Spring Intern Review

Good insight programme into who Fidelity is and what investment management entails. It was enjoyable overall however, there was a lot of sitting down and listening to talks. Training sessions on resilience and presentation skills were helpful but would prefer it to be shorter. It gets better when we are given a stock pitch to work on.

I felt valued as the CEO of Fidelity came to speak to us on the first day of the programme. The same day that evening, we also had many analysts coming to our conference room and networking with us. We also had the chance to present in front of director of research of the fidelity.

We were given much help and support as we are mostly first years and they dont expect us to know much. We had training sessions delivered by external companies to train our resilience and presentation skills. We also had a equity research analyst from Fidelity coming in to answer our questions encountered when working on the stock pitch.

The chance to work on a stock pitch is quite helpful in terms of demonstrating what the work would be like as an equity research analyst. We also had training sessions to build our soft skills. For example, resilience and presentation skills workshops. This will become useful in future interviews, projects, etc.

It was a short 4 day programme. Therefore, it cannot really cover much in details. Overall, it covers all the areas that junior analysts could go into - equity, fixed income and multi-asset. We had the chance to gain in depth insights into equity research while working on the stock pitch. However, we do not have the chance to explore other divisions.

You are not assessed during this spring insight programme and therefore I sensed a much less competitive atmosphere. The workshops are slow-paced and there are many breaks during the day. It was a very relaxed atmosphere. The analysts there seem nice. Interns are also friendly and had a lot of opportunities to interact with them in workshops/ group projects.

We had CEO and very senior female director of research coming to talk to us. In the next 2 days, we had a lot of training on soft skills. However, less so from the employees at the company during those 2 days. I would say maybe 60% invested in us as we are in our very early stage and can't contribute to the firm yet. The summer analysts seem to have extensive trainings in their first two weeks.

We had a tour on the office floor and was introduced to the structure and roles available at the firm during that tour. The structure is relatively flat. Equity research analysts work on one industry for 2-3 years and then would rotate around 2 more desks before becoming a portfolio managers.

I did not have the chance to meet many employees in the firm but generally I think people here are motivated. Lifestyles would be more relaxed compared to sell-side (ibd). The relationship between portfolio manager and analysts are vitally important and pm decides whether to take your stock recommendations or not.

HR gave us a talk in the morning on the last day to go through career related questions. It is ideal to work in investment management, especially fresh out of uni. Good pay, better work life balance as opposed to ibd. However, there is little flexibility to switch asset classes due to the heavy investment in training they would give to you.

Transportation and food were covered.

Yes, we had a networking drinks in the evening on the first day.

Great. However, there are just a few analysts, would be better if there are more. and even more chance to network with senior professionals.

There is a panel discussion on diversity. There are many activities involved on promoting that.

It is a generally slow-paced, relaxed programme and love the food provided there.