intern Review

Very insightful. Unfortunately it was mostly talks with some workshops, but no work shadow or anything. The trainees were not very motivated or enthusiastic when speaking either. The talks were highly informative, and would describe the work done, but nothing beyond that. It was insightful in terms of getting to know the financial markets, but not life at the FCA.

There was overall a sense of appreciation for our participation and you could feel that they were interested in our future with the FCA and even developing our skillset, but beyond this, there was not much. In comparison, I did not feel too valued at the FCA that it stood out to me. It was more or less the same at past first year schemes I have done.

They were very open to questions and some would even allow email follow ups. However, they failed to create a 'fair' atmosphere in the sense that, the people chosen to voice their questions were usually the same ones. I evidenced speakers choosing the same girl more than 3 times in one single Q&A session despite there being many other participants raising their hands. This was not a stand alone incident. I did not receive any other guidance apart from Q&As.

The information I received on financial markets was superb. It not only allowed me to better understand current news, but successfully developed my interest in the finance world as well. The skills sessions however were extremely basic, and did not help at all. It was more or less the usual things that you could google online.

The structure was fantastic, could really see all the effort the organisers put in. Days began with a short introduction/briefing, then talks, and at the end of everyday was a 'workshop' or skills sessions. It helped to build on the information and skills required of the group presentation on the last day.

The icebreaker game was really fun, but usually the whole day was just sitting in the room and listening for hours on end. Made us all look forward to lunch break everyday actually. The Q&A helped to liven up the atmosphere. It was however very inspirational when people in very senior posts spoke about their past experiences of adversity.

As it was only one week, I believe that there was not much that the FCA could have 'invested' in us. But the high exposure to executives and deeply insightful information made me feel that the FCA viewed the Spring Week seriously. I believe that they might have tried to develop us through the skills sessions, but in my personal opinion, that was not very helpful.

There was little interaction with trainees, and the talks were heavily focused on the work done, but not how it was like to actually work in the FCA. The time that participants had with trainees was very short lived, and the talks with trainees were not usually about their daily work life either.

Till now I still do not know what the culture of FCA is. The only thing that we learnt about FCA was its work and the diversity and inclusion effort. In short, I understand from the scheme that the FCA is committed to improving BAME statistics within the organisation and helping women achieve senior roles.

Content of the day was mostly, if not all, informative talks. The topics were all about the work done and some personal experience of the senior execs, but none touched on how their work life was. I did not get anything out of it about what it was like to work in the FCA. I believe that I would need to do a vacation scheme with them to figure that out.

We were reimbursed travel expenses, and those living outside zone 1 were accommodated in a hotel.

The only networking opportunity was a lunch with trainees, but it was extremely rushed, 15 minutes or so with one trainee. There were around 6 tables, but not enough trainees, so for one table would have no one to speak to. I would have rather it be a normal networking lunch where people mingle around.

Again, there were no other networking or social events other than the lunch, and the drinks after the scheme. But the drinks were just among us participants, no one else besides the organisers joined us. The whole scheme was actually very lecture based with little opportunity for anything else.

As stated, all talks centred around the work conducted by the FCA (and some diversity and motivational talks), there was zero to little things about what it was to work at the FCA. All I know is that there are good volunteering opportunities encouraged by the firm. I believe there would be some social activities carried out by the support groups.

I would recommend this for someone who would be interested in the public sector or someone who wanted to know more about the financial markets. But I would definitely warn them that it would not be a work shadow experience, and it would be taking a lecture style approach.