Summer Intern Review

Overall, the FCA has a great culture, they are generally very friendly and supportive. The work is interesting and is supplemented by training such as Learning Lunches - where we learn about other divisions of the FCA, which is quite nice. They also encourage us to do one day's shadowing (which is really simple to organise ourselves), this is a great way to learn more about the FCA as a whole.

The team I was placed in was very busy around the time I joined and so it was sometimes difficult to find time to shadow them/find out more about what they do. I do think they could have been a little more organised, for instance they had put together a rota for which team member I would spend time with each week, but this wasn't followed at all.

If I was doing a piece of work for someone, they were great at answering my questions and generally being supportive about what I do. My manager was also very supportive in helping me connect with people around the building to shadow/have a chat with.

Great balance. As one can expect, it does take a day or 2 to get started and begin working but once the initial few days were over I was able to get involved in a few different projects and tasks. They also made sure that I wasn't too busy, which is great and very supportive to stop me from getting stressed.

I was given a fair amount, the work I did was owned by me, i.e. I was the only one doing that particular task. This meant what I did actually contributed to the teams objectives and the work going on in the department. I was also given an 'intern project' where I was in charge of producing a presentation, and supported by one of my colleagues.

I think soft skills are always transferable including communication, networking, confidence, analysis skills etc. I did quite a lot of summaries and collating in spread sheets-type work, which helped me to learn how to be concise but also include relevant detail.

Generally nice, people are chatty and friendly. I personally really liked my head of department, she made an effort to come introduce herself at the start of my internship even though she's so busy. Also, she used to tell jokes. Generally, the office is fairly informal and you don't feel awkward or out of place in terms of formality.

On HR's side - really well organised, they gave us information in advance and the application process was well organised. On my team's side - I feel like it could be organised better in terms of tasks they wanted me to do. They did send out a Rota but this was on the day I arrived, making it quite last-minute.

We had an orientation week where we could meet the other interns and have some training in terms of team-building skills etc. We did have organised reviews throughout the internship with a standard document to complete. This meant that there were reviews in the diary where we could discuss personal development with our manager and discuss how to improve.

Really appealing. The organisation and the grad scheme seem like a really good idea. Having spoken to other grads I get the feeling that its a very good grad scheme to develop and grow, plus it sets you up really well for a career in the financial industry.

Really good, one of the interns organised so many events, from drinks to dinner/lunches and even included grads giving us a great opportunity to network.

It's London, as one imagines it's pretty expensive. Canary Wharf especially is pretty pricey but I do think that even though its expensive it is fun. London in general has so much to do and I personally love Canary Wharf just because its so busy and fun during the work week because so many people work here.

Once again - its London. The nightlife is good, lots of stuff to do, from bars to crazy golf! Canary Wharf also has so many events going on in the summer like fairs etc.

Definitely! The FCA runs a yearly 'roadshow' (basically freshers fair) in July, so while we're here, with all the societies they have. There are lots of things to get involved in, from cinema clubs, a rock band, sports, so many things!