Investment Banking Spring Intern Review

The insight was really well balanced: we, as students, could learn more about several areas of the firm in a short time. The HR team was very welcoming and made us feel at ease at all time. Everything was taken care of during the week, which was really great because it left us a lot of time to ask as many questions as we wanted. Employees at Citi are very nice: although they are very busy, they take some time to personally talk to you about their experience. They have so much to share!

You feel really valued for several reasons: - there are not many students selected for the insight, so you can have a lot of time dedicated to you - the HR are very attentive and always keen to help - since day 1, the HR team knows your name, which makes you feel very valued - you are put in a team of bankers for you to shadow, and you are usually the only student in this team, so you get a lot of attention and you feel very valued. You also get responsibilities if the team trusts you, so you feel part of the team during the whole team.

You receive a lot of support during the insight. All the instructions and information needed are given by email before the Spring Week. The Citi recruitment team also provides you with some assistance for travel and accommodation (I come from France and the flight and the cover were booked by Citi). At the beginning of the Week, you receive a nice book where everything is explained, and where your daily time schedule is detailed. All week long, the team gives you instructions and advice to make the most of your Spring Week.

I think that unlike other banks, Citi has found the best way for you to have a useful Spring Week. You shadow a team of Analaysts/Associates/VPs all week long, at least 6 hours a day, which is very useful. I spent half of this shadowing time talking to Citi employees, who share with you special and personalised advice for your studies and your professional career. The rest of the time, they give you technical tasks to do, which is great because it improves your understanding of the financial environment and is very valuable for the rest of your Career in finance.

Citi has found the best way (to my mind) to structure the week. - a third of the time are conferences and presentations, made by senior employees who share their experience in the bank. This conferences were of a very high level, and always interesting, even for subjects that you already know. Nothing is left aside, they cover a wide range of topics, such as FinTech, BlockChain, Diversity, CSR, but also interesting Case Studies. - a third of the time is dedicated to work shadowing, that I described in another answer. The good thing about it is that you shadow junior people who are not much older than you, so they are very nice with you! - the last part of the time is dedicated to networking events: one senior networking event and one with more junior people. Both of them were very nice, as Citi had booked some cool places next to the Tames for us to meet new employees within a relaxed atmosphere. Depending on what division you are in, you are invited for an assessment centre on Friday/Saturday. The interviews are for the Summer Internships that take place in one year, and you have a lot of information provided for you to prepare for the interviews.

The general atmosphere is really nice. At no point you feel that there is some kind of competition between the Spring Interns. The HR team helps it: they assure you that there is a place in the Summer Internship for all Spring interns, meaning that if all Spring Interns perform well, all of them get an offer for the Summer Internship. Even if you are in a team of Analysts that works a lot, you do not feel the pressure and if they manage to free some time for you, you get invited for coffees outside the office, which is very nice because they give you their true opinion about Finance in general and the reasons why they preferred joining Citi than another bank.

The company invests quite a lot, since you can get the opportunity to help a during the work shadowing sessions. During the week, I saw my technical skills improve: I was able to do some Excel things that had been explained to me by analysts from the team I was shadowing. Also, you learn a lot in the conferences delivered by employees.

The insight helps a lot to understand how much you need to work for a full role within the bank. You work with Analysts all week long, so you get to see how involved they are. It is also very useful to try to talk to them outside work (for a lunch for instance), because you can ask them precise questions about what it is like to work within the firm.

It was very helpful, for several reasons: - employees are more than happy about what they love at Citi - you have one conference about CSR, and one conference about Diversity, which makes you understand that it is really part of the culture at Citi - also, we were able to watch the town hall with the CEO of Citi, where he presented the quarterly results, and emphasised the importance of Citi's culture for the firm to be successful.

It was very helpful because you see a diverse set of profiles within company employees, which helps you get a broad set of comments about why people joined Citi, and why they chose the Banking industry. Also, you get some feedback from HR, which is very useful to help you decide on your future career path.

All travel and accommodation and food expenses are covered by Citi.

The networking aspect of the Spring was perfect: there are to mandatory events: a senior networking event and a junior networking event. If you want to do more networking, you are more than welcome to do it and you just need to ask to people within your team for some time. Employees at Citi are more than happyto meet with you and to give you some advice for your Career.

Same as above. The networking aspect of the Spring was perfect: there are to mandatory events: a senior networking event and a junior networking event. If you want to do more networking, you are more than welcome to do it and you just need to ask to people within your team for some time. Employees at Citi are more than happyto meet with you and to give you some advice for your Career.

Yes: every team goes skiing in February together.

I would definitely recommend it, as it helps you improve both your technical skills and your network within the bank. Also, the week is a good opportunity for you to meet other interns that come from different backgrounds, different schools, and that could maybe be one day your future colleagues. I recommend you 100% to apply for the programme!