Corporate and Investment Banking Intern Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my internship here at MUFG. It was my first experience in a proper banking environment and has confirmed that this is the industry I would like to work in. The people here have all been extremely friendly and helpful and have made my time here much easier by the kind welcome they have all shown me.

Although I was not always working on big projects for the team, they always tried to make sure that I was busy doing something. They also made sure that I worked with every member of the team in order to feel included. Whenever I completed a piece of work I always received positive feedback so that I felt that my contributions were valued.

I was given a lot of support and guidance by my manager at the start, particularly when setting my objectives for the 5 week rotation. From then on, my department buddy was extremely helpful and always had work for me to help with. Everyone in the department, not just my manager/buddy, were very helpful if I had any questions and they were happy to guide me through any processes I was unsure of.

The work I was given tended to come in waves, so some days I might have been very busy and working the whole day while other days were a bit more sparse and I filled them with doing research or online modules. However the main reason for this was because I was only within the department for 5 weeks and that was not long enough for me to be taught how to do a lot of the processes.

I was put in charge of organising my own meetings while in the firm, so I had to get in touch with people and book meetings. This gave me quite a lot of responsibility for my own networking. I was also given a fair amount of responsibility with regards to work, being in charge of a number of small projects while at the same time also helping the other members of my team out with anything they needed help on.

The skills I have developed here are something that I will be able to take and use in other parts of my life. For example, my accuracy and timekeeping skills. It is important here that tasks are completed by a deadline as the company's future business depends on quick actions. This is definitely a skill I will need for my studies with coursework deadlines and a skill I will need to use in the future in the workplace. I have also developed my interpersonal skills due to the amount of networking I have engaged in here - this is an extremely important skill for later life and something I am glad to have developed here. Additionally, the training here has been imperative for a career in banking. The things I have learnt here have laid the foundation for my future career.

The general atmosphere in my office is very hardworking but at the same time it is not intimidating, everyone just has work to be getting on with. This does not stop there from being some friendly banter in the office, however at the end of the day MUFG is a large bank and everyone has a job to be doing. This, for me, was the perfect working environment as I am quite hardworking myself and when I have a job to do I like to knuckle down and get it done.

The internship was very well organised by HR. We started with a week of training which was so useful, as a lot of us had never used Excel before and if we had not been trained on this beforehand we may have struggled in our rotations. HR also organised a lot of networking activities and 'Lunch & Learns' where we were able to speak with people from all over the organisation. In general, the internship was very well organised and we always knew what our next steps would be. We set up objective at the start of each rotation which helped to direct our activities within the rotations.

I think the company invests a lot in their interns. The first week of training was incredibly helpful but there were continuous events to help improve our learning and skills. There were a couple of 'Personal Effectiveness' sessions which were for our own personal development. MUFG also takes on a large proportion of their interns as graduates, this should be an encouraging sign of how much they invest in their interns and as such want to bring them back in the future.

The future employment prospects here are fantastic. I have spoken to a number of people on the graduate scheme and it includes four rotations of 5 months each - an ideal amount of time to get to know a department and get truly involved. The number of rotations is ideal for me because there are a number of departments that I would like to try and I do not have a final idea of where I would like to end up so this would be the ideal way of making that decision.

There was a great social scene here at MUFG. There a number of opportunities to interact with the other interns and we are all good friends, going out for drinks a number of times. Additionally I have been able to go for drinks with a number of people on the grad scheme as well as with people from both of my departments.

Living and socialising anywhere in London is always going to be expensive and Moorgate is no exception. If you want to go for dinner or drinks anywhere nearby, it will generally always be expensive. I actually live in Clapham and the cost of living there is still far higher than anywhere else in the UK.

I personally find the nightlife here great because I prefer spending the night in pubs and bars rather than clubs. You are spoilt for choice with the number of bars around here, and although expensive they are modern and perfect for socialising. Thursday/Friday nights are usually heaving in the area with professionals. However, if you prefer a clubbing nightlife then you may have to travel to Shoreditch for that kind of thing.

There were a number of opportunities outside the workplace, such as the Corporate Social Responsibility Event in which we give something back to the community. We were also able to participate in fundraising activities and also events such as helping out with the Work Experience programme.