Summer Intern Review

I enjoyed the internship as everyone I met was very friendly and willing to spend time with me to have a chat or help with the work I was doing. There were social events organised to get to know the other interns in my cohort, and the work was challenging but achievable.

My degree background does not lend itself naturally to the work I was doing so it was always going to be difficult to do meaningful work. However, the whole team was very friendly and always happy to help. There was also plenty of opportunity for interaction with the other interns and to get to know them and find out about the work they were doing.

We were assigned a manager, mentor, and a buddy. My manager was always willing to help, when they weren't busy, with the work they had assigned me, and were keen to direct my work in the direction of what I wanted to learn about. The mentors assigned were for career-related guidance, and my buddy, someone currently on the graduate programme, was a great contact to have for general queries.

Sometimes I had a lot to be getting on with, other days less so. It was partly down to how driven you were to arrange other work shadowing and find your own ways to extend and expand the assigned work, but my manager was prepared to give me more tasks to work on if I needed.

Coming from a degree background unrelated to the work I was doing, the work I was doing initially was almost entirely unrelated to the rest of the team. However, as I learnt more, I was able to be given tasks of more value, and eventually worked on something that would actually be used.

What I have learnt will definitely help with my degree and future jobs should I decide to continue to pursue work in the financial industry. I have also learnt 'soft skills' that will help me in the future, such as presentation skills, networking, and knowledge of the financial services industry.

It was a good atmosphere - the people were friendly, there were social spaces such as cafes and the lunch area to meet up with people, there were social events organised for the interns. Also within the team I was in, everyone got on well and had some social events outside of the office.

It was very well set up, with training in the first week to bring us up to speed with the financial industry, and introductory talks to different divisions spread out through the remainder of the internship so that they weren't too concentrated. There were also regular catch-ups with graduate recruitment to make sure we were getting on alright.

There was lots of support from members of my team to help me to learn and do my work. We also had access to online training platforms so we could choose what to learn more about depending on our own individual interests. There was also opportunity to learn about and practice public speaking.

Quite appealing. We are well informed about what the process is for returning as a grad.

Yes. There were plenty of opportunities to socialise with other interns both within my division and in other divisions. There were some events organised by the company, but also we were able to have lunch together and occasionally went out for meals or drinks after work so I got to know them quite well which was nice.

London is an expensive area. Pay partially compensated for this but as a student, I wasn't that keen to go out.

Yes, there are lots of societies available from sports, to public speaking.