IB COO Summer Intern Review

I've enjoyed the internship massively so far. The whole program has been well managed and is structured in a way that's given me a broad exposure to the business in a relatively short period of time. Even past the standard events organised for the interns, UBS also has a whole host of amazing events for all employees that interns are welcome to attend!

The team get you helping out straight away (once you've completed the compliance training) and before too long you'll be performing tasks that have a clear impact on the business, which is a nice thing to see. I have definitely felt valued as an employee rather than tolerated as an unnecessary addition, which I am sure would not be the case in all companies.

We have been set up with both a line manager and a buddy. Buddies are intended to help you more with the day to day, little questions about getting stuff done, whilst managers as a major point of contact to seek feedback, tasks and longer-term guidance from. However, in reality everyone in the team, including my buddy and my manager perform all of these roles for the interns, demonstrating how supportive the environment here really is.

Business varies from day to day. Sometimes I won't have too much on as people don't have tasks that I can help pick up the slack for in my position. However on other days I'll be just about fitting everything in! But even when there's no work set for me there's loads of talks and educational programs offered by UBS, both in person and on line, that you can use to fill the time.

The amount of responsibility was somewhat limited by regulatory limits on what access we as interns had access to in our department. However, within the realm of what I could actually be given to work on, I was given quite a lot of autonomy to try my own way of completing a task. This meant that the responsibility of the quality of that end product fell on me.

I have already learnt a massive amount of stuff in my time here, and I've not even halfway through my programme. I believe a good deal of what I have learnt about organisational management, relationship building and problem analysis will help me in my last year of studies. Whilst I'm certain that absolutely everything I have learnt will go on to aid me in my professional career.

The office is open plan and fairly busy, depending on what work is being done at the time. Overall I really liked the atmosphere. Though it is clear that people are there to work, it isn't overly formal. What's also great is that everyone is very approachable, especially for interns, meaning that if you have a question, you'll be able to find someone who's more than happy to answer it for you.

The internship was well structured, and it was clear that HR and the business put a lot of work into organising it. Mine was the first year that they offered a full IB COO program, and because of this there were a few teething issues relating to limits from compliance, however when this did happen everyone was very quick to try and get it sorted so that we as interns could still have a great experience and learn as much as possible.

Our first week was all introduction and training sessions. Some of this was for the whole intern cohort, and some in smaller groups with more targeted training sessions. On top of this we had regular talks throughout the program covering all aspects of the business. Overall, I felt like UBS put a lot of resources towards our development.

Since doing the internship I am very keen to come back in the graduate role. I would also be keen to work in a number of other areas within the company, as not only did I like my role, but I also really liked UBS and the culture here in general.

The interns were all very social and active with one another. We regularly went for drinks after work next to the office and went to have catch-up lunches when we had time. We also organised to do stuff in the local area on the weekends.

The office is based in central London, so living is definitely not cheap. However, it is affordable with the compensation offered for the program, and there are ways of making life cheaper if that is important to you.

Nightlife in the area is great. The office is right next to Liverpool Street station, meaning there are planet of bars on the doorstep. If you're willing to walk just 10 minutes and your in the heart of Shoreditch, where there are even more venues to check out.

There were activities within the workday on offer. For example, myself and a few of the other interns took part in a sitting volleyball competition organised by the ability awareness network in the bank. On top of this there are informally arranged groups to do sports and other activities, however I don't think many of the interns got involved in these.