Technology Industrial Placement Review

I enjoyed my placement immensely, I learned so much for the work I completed and people I completed with. The atmosphere while at work was amazing, so chilled out, I never felt too stressed or under pressure to do anything which is really reassuring if, like me, you hadn't been in such an environment before.

I definitely felt highly valued by my colleagues, to the point where they were asking me for advice and help on their work. I was always treated with respect and never undermined in any way. As I stated in the above answer, the atmosphere is so chill that development teams feel like our families and I was welcomed into that family with open arms

I was very close to my first manager/supervisor (who I spent 9 months with before moving teams), as soon as I met him I could tell that we were very similar people and he trusted an entire project (which took most of the year) to complete. Due to him writing up and getting approval for the project (which he did before I joined) and the fact that he knew the sounding architecture by heart, most of my queries and reviews went straight through him, from which I learned so much. Although I only spent a shorter time with my second manager, I can safely say that he is one of the nicest people I have ever met and is also one of the most passionate, a right top chap.

I am someone who likes to not only be busy in the present but also know what I need to do next and this placement handled this perfectly. I never felt I was overworked, I normally I was just excited to get to the next bit of work. It was in perfect balance, as all things should be.

In reflection, I had a lot of responsibility, as previously mentioned, I had an entire project to complete which involved two completely new applications being released to our teams users. This also meant that I had a lot of knowledge that needed to passed onto the rest of the team before I left. Therefore I had a good 3 hour session with another team member teaching my applications and explaining my code. Very weird as I am the intern, but I liked it :)

My programming skills highly developed this past year, and I think that is mainly down to the review system in place for all teams. Before code can be committed, the rest of the team can review it and add comments on where to improve. At the beginning of the placement, we had 2 full days off-site training on investment banking, which I must add, I am so grateful for. There were so many insider banking terms that I would not have known about otherwise.

Atmosphere was amazing, so chilled out, some people just liked to put headphones in and work, I preferred to not, but the option was there. I had four screens to work on (that's right 4!) which really helped organise my work and improve my productiveness. We were also allowed to take quick breaks whenever we liked which was super nice and free coffee yay!

I hate to steal the work from the 10 star on the scale, but it was seamless. The assessment centre allowed up to show some of our skills, then meet the hiring managers, then be interviewed. The time between getting the internship and starting the internship was full of lovely emails and invites to come by for social evenings and network.

All the interns started with two full days of investment banking training to get to grips with what Nomura is all about, but there were always chances to sign up for training sessions and workshops (free of charge) for everyone. These included learning a new programming language or improving at public speeches

At the moment I don't know if I am going to offered a graduate role, so fingers crossed :)

I think the other students went abroad for 3 or 4 days I think, but I was not invited :( I think they also went out locally quite a lot as well, but again, not invited :(

The cost of living was very manageable, Nomura paid its interns rather generously :) As for socialising, I am not the person to ask, but I'd imagine it would be equally manageable

I know that central London is amazing but I do not really participate in that. In the summer, Nomura opens its roof-top terrace / garden for drinks which is very nice

There were plenty of clubs and societies to join, from Cricket to Chess, Nomura also has an onsite gym, which I used quite a lot containing amazing facilities. The gym also had a group of personal trainers that held sessions, around the clock that were free to join. I personally joined, ab attack (got to get that 6 pack) and boxing/combat sports.