WIP Spring Intern Review

I attended the two weeks Women's Immersion Programme in technology. I had a lot of opportunity to work shadow employees in different teams in technology and also having coffee chats with employees in other areas! This really is an amazing getting to know the industry and the firm opportunity and would definitely recommend future participants to apply for this programme!

As an intern for a very short period of time, I was completely welcomed by the firm! Given that I'm only here for 2 weeks, I still had my photo on the card which I use to get in the gates and buy food on! I was also allocated a desk during the period of the programme, with personal logins and passwords as well as emails! I felt no difference between myself as a very short period intern and the company employees!

As an intern for 2 weeks, it is difficult to organise proper work for me to do due to short period of time. However, my manager and my buddy did breakdown projects into smaller parts so it is possible to complete in timely manner. My buddy also gave me training on how to use the systems, giving overviews of the department as a whole. He was very supportive and approachable, he always offered to clarify anything if anything doesn't make sense to me.

Having spoken to my manager on the first day, I raised my concerns with upcoming exams on database systems. My buddy and my manager first gave me training on their database system and got me to work on a project relevant to databases. This definitely helps with my upcoming exams, hence assisting my degree studies and the skills I gain from the training definitely will be relevant in real life working environment!

I must say, the programme is not as structured as I expected, which meant that at first we don't really know what we are expecting. However, this also gave us the opportunity to network and work shadow employees in different divisions and areas in the firm. Also theres a lot of free time for us to get to know our teams better and work on specific projects.

Everyone (employees and interns) are very supportive and kind. The employees are always willing to help, booking a coffee chat with them helps to understand their role and team better, hence, learning more about the firm. The interns are also supportive with each other, we are always keen to share our knowledge and help each other out when things are unclear.

Firstly, Nomura sends out pre-preparation programmes to interns to help getting to know the industry and the bank better. Secondly, on the first day of the programme, we are given further training on getting to know the industry, current compliances and current challenges facing the firm. Lastly, the firm also invested us to attend this debate session held by DebateMate, where we are trained our logical thinking and confidence in public speaking. The skills we learnt in this definitely helps in my future careers!

Definitely very helpful! I am allocated with a desk next to my team, with exact same desktops with my fellow team members. I am also given access to the logins, emails, calendars etc. which every employee uses! This helps the transition between an intern to a full time employee with Nomura!

Although Nomura have been very low key on all the things on its culture, it can be felt on heart. The Nomura building itself is very green, theres lots of eco-friendly systems placed around them but having spoken to many employees, they happened to not know much about these. I would say, Nomura can work better on getting promoting its culture and values as what they are currently doing now is way more than how they advertise!

I would say it is very viable, I was given the opportunity to work shadow employees in the firm. These are employees interns reach out for, not organised by the firm. This gives true reflection on the company and really does get to know the firm better! I was able to network with different teams which helped to decide on which path I want to take on.

This is really unique experience for a spring insight programme! I would recommend this to any females applying for Nomura spring insight! (The normal spring insight programme at Nomura is not paid, so sorry for any lads considering to apply)

I was able to freely email and book a coffee chat or even work shadow with any employees at Nomura! There's also networking lunch with EDs and MDs in Nomura, helping you to get to know their experiences better as well as the current projects they are working on. I was also shown one of the MDs office, had a great chat about the different career paths!

The food, the drinks and the desserts are on point! This really is different to other networking socials as the food is more proper cooked food, not just finger snacks! We were also given the opportunity to network with the other spring interns, and also take programme photos at Nomura's terrace (great views of the Shard!)

Employees shared what their extracurricular activities are and given the location Nomura is, theres great views and great facilities! One of the employees shared their experience for running along the Thames to Tower bridge during his lunch break with fellow colleagues!

Definitely recommend this for any girls wishing to get to know Nomura and Investment banks!