Global Markets Summer Analyst Review

I loved my 10 weeks at J.P. Morgan over the summer. The programme is extremely well-structured and gave the perfect mixture of learning, working and networking. During the 10 weeks, I never found myself bored or without something stimulating to be doing. However, that is not to say that I ever felt overworked. I thought that the volume and difficulty of the work set was just right to provide a challenging but manageable summer.

An intern is never going to be able to add a huge amount of value so it would certainly be easy to feel as though you are just a burden on your colleagues. However, I was never made to feel like I was wasting anyone's time at all and was offered lots of opportunities to add value in whichever way I could.

Throughout the entire process, I found myself consistently being taken for coffees to have a chat with my supervisor(s). This gave me the chance to receive constructive feedback whilst also raising any concerns I had rather than storing them up. I always found it easy to be open and honest in these chats which is testament to just how genuine I feel that the support and guidance on offer was.

A typical day would probably consist of starting at 7.00am and finishing sometime between 6.00 and 8.30pm. During that time, I would be working steadily on the projects I'd agreed upon with my manager at the start of my internship, as well as going to the many pre-arranged seminars, lunches and opportunities for interns. On the whole, I felt pleasantly busy but never overworked.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much responsibility I was given during the internship. In the projects I worked on, I developed tools for the desk which I was able to see being used on a daily basis by the end of my internship. I was given complete freedom and responsibility to approach these projects in whichever way I wished and always felt as though I could propose ideas for new ways to improve the existing systems.

The teaching and training provided on the programme has taken me from a level of knowing next to nothing about finance to a level where I feel confident and comfortable with most of the main areas of finance. The concepts were explained very clearly and in a way which was accessible to someone coming from a non-finance or economics background. This will help me immensely as a pursue a career in finance.

The office was energetic and professional but also came across as a fun and friendly place to work.

The structure of the internship was brilliant and it was immediately apparent that a lot of time and energy had been spent in preparing for the arrival of the interns. The initial week of training was an invaluable way of getting up to speed with the necessary financial lingo and concepts before arriving in the office. In the subsequent 9 weeks, the talks and activities arranged kept the internship exciting and informative, especially the Senior Speaker Series (which had a number of very senior J.P. Morgan figures).

I felt very well invested in from the first day of the internship until the last. The initial week of finance teaching I found to be a very generous and thorough way to ensure that everyone was up to speed before the internship began. Throughout the remainder of the internship, we were provided with more teaching throughout and the company spared no expense in helping us to enjoy the internship. The 3 major socials were definite highlights and took place in some amazing locations around London!

I came into the programme feeling uncertain about a career at J.P. Morgan but knew after only a few weeks that there were few places I'd rather work. I was incredibly impressed with the calibre of individual hired by J.P. Morgan and the direction of the senior management to keep the bank at the top of the game right now. This made it a very appealing place to work in the future for me.

The social scene was absolutely fantastic and I made far more friends on the internship than I would ever have expected to beforehand! As a result of the thorough selection process, most of the interns seem to be likeminded individuals which made for some great company and a lot of fun in and out of the office.

Needless to say, London is not the cheapest city to live and socialise in. A typical pint will set you back £5 and you also spend a surprising amount on lunch each day! Most interns I spoke to (myself included) were spending between £700-£1,000 pcm on rent, including bills.

The nightlife in Canary Wharf is limited and requires a commute into The City in order to find any clubs. This is probably the main downside to working there. That said, there is always a large J.P. Morgan contingent who attend All Bar One after work - particularly in the latter half of the week.

Lots of interns got involved with office sports fixtures outside of working hours. A very large group was also given the chance to take part in the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge right at the start of the internship. That said, this is probably the one area of the internship which could be improved slightly.