Intern Review

I really enjoyed meeting the people on my floor and in my individual teams, and the interns in my division had a collaborative approach to our work, and less so competitive. The work was not too intense but challenging enough. The aspect I enjoyed the most was the support and feedback I received from my teams.

This was team and project dependent. But I definitely felt valued as they will be using my work. They included me when going to meetings and also let me shadow as many other parts of the bank as I wanted to. They took time to ask me about myself and understand me as a person

This is difficult as I came in just after Brexit and so my first manager was very busy. However, he made time for me whenever he could and really took time to explain things to me in detail. My 2nd supervisor was always on hand and explained everything and anything to me, and I developed my understanding by automatically thinking of more questions. This is very important in order to learn and progress through the internship.

Quite busy - I usually had a long term project and an HR event, but also did some day-to-day work. There was never a dull day. There may have been not more than 2/3 dull hours throughout my whole 9 weeks, but essentially, there was always something for me to do.

Not too much that I am responsible for so much of what the team does, and I was comfortable with this because I came in with no knowledge and it took me time to settle in. However, my projects gave me enough responsibility, as they are going to be used for future reports and so they needed to be perfect and to a high standard. I had the perfect level of responsibility. I think too much would have been overwhelming, especially when you are constantly being assessed.

My work ethic will definitely help me at university, as well as the ability to find information and know how/where to get it from. In my future job, I will have a good understanding of valuation and accounts and so will be able to adapt to whatever my job is. Most importantly, being able to talk to senior management, and people from all different backgrounds, and work in 2 contrasting teams will stand me in good stead in terms of personal development and confidence.

It was great. Buzzing at times, and quiet at other times, giving people enough space to work, but not being like a 'library'. Personally, I would have become bored if there was no one to talk to and I had to be silent the whole time. The atmosphere is very friendly and no one minds if you approach them. Everyone likes talking to the inters. It will vary between teams, but from my experience personally, the atmosphere has been good. Only thing I would say is that there could be more department social events. We had one at the beginning, but I feel like it would have helped me to get to know other people a lot better.

The teams themselves were organized with who was supervising me, what my work was, when I had to get it done for and ideas for other things I would be doing e.g shadowing at meetings with clients. However, HR themselves were not always so organized, as I had to send many of my forms twice and I was told I would be starting in a different team to the one I actually started on. The events they put on were well organized though, although I felt the networking events could have had more food. We were only given crisps, and after working 7am-6PM and leaving the office after the networking event at 8PM, I did not think that this was sufficient. It may seem like I'm being picky, but at the end of the day I had no energy and it is hard to network.

A lot of investment went into us. I had no idea about excel or valuation beforehand, but we were given proper training through online modules beforehand. We were also given 3 days of training when we started, which was really useful. Everyone at the bank is so willing to help you if you email someone senior, and I never found it to be a problem when asking for their help. Also, both my supervisors were really great and taught me a lot. Especially my second one, who was always on hand even when he was busy. Overall, in my experience, I thought that this couldn't have been better.

Well I would really love to work there as I already know a lot of people, enjoy the atmosphere and have enjoyed both teams that I have worked on. Speaking to grads, there is opportunity to move team as well as working flexible (ish) hours depending on your team. They pay for your qualification too. Speaking to senior women within the division, they have good allowances for maternity leave and colleagues with young children, and working from home can be possible 1 day a week. Overall, prospects seem to be good here.

Not really a good social scene. However, it does depend on the interns you meet, the division they are in, and where you live. I live an hour away and have to be in the office for 7, so I was not keen to go out too much on weekday nights. Other interns with less demanding working hours would do this and go for drinks a lot etc.

Obviously both were very high as it was canary wharf. Lunch costs £5-£8 a day, but the canteen is more subsidized than this. But it would still cost around £5. And with snacks, coffees and the like, this cost rises. However, it is Canary Wharf and my working hours are long, so it is to be expected really. I lived at home so I did not have to pay rent, although I believe it could be upto £280 a week.

I don't know, I never really went clubbing. However, bars are alright, especially on Thursday and Friday. There are lots around, including a secret bar in the Breakfast Club. They are expensive, but a lot do happy hours, especially as its summer, so its usually not too bad for a cocktail. But we are in London, so I'm sure the clubbing scene would have been good.

Yes there are. I attended a Barclays gospel choir one night, and there is an equities softball game coming up. They also have networks such as WiN, and I have attended a few of their events. HR organized talks and speaker sessions by senior management too. However, there could have been more in terms of team building and bonding within the markets intern class, as we didn't really know eachother and its so spread out. It is daunting to just talk to groups at networking events, so it would be better to invest more time in these.