Operations Intern Review

I worked within Fidelity's pensions operations. I didn't know anything about Pensions before joining so there was a lot to learn and fast, but within the role their was a lot of autonomy and trust in order to take my projects in the direction I felt they should go in, which I really enjoyed. My team was a pleasure to work with and we arranged time out of work to go for drinks/meals etc. There were also a number of events organised by the campus recruitment team which were very enjoyable. It was a great internship in many aspects.

Was treated just like any member of the team and the team consistently showed their appreciation, through recognition and support.

1:1s every 2 weeks, appraisal, manager always more than happy to offer support

I could have been not very busy, but the projects are often what you make of them. I like being busy so I set myself a lot of tough targets and this ended up being the reason for a lot of the success which was had on the internship. There is always more you can learn, more you can take up. Essentially, it was what you make of it. I have given a 10, even though this was not exactly a perfect balance. I was too busy much of the time, but this was because of the work I set myself.

Complete autonomy on projects, executed programme to ensure compliance with FCA regulation and this had an impact on the whole of Fidelity's Pensions Operations, in UK and India, as well as other areas of Fidelity who decided to take up the same system.

Lots of great training, particularly about the asset management industry and financial markets during the start of the internship. Excel training, lots of on the job training.

Opportunities available to come back for a graduate role. Personally, I am hoping to work in Equity investments after graduating and so decided not to proceed with Operations. However, most of my colleagues did receive offers and are coming back; I was told that everyone was keen for me to have joined the grad scheme. In order to do this, there is a final presentation which will have a lot of weighting as to whether or not you receive a graduate offer for the programme you are on and I did not participate in this.

Lots of interns all stayed together over summer, fellow placement students were great, really interesting group of people.

London is expensive, Surrey is cheaper, I lived in Morden, which was still quite expensive.

I worked in Kingswood in Surrey, which doesn't have the best nightlife. Over summer I lived in London, which doesn't need an explanation. You can go out as much or as little as you like.

A number of opportunities, I regularly played 5 a side football with others at Fidelity, both from my team, the operations area and other areas of Fidelity. There were lots of activities arranged by the campus team, such as dragon boat racing. Much of these occurred over the summer when there are more interns.