Summer Analyst Review

I really enjoyed it- learnt alot and met some amazing people, but it was hard work.

My colleagues were really friendly, always getting me involved with team activities and had plenty of time to sit down and explain things to me.

The buddy programme in particular was really good. My buddies (it changed part way through) spent lots of time with me making sure I understood my work and knew all the team. The more senior management were always supportive and checked I had plenty to do.

I love to be busy so the amount of work I had to do generally didn't bother me, although their are occations when come midnight you really do just want to go home. Generally though the work was really interesting so you don't begrudge the long hours that much

On a couple of occations I produced work that was to go directly to the client thus had to be perfect. I also worked on several live deals and important pitches, although in those instances my work was reviewed by more experience collegues

Particularly the computer and personal skills will last me a life-time, doing my yearly budget on excel just got a whole lot easier! My degree isn't terribly financial (although I pick and choose modules where I can) however the way of thinking about how companies work and how you would go about analysing a company, along with some key terminology has been really helpful. Most importantly the skills I learnt have enabled me to run, expand and improve my universities investment society.

Generally the team was always quite relaxed and you could hear regular banter- however we did get down to some serious work too- the balance was just right

It was really well organised- the HR team did a great job and we had plenty of speaker events and opportunities to interact with other interns.

The spent a week at the beginning going through all the basic skills we would need, once there my team were then amazing in taking time out to talk me through certain things.

Can't wait to go back

Due to the hours socialising isn't a big thing really. We did have a couple of nights out with the team (which for a 9 week placement isn't bad) and there were periods in the office where everyone would pause (i.e. when someone produced cookies). The programme included structured events to socialise with other interns and during training we were able to go out more- other than that it was grab a quick lunch when you could!

London isn't all that cheap

The city itself is mainly nice bars and pubs (weekdays only) which is fine- there is plenty more just a short tube ride away in the rest of the city. However the city is totally dead at weekends

There is some opportunities to get involved in chairty work and I think there is a work Gym for full time collegues