Summer Intern Review

It was an interesting experience which gave me a unique oversight on the whole finance/banking industry. There was also a number of training opportunities which included a behavioural economics lecture from a Harvard lecturer and various other lectures on the Investment banking industry and regulation that will be implemented in the future.

Support was offered whenever required and my colleagues made me feel welcome immediately. There were various social events including a bowling event for the interns and introductory drinks with our "grad buddies". Social events were also organised within my respective team such as a pub quiz. Although at times me colleagues were busy they still offered help and emphasised the importance of my role in projects.

I was guided to an extent but I had to use initiative to gain support and guidance about work I was involved in. My internship started just after the EU referendum, so understandably my manager was extremely busy during the beginning of my internship. They gave me some extra reading to do initiailly and provided me with a project to work on throughout the duration of my internship. I was also given feedback through weekly meetings which was extremely beneficial towards my development.

After the first couple of training days, which were fun and interesting, my day initially was not very busy because I had limited knowledge of regulation and some confidentiality issues. However as my internship progressed my workload increased, but it was manageable. The majority of days I had some work to do however my days were never extremely busy to the extenet where I felt that I was overworked. My hours were 9-5 and I barely stayed past 5pm.

I was given a fair amount of responsibility during my internship, however confidentiality issues made it difficult to be involved in all projects of interest. I had the opportunity to meet with various different managers across my department and some of my work was also produced in internal presentations and reports, so there was output to my work.

This internship gave me various opportunities to develop skills such as teamwork, interpersonal skills and backbone which are all general but important skills which are extremely transferable to assist my studies and in other extra curricular activities. I also learnt about financial regulation, where the investment banking industry is moving towards, how it is currently structured and specific financial products which are extremely relevant to my studies, as I am studying a masters in finance.

Everyone was extremely happy and easy to get along with. There is generally a laid-back feel amongst the organisation and everyone seems to enjoy having a work-life balance, plus they regularly hold tea and cake gatherings! Generally people are more than willing to help across the organisation and there are so many different people with various areas of expertise you can learn from, so you are able to gain a very good insight into whatever part of the finance industry which interests you.

The firm invested a lot of money and time into our personal training and development, which was evident immediately. From the application process, when we were offered detailed feedback on our strengths and weaknesses based on our performance at the assessment centres, to the final day when we had an internship review meeting with our managers. The training days were also extremely well organised and they had various external professionals provide training to support our development.

The future employment opportunites at the FCA are very bright and you have numerous opportunities to move across the organisation, especially if you come through the graduate scheme. As part of the grad programme, you go on a 6 month internal secondment and then a 6 month external secondment too. There are also opportunities to pursue pretty much whatever finance professional qualification you aspire towards and they are supportive in ensuring employee satisfaction remains high.

We had a fairly large intern cohort and we generally all enjoyed each others company. We regularly organised weekly social events, such as drinks, bowling and dinners. Everyday we would meet up and have lunch together. We all also spoke about each others experiences across the FCA, this definitely helped to understand which area we would be most interested in working towards in the future.

The office is based in Canary Wharf, so obviously it will not be cheap. However we were able to find affortable meals and social events through discounts offered to FCA employees and the subsidised canteens. Our intern group also socialised outside of Canary Wharf and went to nearby areas such as Canada Water.

The FCA has a number of sports clubs and other social events to get involved in. Our intern cohort also had a social corporate responsibility day which resulted us working at a nearby community centre, in an underpriveleged area, doing activities such as painting, gardening and holding a BBQ for local children in the area.