Spring Intern Review

I really enjoyed the insight and I learned lots about each different team within the M&A department. I particularly enjoyed the volunteering aspect, giving advice to year 11 pupils with an interest in banking and how to best pursue this interest. The group project on researching and presenting a hypothetical merge of 2 given companies gave a real flavour of the type of work an analyst does.

The employees were really interested in developing you as a person and making sure that you gained the best insight into the company's history and culture. Meeting the same analysts throughout the week gave a sense of familiarity and so throughout the week I gained confidence and thus felt more comfortable asking questions.

We received a lot of support from the employees, who were willing to help us with the group presentation we delivered later in the week. Most of the other spring interns seemed willing to help with concepts I was struggling on, particularly the different methods of valuations, however, some acted as if we were competing against each other, even though we had been specifically told that a place on an internship was purely based on our own merits, due to there being more summer interns than spring interns.

As my degree is not that linked to investment banking, I did not really develop that many skills that can be used as part of my degree, however, I have developed skills (such as presenting, researching and technical) that will be useful for my future career and the technical skills particularly useful at any interview I attend. The information I received gave a real insight into whether investment banking was for me or not.

The insight was extremely well structured. We were given a timetable at the start of the week, with which sessions would be happening on each day. We had talks from most teams within the M&A department, giving a flavour of the different teams areas but in fact how much overlap there also was. I wish we could have had a talk from the debt restructuring department, as I only networked with someone ad would have liked to find out some more, given its close overlap for financing M&A transactions.

The general atmosphere was brilliant, since we were valued by the employees and not seen as a nuisance, which I was a bit apprehensive of before the start. The HR team gave the genuine feeling that they wanted us to succeed and further our own careers. On the first evening we went to a bar and had some food and took part in a competition, which really helped us get to know the other spring interns better and helped to break the ice really well.

The company really invested in me and helped me boost my confidence in my own abilities.

It was fantastic in this respect. We had two work shadowing opportunities with different departments during the week, so we got to see the financial models that had been made and past pitch books the analysts had made. We often stayed later in the evening to work on the group project, also helping us to gauge whether we would be able to handle the longer working hours that come with a full time role in this industry.

On the first day we were taken to the company archives and given the history into the Rothschild family and how they had developed into the company they are today, including explaining their five arrow emblem and the company motto. However, unlike at other companies, this actually translated into the work ethic and culture of the employees at the company which was a very pleasant surprise. We also networked with people who had previously worked at other banks and so we asked them about the culture difference between the banks, helping to solidify the company culture.

The content was extremely useful as we were able to see the day-to-day work of the analysts, through the work shadowing opportunities. Also, as part of the group project, we were given the 2 companies' annual reports and had to search and find key facts, such as how much debt there was and when it matured, as well as revenue and EBITDA values. This gave a real insight into the research required by the analyst when preparing the pitch books.

We were given a £30 limit for lunches for 3 days (the other 2 days were networking lunches) and reimbursed travel expenses. If you were not from the surrounding area you were given a £100 a night accommodation allowance, however, I did not use this facility.

We had a networking lunch, which was mainly with analysts and then we also had an afternoon tea, which was with associates, assistant directors and directors. They were very good at answering any questions we had and were very keen to give us business cards so if we had any follow up questions we could contact them for an answer.

The opportunities were very good and meant we got to meet people with different levels of experience and from different team.The only thing that I think could be improved is that t our first networking lunch as we were standing around tables, it was more awkward to try and leave and network with other people and thus I would have liked to network a bit more with the analysts.

We had a volunteering session with some year 11 pupils and we were told that both the summer interns and as part of the graduate scheme, a similar thing happened but with different aged children, however, it was not clear if there were any activities employees got involved with outside of work/ if there was anytime given the longer working hours.

I would definitely recommend this insight as it was extremely informative into what investment banking is like as a career.