Intern Review

I really enjoyed my time at M&G. I was made to feel welcome by the team I was working in and by the company as a whole throughout my time as an intern and I got to work on various items as well as meet loads of people, all of whom were happy to take time out of their day to meet me and talk about their work etc. What’s even better is that for an internship in the City, M&G are very much 9-5 which is very refreshing for a sector notorious for its long hours. This combined with the sociable atmosphere amongst everyone made my time at M&G really enjoyable.

As an intern, you aren’t expected to know everything and you are given support appropriate to your needs. Once you’re brought up to speed, you’re able to provide input in meetings etc and your colleagues will genuinely take this on board which is very rewarding to see. As I mention above, people take time out of their day to speak to you if you wish and that speaks volumes about how much your needs are valued by your colleagues as a whole.

I had two managers and a buddy (every intern is assigned a buddy who acts as a point of contact for discussing how the internship is going etc) as well as an advisor. In short, I had ample support from all of them - ensuring any questions I had were addressed and any requests I had were actioned. For example, I spoke to my managers about gaining experience in as many different facets of the department as possible and my managers helped facilitate this. If you ask them, they will do their utmost to help you and this ensures you get the most out of your internship by tailoring it to what interests you - plus it indicates to your managers how proactive and keen you are to learn more!

This varies from department to department and scheme to scheme but for my specific scheme, not every day was necessarily a busy day but this was also prevalent across the team I was in, and not just specific to me. Part of this stems from the fact that there is only so much work that can be assigned to an intern within reason. However, even when not busy with work to do, by keeping my managers/colleagues in the loop, I was still able to make good/productive use of my time by researching or learning topics relevant to my team’s work. It can be very easy to find yourself running out of work to do so it is crucial you keep that dialogue with colleagues/managers so that you are doing something productive as much as possible.

Although just an intern, I did find myself with a fair bit of responsibility pretty early on and had a role to play in meetings for example where I would report back on the work that I’d done. Other times, I’d be assigned tasks by other colleagues and it’s up to me to do a good job or else they will be hampered by the poor quality of work that I did – so in that regard, I did have a fair bit of responsibility on “real” stuff that mattered, rather than just “pretend” work given to interns like in some internships at other companies.

Without a doubt, my time at M&G has been an eye opener in terms of the various roles available within my department and this has given me a far better understanding of career paths after graduating from university. From “technical” skills to presentation skills to just understanding how corporate environments work, the hands on experience I’ve gained has been invaluable and will help me in my final year at uni.

The atmosphere in the office was great. The people are incredibly friendly and this resonates across the whole building creating a very positive culture that is unique to M&G which helps make the office a pleasant place to work – especially important when you’re new and starting out! You can see people have work to do but they’re also happy with the work they do and no one is the type to stay until 9pm working away!

The initial run up to the internship was rather disappointing as you had to go through various screening stages (e.g. criminal background, FCA check etc) and much of this was outsourced to a 3rd party company (i.e. not done by M&G themselves) and this was quite often error prone with one instance where I was given a KPMG declaration to sign when they were supposed to have given me an M&G form. Not a great first impression and the pre-screening step definitely needs work as even trying to contact someone for advice is challenging. Once you’re actually at M&G though, the internship is well structured with specific events on specific dates (as opposed to dates just being sprung up on you at short notice).

As mentioned earlier, I had much support from my managers, buddy and advisor. The combination of all four means I had ample opportunity to learn new information, skills and knowledge relevant to the work of my team (especially important in those first few weeks when you’re getting used to this new context) and info/knowledge relevant to the company/sector as a whole and this is reflected in the numerous Insight Sessions put on for us by HR to explain about the different areas of the business as well as the multitude of training/walkthroughs put on for me by my manager/colleagues to get me up to speed with what my team/department are focussed on.

With a new CEO in place, it seems that M&G are likely to expand their international footprint which certainly helps liven up the career opportunities/prospects. It’s also important to note that M&G are really happy/look positively at shadowing, rotating, secondments etc which means you’re always able to venture out into new positions and improve your career prospects like that too.

I've managed to make many new friends from my time here which is a testament to the social atmosphere here, especially amongst the interns themselves although HR probably overdo it with all the social events they put on (e.g. pub quiz, rounders, ping pong etc)

As someone new to living in London, the cost of living and socialising is rather high (relatively speaking) compared to my home town if I'm being honest. But that said, M&G pay their interns reasonably well so it's not a total deal-breaker.

Pricey but alright every now and again.