Summer Associate Review

I really enjoyed my summer internship at the FCA. During my time here, I developed a lot of knowledge on the finance industry as a whole, financial services and developed my personal skills. The work I did felt of value and the team I was part of were very supportive and make sure I settled in well. I had enough work to through out the 10 weeks and was able to learn about what the other teams do. They were very supportive with your personal development: building soft skills, academic/ career profession and flexible working.

I was given a valued role and worked on a projected that contributed to the team as a whole. It helped develop technical knowledge as well as improve my existing skills. My line manager was very proactive and supported me through. I also had colleagues who were willing to help with any technical aspects as well as basic enquires.

I had an initial meeting with my manager. This set the tone for the intership at large. At this point I was able to suggest how much guidance I required and we both managed expectations. My manager commited half an hour a week to ensure my work was on track as well as my personal development. In addition we were allocated a grad buddy from a different team to further support us and help with and issues or additional concerns. I feel the balance worked well for me. Some may opt to meet more often and others less. My manager and I met when we best fit. Some weeks we met twice and other times just an informal conversation was all that was needed. There was also a grad on my floor who was not my buddy but was also a point of contact for support or guidance.

As I was given a project which run through the whole 10 weeks. This meant I had to manage my time well through out to ensure it was complete by the end of my internship. In addition, I had additonal tasks to complete for other teams that I was curious to find out about. With this, meetings and weekly intern development sessions (learning lunches) I always had a fair bit of work to complete. As I had to present my project in week 8 I had some pressure to complete the task but it was not too much to manage.

The project I completed was a new framework the team had not yet developed. This means I had work that the team would make use of once I had left. I also presented/ test-run the project to senior members of staff within the team. The feedback was used to make futher improvements and improve its validity when the framework is launched. This shows that I was responsible for a useful piece of work for the team.

Working in the Specialist Supervision team in technology helped me develop both technical as well as soft skills that I can use in my degree as well as in my career. The soft skills of communicating with professionals, presenting to a group of people and to senior members of staff are skills I can use once in most career paths. The technical skills are useful given I tend on going into operational riks post-graduation. Further, working with other teams I developed understanding on how the various team's work influence one another, how this relates to the financial industry as a whole and put my study of finance into real life context.

FCA have a good company culture. Everyone is really friendly and willing to help. They make sure you sit with your team and there is the opportunity to hot desk. Peoplr work well together and are interested in what you are getting up to.

My internship wa planned really well. I was given a project over the 10 weeks to complete and had weekly development sessions with HR,

The company set up weekly training to learn about various teams run by existing graduates. There was also a three day induct at the start of the programme and a corporate responsibility day. Grad schemes, masters and professional qualifications were also advertised

The company is very appealing for future prospects. There is a lot of choice in terms of roles and responsibilty in these roles

The other interns went for drinks often, had lunch together, and bowling with the company

The canteen helped with the cost of living at is a subsidized canteen. Canary Wharf is mid-price / expensive. There are some cheaper alternatives e.g Tesco

Canary Wharf is quite lively for drinks especially in the summer when it was warm. It was a good atmosphere

There were sports activies e.g Football, netball, basketball during lunch times and after work. There is also a gym. It is subsidized which makes it affordable. There are cinema trips, bowling wine tasting a make pop-up activities. There are also theatre tickets but these need to be bookes in advance