Real Estate Review

Thoroughly enjoyable job with good variety of work tasks, both ad hoc and weekly, monthly or quarterly. There is also a lot of co ordination with the team directly, but with other teams within Asset Management as well. There is always plenty of things to do and it keeps you busy enabling you to structure your day well

By your direct team, you are valued very highly. They will need you to do various tasks in order to work with them. In many ways you are much more of a junior employee than an intern. I think they even sometimes forget that. My team are slightly older than some.

You will have two reviews during your time at UBS, which my Line Manager assigned to another member of the team. They will tell you how you are doing but otherwise they will let you get on with things without interfering. Most of my guidance came from the previous intern who shows you what to do.

In my team there is a good workload. You will often be fairly busy, but it is to be expected. A lot of the time I found my work did not have urgent deadlines, so I was not too stressed at any point. Occasionally the work load can become thin, but there are always less important tasks that can be done.

In your placement you are held accountable for everything you do. My team sign many things off I do, but they expect you to get it right most of the time, so will not necessarily check. I learnt quickly not to rely on them picking up your mistakes, you need to do that yourself. They also leave you in charge of looking after certain things which they trust you to get on with.

The role itself I would not say is particularly linked to your degree. There was also no training other than how to do the job. The year teaches you much more about office culture, and general transferable skills such as writing emails, using spreadsheets and organising your time and workload

General atmosphere is pretty normal, there are some people that are quiet and some that are louder. Everyone gets along fairly well and certainly seems to bond well within their own team. Often when there are things on and people are away it can be quiet, and usually people are fairly busy.

HR will organise all the interns and set them up for each team. The scheme has been running a number of years so is very much established. You will find that the team is used to having a replacement intern each year. As a result it is quite a smooth operation. They also put things on for interns such as talks.

UBS do not have a set graduate programme yet so it feels as though you are used for the year without any end target. However, this was made very clear from the start. One thing they do want is for you to be as good at your job during your time there.

I would like to pursue future employment with UBS if they offered me the right job, however it would be very much a new process as there would not be links to the team I currently work in. I think I would have to try a new area before moving back in to real estate as everyone is a bit older.

The social life is fantastic – there are over 40 interns and I feel as if I will come away from the year with friends for life. It feels very much like a professional version of university regarding events and plans at weekends, working right in the heart of the city. I didn’t realise there would be such a good group of people that worked in one place.

Its expensive but not unaffordable. If you are careful you should have plenty money each month as long as you aren’t spending it on stupid things. You will find that the salary compensates for the more expensive lifestyle, and there are cheaper places to go too. Many places to happy hour in the city which is surprising and turning up with a group always helps.

Its London - you have everything

There are plenty opportunities. The intranet and your email inbox will be filled with things that are going on including voluntary works and days out. All you have to do is sign up and theres always opportunities to network and discover more about things that can keep you busy out side of work