we had to look forward to, such as socials, a coding challenge and corporate responsibility day. With the exception of the hackathon, all intern events were organised smoothly and were great fun. The socials in particular were very good, as they provided a great chance to get to know our fellow interns better out with the office!

There was a lot of mandatory training at the start which was a good sign, as it showed that the company is prepared to invest a lot to ensure that all new employees can get up to speed rapidly. On top of that, there was a lot of optional training within the online learning environment that we were free to utilise to develop our skills in areas of our choice.

J.P. Morgan is definitely a company I would love to continue working with after I graduate from university. The massive corporate structure greatly appeals to me and I love the fact how mobile they let their employees be. There is so much opportunity to travel the world and work in so many different areas. The pay is also very competitive for the Technology sector.

The social scene amongst the intern group was really good. As well as the company organised social events, a lot of the interns went over and above and organised other social events for their fellow interns. This included things as small as going out for a drink all the way up to going to the theatre and taking day trips to Edinburgh and other areas of Scotland.

I stayed at home with my parents so therefore I am not aware of the true costs of living away from home. However, rent prices in Glasgow in general are significantly lower than London for example, and eating out and drinking in the city centre is pretty cheap too. There are loads of pubs and restaurants that have special offers on each day of the week.

I was already from the surrounding area of Glasgow, so I was very familiar with the nightlife. There is plenty to do within Glasgow city centre and there is definitely no shortage of pubs and restaurants to go to. Die to the fact I was staying at home, I didn’t go out too much, but Glasgow is a great place to be on a Friday night after a hard day of work and you want to go and relax!

There was a fair amount of opportunity to get involved in activities outside of work, but I didn’t choose to get involved in many of these. There was a sharepoint site for the Glasgow office which hosted a number of sports clubs and societies, free to anyone to join and participate. This is definitely something I would consider if I was to come back as a full time employee.