Investment Intern Review

I had a really enjoyable 8 weeks with the firm, and it was definitely the people who made that happen! I was involved with the investment practice and was made to feel very much at home from the first day onwards. Provided that you accept that it might take a week or two for things to pick up then you will have an enjoyable time at Hymans!

One of the best things about doing an intern at Hymans was the fact that I wasn't made to feel like an intern. The very flat hierarchy here meant that I was sat next to a partner, who was just as friendly and willing to help me as the grad who recently joined opposite, and from day one I was invited and involved in all of the team socials which grew to make me feel even more valued as a member of the team.

My manager arranged weekly catch up sessions with me to check up on how I was finding things, and asking about things that they could do better. I really noticed that the feedback that I gave towards the start of the 8 weeks was acted upon and differences were made! Although I had good support from my manager, everyone in the team is so supportive that the support was (in general) shared out amongst 5 or 6 people rather than just through my manager.

For the first couple of weeks things were quite quiet as the team tried to work out what work they were able to hand over to me, and I began to get my head around terminology and what was going on. They give you a project to complete over the 8 weeks which gave me something to be working on when other work dried up, which was good, although towards the end of the project it did get a little boring.

Not being qualified as an actuary (or even started the qualification!) there is a limit on how much of the work you are able to do. That said, the rigorous auditing and checking system in place means that analysts will often hand down pieces of work to you which you can have a go at and then they can tweak as necessary.

Many of the skills that I gained are either related to understanding pensions and investments, or to using excel! Being honest, neither of those will probably help me out much with my university maths degree, however looking beyond my final year at university I have gained a number of skills that will stand me in good stead to head out into the working world once my degree is finished.

Really great, I'm not sure that I will ever find an office environment that is more inviting or supportive. Everyone talks to everyone, and people share ideas to help each other. The flat hierarchy of the firm also means that partners are just as happy to speak with you as the grads!

Pretty well organised in general, they had clearly done a lot of thinking before my arrival about how I could be of help to the firm. The one teething problem I faced that I'm sure will be ironed out (this was the first year the Investment practice had taken interns) was that the consultants did not seem to know what work they should/could give to us as interns, but this improved a lot over the 8 weeks!

In the first 2 weeks we received a lot of training on both an introduction to the firm and also an introduction to investment practice and principles. This provided me with a good starting point of basic knowledge, and we were also invited to attend the graduate training programme whilst we were here, which consists of a few training session each week on a wide range of topics which definitely helped broaden my understanding!

Very appealing, the work environment was both professional, yet relaxed and supportive at the same time! I am yet to find out whether or not there is a potential grad opportunity with the firm off the back of my internship, but safe to say that doing this particular role I can not think of a better place in which to do it!

I think I was unfortunate with the 7 other interns whilst I was here, as they were mostly quite quiet and reserved meaning that our socialising was nice but restricted to the lunch hour and not really outside of that. However, there were many other colleague who were constantly inviting me to come out for drinks, etc and socialise after work which was great fun!

Doing an internship in the city of London is never going to be cheap! Rents can easily be in excess of £200 per week and so if you can find family or friends to stay with then that is going to save you an awful lot of money! Similarly socialising in the area comes at an inflated cost (especially drinks!), but definitely make use of a number of amazing museums which have free entry!

Again, being in the heart of the capital the nightlife is really good, BUT comes at an extreme cost! The public transport system means you can easily move around the wealth of options, but do look out for students nights or similarly discounted evenings as otherwise its very easy to blow half of you weekly pay packet!

A number of really fun ones! We played a cricket match against another firm, which might not sound appealing to you but about 60% of us had never played before meaning the focus was having a fun evening in the sun and enjoying the free drinks/BBQ! There are also similar opportunities regularly, including team socials every month (funded by the firm!) and regular Friday evening drinks trips.