Market Risk Intern Review

When I was set work to do I really enjoyed it, as the work set was interesting and the right level. Also I could see the work I was doing was making a difference and helping the team in a meaningful way. However, there were often periods were I had nothing to do, which was quite boring. Although other interns in other departments did not have the same experience.

The projects I was set, were created by my colleagues to help solve problems they were currently facing. Therefore, when I finished the project and presented them with what I had created they were very happy and I could see that they began to use what I had made regularly, which made me feel valued. They were also very friendly and happy to help with any problem I had.

Often I was not told exactly what to do and therefore spent a lot of the day looking for things to keep me busy. However, whenever I needed help or guidance with something I was working on then they were very helpful and always made time to help me out and guide me.

Half the time I had the right balance of work which kept me busy without feeling overworked or pressured by deadlines. However, on the days when I had finished my work and before I was given something else to do I did get rather bored, but managed to keep myself reasonably busy by researching other aspects of the energy market.

I was not given much responsibility. I did not have any daily tasks that needed to be completed or anything like that. Instead I was working on my own project, which did not really matter when I completed it. However, the project was reasonably important, so I felt some responsibility to make sure it was good, as the team would be using it in the future and I wanted to make sure that it would work and be useful to them.

The skills I learnt are very transferable. Straight away you are integrated into the team. There are weekly lunch and learn sessions where you learn more about the business. There are also training sessions to help you develop your presentation skills which I will find useful. They also set projects which help you to work on your technical skills.

Everyone in my team was very friendly and always there to help you out. Often members of the team brought in treats to share with people n celebration of birthdays or if they had returned from holiday. The office in general though is very normal, people are getting on with their work so there is not much joking around etc.

The internship was well organised, you work in one division, but learn about the other divisions via lunch and learns. There are also training sessions, such as helping you with your presentation skills, which help prepare you for the end of internship presentation. This is based on the project or projects you have been working on over the past 10 weeks.

They put on multiple training sessions to help you with your soft skills which are transferable to any future career. You learn the technical skills quite a bit by yourself, but if you are ever stuck you can ask any member of your team and they would be happy to help you.

In the future he company has a graduate training scheme. This means you go through 4 rotations over two years, however there is not a guaranteed job at the end. It is also expected you would go in to trading after tis rather than any of the other divisions.

There were two set up social events, one with my fellow interns and one with the team I was working in, which were fun. Also all the interns would regularly meet up to go and eat lunch outside. However, there was not much of a social scene outside of work. This may have been because a lot of my fellow interns were commuting into London, not living there.

I lived further out from where I worked, where the rent was slightly cheaper but meant I had a long commute and needed to factor in the cost of that. There are many areas around Victoria to go for lunch, but these are quite pricy, for example a Boots meal deal is £4.

Did not experience it

There was one run organised, the JP morgan run, which is the only thing I had seen mentioned.