Summer Intern - Technology Review

Started on 25 June (a Monday) and internship lasted until late August - Friday 24 August to be precise. The internship has been a terrific experience with so many opportunities to make new friends, get to know the business and delve into the culture. The working hours were very good too.

My team consisted of a whole variety of backgrounds, experiences and work styles. My manager made me feel right at home from the very get go and I must say the rest of the team were very supportive, especially given how busy they all were! I felt thoroughly valued and part of the team!

As far as I could tell, there was not a great deal of management interaction outside of the team - I was lucky in that my manager, her manager and the latter's manager all worked in the same desk area which meant visibility was good - though support was largely from immediate manager.

The nature of the business meant that the work load varied on a day by day basis. Mostly, Fridays were quiet and this is when the team was most sociable if not working from home! Some days flew by due to the number of assignments, whereas other days were slow waiting for people to reply to emails.

It is entirely my belief that responsibility, outside of the single main project every intern was given to do over the 9 weeks of the summer internship programme, had to be reached for. Asking your line manager and colleagues if you could help was always a good start, in my experience!

The first week of the 9 week summer internship programme mostly involved training days including introductions to the business, to the investment banking world as well as technical skills like Excel and some soft skills too - branding yourself, how to network - the usual. Most of these are transferrable and so very useful!

It is my firm belief that the general atmosphere in the office is independent of the intern but being proactive, saying "Good morning!" to everyone and coming up with witty (if possible) jokes and pleasantries always helped to render those stressful days more enjoyable - if only to make yourself laugh!

The 9 week summer internship programme has clearly been around for a good long while now, I do not know when it was first started but it is clear that Human Resources etc know very well what they were doing and so the whole internship was very well set up indeed!

It is clear that any company which takes you on for a summer is investing a lot of time and capital in you. As far as resources, everything from paper, pens, and pencils to desktops with multiple monitors, wireless and less-wireless headphones were all provided and were of an impressive standard!

It has to be said very clearly that working for UBS is an absolute honour as the organisation is world famous and has an incredible track record of respectability, integrity and status. As far as perks go, these more than enough compensate for the longer than average hours that must be spent at work!

If one were to gather a diverse and fascinating group of 130+ individuals and allow them to mingle for 9 weeks it is inevitable that good times will be had both inside and outside of the pub. The feel of it all is best described as freshers week esque at university!

The cost of living and socialising in the area is indeed entirely dependent on where one chooses to live - in my case I wanted to walk to work to avoid spending plenty on the tube and buses - especially when these are crowded during the morning and evening rush hours!

Nightlife in London is like cheese to French onion soup - it often stinks but you just can't do without it. Nevertheless terrific times are to be had using the stellar combination of Santander bikes and one's imagination by day, and visiting Brick Lane by night - if you haven't already been!

It is absolutely clear that opportunities are there to be had but one must be proactive to find and get involved with them! I asked a colleague who suggested I try the Wine Club which hosts wine tastings twice a month or so - I didn't sign up in the end but it goes to show what's on offer!