Spring Week Intern Review

I really enjoyed the insight as it was my first encounter with the investment banking industry. J.P. Morgan had taken care of every detail, paid nice hotel rooms and flights for me (I was back in my home country before the spring week). Experience was 100% positive and really insightful.

People were really kind to all spring week interns. We had the opportunity to work-shadow current analysts and learn from them, and ask questions. As it was a spring week programme we didn't really work within a team, but overall I felt valued during my short time at the company.

We had analysts to shadow during the first day and they were extremely kind. Furthermore, during the different assignments we always had someone to help us and guide us through the process. We also had many networking sessions designed to help us with our future career and preparation for the official application process in the autumn.

In terms of skills developed during the programme I would say that the experience was truly enriching. For first time I gained confidence which helped me deliver presentations in front of 100+ people at university just because of my experience at J.P.Morgan where we had to deliver presentations. Furthermore, I really understood how the investment banking world works and that was supplementary to my finance studies.

It was structured really well, there were enough pause breaks with a lot of amazing food and refreshments. Most of the sessions were in an expensive hotel and not in the offices, but that was not a problem. Moreover, there were many people who were happy to come from the office to speak to us.

The general atmosphere was really friendly. The spring week was in Bournemouth which is a nice city next to the sea which gave us really good atmosphere. Furthermore, the office had the atmosphere of a university campus as opposed to the office in London. Without doubt, if you like living in a quiet areas like Bournemouth you would enjoy it. For me personally it was not the right place - I prefer London.

For a scheme 3-4 days long, it was a substantial investment. They brought very senior people to do round tables including MD and VPs. They really wanted to attract people and show that J.P. Morgan is an excellent company to work for. They wanted to develop us and hire us, that was obvious.

To be honest, because of the nature of the industry you can't really get a lot of information about the actual work during a 3-5 days spring week. Even a summer internship (10 weeks) is often not enough to grasp the nature of the work. They did their best to show us what is like considering the limited time we had.

I cannot say that I've understood the culture as it may differ from other offices/locations. One thing was sure, though. They were really serious about what they do and they wanted smart people to work on every function/role/division in the firm. Hence, as a top world-leading investment bank I could say that there was a culture of excellence.

It was really helpful. I learned the differences between back office and front office. I realized that back office work could be interesting or boring, depending on the team or role you have. Furthermore, I realized that I need to pursue my dreams and that the brand name is not enough to persuade me to go to Bournemouth permanently (I simply love London).

We had booked flights by the company's excellent travel booking service. We also had expensive hotel rooms with amazing food every day. We didn't have to pay for anything. Although it was unpaid, that is the industry standard for spring weeks. Furthermore, from other people's opinions on other similar programmes, J.P. Morgan really invests in its spring week programs.

There were several events to meet senior people including networking session, round table and social party. It was really good and enriching to meet MDs and speak to them as a first year student at university. Truly inspirational and developing. To be honest, the advice one of these MDs gave me is still a motto for me.

Further to the previous comment, the events were catered very good. The social party was in a very expensive club where beverages and food was provided. All other events were held in a high class hotel where food was really good as well. Naturally, as the events were organised very well the networking process was easier.

There are sort of university societies but for employees with J.P.Morgan. These are excellent opportunities for gaining support and meeting common people around interest, ethnicity or other attributes. Also, it really provides a good platform for networking and career progression through engaging in leadership positions outside of your day-to-day job.

Absolutely. Especially if you're interested in Operations and want to learn more this is one of the best ways to do so. Again, my preference is London but if you are fed up with the busy city and want more of an extraordinary location to start your career then Bournemouth is very good choice.