Investment Consulting Summer Intern Review

The internship was valuable to me as I found it was a very good balance of difficulty of work, with responsibility and interest. The team were friendly and welcoming and I feel I got a reasonable feel of what it might be like to work at Willis Towers Watson in the future.

People were generally inclusive and the work I was doing was usually relevant to an active client project. I also received a lot of continuous feedback from people I had done work for - both encouraging and constructive feedback. Even where there were improvements to be made I was never made to feel useless, and they all understood that it was new to me.

My manager was usually quite busy, but provided structured meetings throughout the internship. I was assigned a current grad as a buddy when I arrived and they were very friendly and helpful, willing to give guidance on everything; work, dress code, emails, etc. Others that gave me work were also always willing to explain it further if required.

The nature of the work came in waves so some days were busier than others - I was never overwhelmed with work to the point of stress, but occasionally didn't have much on. People were generally always willing to find some sort of work for me to do when I asked, so the work balance really depended on me.

The majority of the work I was doing or helping with would end up going to a client. The work would be checked, edited and reviewed at several steps of course, but I felt that I was trusted to get involved with important work and that helped me to develop a few different skills (including excel, formal wording, technical knowledge, presentation).

The internship allowed me to very quickly develop a practical understanding of concepts and terms that feature in my studies (Economics) but have sometimes been hard to grasp from learning in a lecture hall or from a textbook. Talking to a range of people from other teams is also very valuable as they can really help with understanding of technical ideas.

In the Reigate office (where I was based), people were on the whole very friendly and relaxed. Many of the people working there were very close friends within and outside the office, which made it a nice environment to be in, although sometimes it made it difficult to know where to draw the line between professionalism and person friendships.

The internship was centrally organized, and so we met interns from other divisions and locations during the induction days, and training sessions were provided throughout the internship. The given was more dependent on the individuals in the office at the time, and we had to complete both an individual technical presentation and a collaborative group presentation.

Training was provided throughout the first half of the internship to introduce investment concepts and the structure and principles of the firm. It was very useful to have these explained and everyone was always willing to guide or explain anything if I asked. There were also speaker sessions run weekly to introduce different areas of WTW to the interns.

There seems to be a good opportunity for progression in the first few years after joining, and they assist you sitting CFA / actuarial exams (which are required).

There were a few organised socials throughout the internship (including one the interns got to organise), as well as sports activities, which was a nice way to get to know people from other areas. The interns also became close throughout the summer and made plans outside the office, which was nice as Reigate doesn't have a massive social scene on its own.

Travel to London was reasonable but it gets expensive to do regularly, and the rent in Reigate / London is also very expensive. WTW had a scheme where a few interns could sign up to rent with existing employees for £100 per week, which was very helpful. There was a socials budget provided by the company, but on the whole it was more expensive than I am used to at home.

There wasn't a huge amount going on in Reigate but it was fairly easy to travel into London from there for the nightlife.

There were several socials and sports events, as well as some charity collections that we were involved in. If there as a permanent employee I think there is also more available.