M&A Summer Intern Review

The internship was a really good experience. The atmosphere of the place was great and the people I was working with were always happy to spare their time to teach me or have a chat. It was also a good chance to learn a lot; both through the official training provided as well as through work. the programme was really well structured and well organized, so it went smoothly and at all times I feld that considerable attention and resources are devoted to me as an intern. The interns class was great.

The colleagues I was working with were demanding but willing to appreciate good work. With a very small numebr of exceptions, people were patient, willing to teach, and encouraging to learn. The team was welcoming, and even the most senior people were nice and willing to chat. I also enjoyed working with the analysts.

I had an excellent line manager who found a good balance between being demanding and supportive at the same time, what really encouraged me to work hard and do my best. In any spare time I would have, he would set me modeling/valuation etc exercieses with very tight deadlines what really pushed me to learn to be both fluent witht he technical aspects and fast.

Overall I think the workload was ok. The only issue was that often i would not have that much to do during the day, but then i would be staffed towards the evening or on Friday what means late nights + weekend work. This translated into 85 hours weeks, but this is comaprable to other major banks.

The tasks I was given were generally not particularly responsible, they were rather limited to smaller tasks which did not have much significance. Towards the end of the internship I was starting to get more responsible tasks; one I could prepare and send the materials direcly to the client. It wuld be better though to have some more stimulating tasks.

I have really learned a lot during the internship, both in terms of my financial knowledge and fluency in excel/powerpoint. I had also a really good exposure to the corporate culture in banking, and there were a lot of events etc organized so that we could network and enhance the communication in a professional environment.

good atmosphere.

Good organisation. The structure was clear and all was going smoothly. Review meetings, training sessions, networking events, speaker events were happening often and were well organized. The only thing i would improve is the first three days of the internship, when we were given no plan of activities - a timetable would be really helpful to know what exactly to expect

The firm invested sufficiently. In the begining we had 1.5 days training by an external provider and later training/shadowing sessions thorughout the internship. We also had access to learning materials online. Other colleagues, such as analysts were also happy to share learning materials, such as books about modeling and valuation etc, as well as go through what they were doing to teach us.

There are opportunities in place to develop within the organisation.

The intern cass was really great. of course, we were in a competitive environment and we knew only part of us will get the offers, but the interns were helpful to each other and willing to help. We would also organise things together, such as drinks, dinners etc. The fellow interns were one of the best things about the internhsip. Soemtimes we would also do things with the analysts.

Expensive. London is expsnsive already, and the places that we would go to were particularly expensive. Nevertheless, this was affordable given the salary was more than enough to afford decent London living. The company was also providing (subeject to late/weekend work, what essentially means everyday) dinner allowance and free taxi home.

The nightlife is pretty bad in the sense that there is basically nothing open past 12pm. There are a few very decent palces around canary, but they close early and are relatively expensive.

There were a numebr of events organised (networking, speaker events, team drinks) during the internhsip, what was really good experience. Also, the interns were sometimes invited for coffee/dinner/lunch by more senior workers, what was also nice. However, given the long working hours, there is no time for any other activities outside of work, such as sports etc. But this is slighlty different for the analysts who have more flexible working arrangements.