Explore Programme Review

The Explore Programme was very intriguing and I definitely learnt a lot. It is particularly helpful in finding out more about each area in Nomura and which area you may be interested in working in the future. Moreover, it provided great networking sessions with not only Nomura staff but your other peers. This programme is great regardless of your level of understanding about investment banks.

As the Explore Programme was for four days only, we didn't get to know any of the staff particularly well but I think that is expected due to the time constraint. However many of the staff did comment on the great atmosphere staff had between themselves and how they felt supported by their colleagues.

The staff at Nomura were great at giving advice to us and with quite a few of the staff being university students on placement year, they really understood our position and gave good advice for the stage we were at. Although we shadowed one person at Global Markets, I felt that there should have been more opportunities like this in different areas to gain further insight.

I feel that the skills learnt during the insight programme will help more of my career than my degree. Nevertheless, the insight programme helped me gain a better idea of what next steps I need to take in order to get into the Finance sector. Moreover with the information received, I now have a better idea of which particular area of Finance I'm interested in.

The insight programme had a very clear structure with what was happening each day and was very well followed and organised. However, I did feel that there were a bit too many networking sessions and we could of instead have had a desk shadowing experience to gain further insight of each area.

The general atmosphere was friendly and was a great area to learn more about Nomura and Investment Banking in general. However, it was a bit nerve-wracking to see the HR team taking notes of each person. However the general atmosphere at Nomura seemed great and it allowed for transparent and open communication.

The Explore Programme already gave me an opportunity for development and Nomura didn't gain from this. Moreover, the employees often told us about the learning platform they have at Nomura. However it does sound like you have to go up to your supervisors to ask about a certain learning qualification.

The staff at Nomura gave a thorough insight into have a full time role at Nomura. Moreover, it was interesting to see how different sectors can have very different work balance. Some areas had longer hours whereas some other areas could walk from home as long as they had permission from supervisors.

The insight really helped me understand the company culture. Nomura seem very welcoming and truly valued their staff members. However I feel that you would have to be in a team to truly understand the company's culture and that it does differ in each team. Moreover, I felt that the size of the team mattered.

The insight programme really helped me in narrowing which areas I would be interested in. Moreover the programme gave me insight into Nomura and their working culture. The insight programme included us working on case studies of certain areas and these really helped me decide whether I would be interested in that area.