Summer Intern Review

It was varied and well structured.

I felt included in out of office hour socials. The inclusiveness was transferred to team based projects as well as one on one sessions to aid my learning of the division.

Consolidating questions helped me approach managers and team members with a couple well thought out queries. This made the approach more time effective as well as gave me the opportunity to substantially attempt to solve problems myself beforehand.

For the first few weeks I was not heavily involved in team projects. At my mid term review I highlighted I was ready to take on more responsibility, this was taken into account and as such the second half of my internship was very busy.

See previous question.

The workplace environment was a new experience for me to grasp. As compared to university life, there are many similarities and differences some of which include working in a team, taking on responsibility and presenting to people of higher authority. Both include learning new skills and developing competancies but the workplace environment enabled me to develop a more mature head on approach to solving complex problems.

The atmosphere was very friendly yet professional. During the day most employees discussed work objectives but once a week there was time allocated to wind down and network amongst ourselves. I felt this to be very stimulating and greatly improved the mentality of the workforce .

The classroom based training sessions at the beginnning of the internship were very helpful in educating us about the banking industry as a whole from a theoretical point of view. The elearning done alongside this enforced termanology perhaps unfamiliar to those not from a finance based degree. Nonetheless it was helpful in placing us in the right frame of mind, and ensuring we were on a similar education level for the start of the course.

I found the presentation skills session particularly helpful in that we were able to critically assess our own performances in front of a professional speaker. This enabled us to directly pick up areas of improvement as well as identify areas of strength to focus on in the future.

I received a graduate offer after the internship.

The class as a whole was very diverse, some were more social than others but my particular division made time to meet one another as well as spend time outside of work to build relationships for the future.

As expected the cost of living in central london is expensive, however quite affordable for the industry I interned in.

The nightlife was notvery existant in the close proximities of the offices. Nonetheless there were opportunities further afield but not particularly appealing given the working hours.

There were two occasions to network with senior management whilst engaging in football and after work food and drinks. This was specific for my division and was very enjoyable. Not only did this expand my network but also give me the opportunity to wind down amongst collegues.