Finance Summer Intern Review

It was interesting but contained some ups and downs. For the most part I was excited to go to work as the environment supported learning and development.

I think that I did some valuable work that other people just didn't have time for so they were glad to put it onto someone else. However my main manager was extremely welcoming and was really involved in my internship.

For the most part my main line manager and one of my other placement managers were great. They wanted to get me involved and learn useful skills that built upon my theory from university. I did unfortunately have a placement manager that didn't really support me and it just seemed like she didn't have time for me.

This varied on the week. Sometimes I was super busy with really tight deadlines and then other times I was just left there with nothing to do because everyone was so busy with their deadlines. For the most part there was something for me to do and I took on an extra curricular role which was a good idea as then I had a lot more to do.

I ended up doing work for the Finance Director who came and sat down next to me as I worked through what I had done for him which was quite a nervous ordeal but I'm glad that I was allowed to do that. I also did work that will go be used for reviews by the Board of Directors and work that should last maybe 5-10 years due to the quality of the templates I created.

It allowed me to see a realistic view of my theoretical university studies. It allowed me to pick my classes for my honors year based on an informative real work experience. I think the real tell will be when I return to university and my studies but it gave me a better appreciation of working life.

Due to the nature of my placement I was moving between offices and went into a total of three. I started out in central finance which was chaotic and busy and everything seemed so ramped up and necessary. It was possibly the worst time for me to join but after the first few weeks you got used to it and it was enjoyable with people joking but it is finance so a lot of people were quite reserved. I then moved to T26 project accounting which was really quiet and serene and nice; I enjoyed the break from central finance and the mix of engineers and finance was good to have and gave you a better appreciation for what BAE Systems actually does. I then moved to the OPV project which was crazy and disorganised but I think I have the most fun with the people on a day to day basis. The team were really forthcoming and had a lot of good personalities.

I was very lucky in that they changed the placement from last year and moved me about the company and got me really involved in the industry rather than just a transaction role. I fell that I excelled that way because I already had a strong basis in excel and accounting. I did find that there was a lack of communication between the other organizers in terms of where things go after my internship.

I really want to apply for the finance development leadership scheme as it seems like such an interesting scheme and company to work for. It offers a lot and as such I think I would really benefit from this scheme because it is closer to what I want to do than the more traditional roles in accounting and what my fellow students are applying for.

This was one of the highlights of the scheme. I set up a facebook group after out induction. As part of our induction we all went out for dinner and I think this was a really good idea as it allowed us to meet each other and set up events to do. We had parties, nights out, and a sub-crawl which was a good break from work and was especially important for those interns and placements that moved to Glasgow.

Glasgow is a pretty cheap city. It is the major city in Scotland and contains all the local amenities and activities. There's dozens of clubs and hundreds of pubs; there's plenty of tourist attractions. The cost of living and rent etc. is relatively cheap especially compared to England and most of the placements lived with someone which brought the cost down even more.