Summer Investment Analyst Review

It was a great experience, took some time to get to understand the terminology, how the processes work and how my work fits in the bigger picture. Over time, as I did some tasks successfully, I was given more responsibility, and there was no feeling that just because I am intern - there is nothing substantive I could do.

I was valued by my team, treated always with respect, and the colleagues make me feel part of the team. From day one, was introduced to the team, I was given the opportunity and actively encouraged to get express my opinion and perspective during the team meetings. Great, respecting culture in the office.

I was given instructions for the projects I was given. Every time, particularly at the start of internship, when I didn't understand much, I was given time and my manager and other team members would take time out to properly explain me the process. With regular catch ups and just randomly popping along to the desk, I felt there were always at least 2-3 people I could reach out to for help/guidance.

In the first half of the internship, we had the daily introduction sessions to all the teams and departments across the wider organisation, and over the time, the team trusted me with more tasks, keeping me quite busy. In addition, any spare time during the internship, I would reach out to grads and people from all across the organisation, meeting for coffee chats and expanding my knowledge.

At the beginning of the internship, it took time to get used to how things work, a lot of terminology, and thus most of the time there was some spare time for the reading and understanding. However, over time, I was proactively asking colleagues to get involved in different projects, and had always some important things to do. Up to the point when I was assigned to rebuild one of the key spreadsheets that team used on the daily basis.

The internship improved my discipline and organisational skills. Coming every day at 7:45 to office, planning and conducting many projects at the same time helped me to improve my organisational skills and learn how to get things done within deadlines. In addition, my technical skills (excel, power BI) got way better and will help me in the future going back to university and in the future workplace.

Fun atmosphere, there is no feeling of pressure, people are getting things done, and are very smart and efficient, but at the same time, everyone respects each other and supports along the way. From the beginning of the day, to proactively helping each other and being understanding when one needs to take time off or run some errands from time to time.

Internship was very organised. From the first weeks, having daily intro sessions, to having corporate social responsibility day to having a scheduled mid internship review and assessment center. There was always a clarity and a person to reach out to in case something has to be resolved. In addition, socials like pub quiz and city hunt helped to get to know people out of work.

There was a lot of things from personal and professional development perspective that I got out of internship. First of all, personal discipline and organisational skills. as well as ability to effectively communicate to get things done improved a lot. In addition, familiarizing myself with some new software and attending the Bloomberg office for a learning session on a terminal helped me a lot.

I think M&G Prudential offers a great prospects for employment and development. The graduate program is structured in such a way that grads rotate every 10 weeks, getting exposure in 7-8 teams during 18 months program. In addition, training is provided for CFA qualification, the industry standard. There are almost no other place that would offer so much exposure and learning opportunities in such a short period of time

There were 2 streams of interns - investment and tech. Generally, social scene was great, we regularly met with each other outside of work for lunch/dinners. In addition, socials organised by HR were quite useful at the start of the internship (pub quizz and city treasure hunt) to get to know the other interns better.

The cost of living in London is rather pricey. For some interns in particular, finding affordable short term accommodation was quite challenging. However, for those form London, it was slightly less of a burden, as most of the people would have their accommodation arranged from university or way in advance prior to the start of internship.

Post work times, particularly in the first weeks when one just gets used to work regime, there was no energy post work to go out

There were plenty of opportunities to get involved outside of work. On my floor, there was a weekly football which anyone can sign up for. Also, we had the guide prior to the start of the internship about the possible places to go out in London. In addition, I attended gokarting with the team on my floor.