Global Markets Spring Week Intern Review

I had a great time at Nomura, not only in terms of the knowledge and insights it has provided me with but most importantly due to all the soft skills that I have managed to develop in 2 weeks. There was a balanced mix of desk placement, trainings and networking events. Overall, greatly recommend it.

The Insight program doesn't really allow you to contribute to their work, which of course I think it is normal, as you don't have the skills to do so. the important thing is that they do care about you even if you can't really help them. At the same time, I feel that they did value us being there and of course asking questions around and being curious.

During the 2 week program in Global Markets, you are put into 2 desk placements, so the amount of guidance depends on the team you are placed with, in my 2 placements I was lucky to be in a helpful environment. On the other side, the HR team was always attentive to our needs and provided us with solutions in case we had any problems.

As a Business Administration student we cover topics such as Economics, Management and Accounting. During the insight program I have managed to develop skills and strengthen my knowledge while being on the desk with the respective teams. On the other side, the soft skills that I have honed during the networking events as well as in the desk, will surely make a difference in my future development.

The Program was very well planned, 1st day of training, networking and getting to know junior experiences. Then 2 different desk placements, feedback was given after each placement, so that if you were doing anything wrong you could have room for improvement. Along the insight Program, there were presentation, case studies, etc. that are very useful to get a further understanding of the industry as well as helping you nail those hard recruitment interviews. The only downside was that my division had a few cancelled events. Still, I don't believe it affects my view on the program.

The general atmosphere at Nomura was great, everybody was super attentive and willing to help you. I think that given the fact that it is a smaller sized bank compared to other competitors it has a cosier and more familiar environment. Since we have desk placements then the environment in each of them is different, fortunately for me, my two teams were very nice and easy-going.

The first day of the insight, was entirely dedicated to training. An external company came to provide a full 6 hour course which provided us with some basic insights that we would need during the 2 weeks. We also received training from the Corporate Infrastructure team which was extremely helpful in understanding how Nomura works. Last but not least, I believe that the most important training I received was the in-desk experience with the different teams. Workers took the time to explain you what they do and solve any doubts that you had.

I think that what really differentiates Nomura's program from others is that you get a lot of time with your desk. Thus, getting a lot of time working with, hopefully future colleagues, the fact that they include you in their plans makes you get a glimpse of what it will be like. Furthermore, we were able to do a lot of work shadowing so we basically saw what their day to day looked like.

I felt very welcome at Nomura, although our rotations were only 1 week long each, they made sure you were part of the team. They would include you in their plans, meetings, etc. like if you were one of them. Lastly, aside from the program itself we attended events carried out for the whole bank. In which you could see the general culture of the bank.

As the insight was very hands-on I think that it was specially valuable in helping me decide on whether I would see myself here in a couple of years.

We got paid for the program which is good if you are already living in London. If you come from abroad they also pay for the flight tickets. The downside is that London housing is very expensive, so the salary doesn't cover basic housing. And you end up spending much more than what you get. Still, those couple of hundred extra pounds are obviously a great investment.

Within the program we only had 1 networking lunch with senior members, which was very interesting. However, it was very easy to network with other people, your team would introduce you to other people from other desks, divisions, etc. So even if we didn't have many explicit events dedicated to it, we could manage to do so very easily.

Very interesting overall, lunch, drinks in the amazing terrace, I got to meet a lot of people from other divisions that I did not think I would be interested in, and that I am currently.

Yes, we get access to the Nomura web page. Everything is posted there, events with other banks, internal events. If it is something more important it will be promoted within the building and sometimes emails got sent informing about the events. Even if we didn't get direct access to the information most of the teams did provide us with it.

Definitely, it is one of the longest spring weeks I know of, with lots of opportunities. So you get more time to know the industry, the people and the culture of the bank. I really liked my experience here, and, hopefully I get to come back for a longer internship and work.