Investment Consulting Summer Intern - Aon Review

The Investment Consulting division at Aon has been an incredibly fun place to work. The 9 weeks go by incredibly quickly and I have been exposed to numerous parts of the division during my time here. There are lots of friendly faces who are always happy to help and I felt welcomed.

Naturally some colleagues were more accommodating than others, although generally colleagues made an effort to get me involved in work and help me if I needed assistance. Having an assigned 'buddy' (a graduate analyst) certainly helped me settle in as I was able to ask questions that I perhaps would not have asked senior colleagues.

My manager ensured we had fortnightly catch ups to check on my progress and answer any queries I had. He also set up a shadowing day in a different part of the investment business, which I greatly appreciated. My buddy helped me with any technical questions that I had, and was more than happy to spend 5-10 minutes away from the desk talking through them.

During the first few weeks I was incredibly quiet and would try and actively seek work from as many people as possible. To fill the time I read reports produced by Aon, which gave me technical insight. After this initial period I became increasingly busy and would rarely find myself with nothing to do.

As an intern, there isn't much that colleagues can pass on to you. A lot of the time I helped produce quarterly reports, which can become quite repetitive. However, there were a few opportunities to engage in more qualitative and interesting work, which I enjoyed as and when I did it.

During my time at Aon I learned a lot about investment strategy - for instance, the importance of hedging and matching assets. I also furthered my technical knowledge e.g. repos, CDS, multi asset credit. I believe that what I have learned at Aon will be useful if I decide to take financial economics next year, and for the trading society I am a part of.

The general atmosphere in the investment team was quite laid back and enjoyable to be part of.

The internship was well organised with HR doing a good job in ensuring we were happy during our stay at Aon. The induction at Chelmsford was well planned and enjoyable. Also, HR set up weekly 'Lunch and Learns' in order to increase our overall exposure into the business which I found incredibly useful.

Aon didn't invest anything tangible in me, although as I was only there for 9 weeks I didn't expect them to.

Good!

In London there were approximately 25 other interns across all divisions at Aon. There were several occasions where we would meet up for drinks on a Friday after work, and we went out as a group a few times. Among the investment consulting interns, we organised smaller social events among ourselves.

Obviously living in London is expensive when comparing to other cities in the UK. However, if you live in London anyway it is no more expensive than what you would expect. Also, when the team took the interns out for drinks, they were very generous in what they bought us.

London nightlife is a fun scene.

There were lots of opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work. This includes the Aon Summer Party, Flight Club Darts, 20/20 Cricket and 5 a side Football. On top of this the team would often invite the interns out for drinks, which provided a great opportunity to know the team in a more relaxed environment.