intern Review

Doing an internship at UBS was a very unique experience, I learnt a lot about trading and finance in general. Although the internship is quite challenging, I am really happy I had the chance to do it. It is enjoyable because you have the opportunity to explore different teams, so lots of space to find teams that fit your skill set best.

The vast majority of UBS employees is very friendly and helpful, people are in general very approachable and it is easy to just go to someone you don't know and ask for advice/opinion. Moreover, especially the teams receiving interns are very excited and supportive during the whole process. My ideas and thoughts very valued, which was really nice.

During the internship, we had two rotations at two different desks on the trading floor. Both of my line managers and the teams very always available for any questions I might have. Even during the busiest days I felt like I could just chat them any time to ask questions.

The internship is quite structured, with several activities outside your desk. At the beginning it was quite hard to manage my time, and devote an appropriate amount of time for these, but it got easier by the end. Working hours are differ from team to team, but I worked around 10h per day.

As I was only an intern, we did not have the permission to trade or have any direct client interaction. Hence, I had some projects that relate to what the teams does, but it was not what they do on a daily basis. I would say it was enough to keep me busy, but not too demanding.

I believe the knowledge I obtained during my internship will be extremely beneficial for my future career prospects. I hope to continue my career in this industry, so having a basic understanding of the financial world will be very useful as surface for future developments. My degree is non-financial, so will not be too useful in that sense.

The trading floor is not as loud as I expected it to be, sometimes people are yelling or speaking on the phone, but this is only if there was a major news impacting the markets. UBS has a good office culture, everyone is trying to be nice and friendly, especially to new-joiners.

As mentioned above, the internship was very structured, we had a schedule from the beginning, so we knew exactly what we will be doing every week. Perhaps , there was a lack of financial related teaching sessions in the first week, but otherwise it was very well organised and planned in time.

UBS devoted a lot of the resources to train us and get the best version form us. We had several networking events and other events that aimed to help us settle in better and give us an opportunity to ask any questions we have. I do not think there are a lot more things they could have done.

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I think this really varies form team to team, some teams have a lot of socialising events (drinks on Thursdays, etc.), some not that many. Specifically, for the internship, there were quite a few social events, such as interns drinks, breakfast and lunch with business representatives, breakfast for female interns, etc.

I am not from London, so I stayed in a student dorm nearby, for which I paid 245GBP per week. I did not spend a lot of money on the commute, as I was staying close to UBS. All in all, London is quite expensive, and the accommodation needs to be paid upfront, so that is something to watch out for.

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