Spring Week Intern Review

This Spring Week was a precious opportunity to discover a giant Bulge Bracket Investment Bank and how all its divisions interact with each other. Most of participants come with prejudgements : M&A is the unique royal path ... I was impressed with the variety of interesting industries an products: ECM, Leverage Finance, Treasury Services...

I had a delay and I missed the first day of the Spring Week. I thought the recruiting team will no longer consider my participation. I was positively surprised : they were following my situation and insisted I come and take part in the program. This is only one proof how much every Spring Intern is valued.

Guidance is afforded by the stuff as well as by other candidates. The bank organized an M&A team case study. We had a mentor (Analyst) who helped us during the week and answered to our questions. During networking sessions, people were very kind trying to help us find the industry that fit the most my profile.

We had many presentations covering a plethora of technical topics that shed light on may financial issues like the importance of market and credit risk management, the role of treasury services and the importance of short-term liquidity, the different types of market financing...

I appreciated the organization of the week that combined heavy stuff (divisions' presentations...) with networking sessions and more interactive activities (team case study, risk game,...), in addition to social events that involved people from from the bank, and candidates from other Spring Weeks (Markets, Technology...)

It was just awesome. I left London with at least 12 new friends from different backgrounds, countries,... . I expected people would be very competitive and sometimes aggressive. This wasn't the case and all candidates were focused on learning new stuff and getting to know each other.

I think this is the only melioration point. I expected more personalized training (interviews preparation...). But I understand this isn't easy regarding the short period and the number of the candidates (48).

During the networking sessions we had the opportunity to discuss with people from the different divisions of the bank. I was surprised to which extent they were sincere : they gave us an authentic idea about their daily activities and the main challenges they face.

Through the different presentations some common values emerge. The bank look for outstanding people from different backgrounds. Focus on the customer, execution excellence and social responsibility are the mantra here.

When I came first I thought that M&A is the only Investment Banking interesting job. I am now seriously considering a career in ECM or Treasury Services.

The bank pays for travel, transport and accommodation expenses. We ate most of the time in the bank offices.

Networking sessions were scheduled every day, with a different set of the bank employees.

Analysts, MDs and VPs from different industries were more than happy to share their experience and to answer to our questions. The number was enough compared to the number of candidates (it's not the case with other networking events with other companies).

Extra professional activities were highlighted during the week (sport, caritative work, diversity initiatives...)

I highly recommend this experience to students interested interested in Finance and who want to have a more precise professional project.