CADP Intern Review

The CADP programme itself was very well structured, and well established meaning that they know how to train and properly give attention to incoming interns. We had several networking events with senior members of the firm and also got the opportunity to talk to graduates that had already been through the programme.

The community feel of both the graduate and intern CADP programme meant that we always felt valued at the firm. Because of the size of the Edinburgh campus, you get to know a lot of the faces around the building, and you are more able to maintain relationships once you have met someone.

I had weekly 1-to-1s with my line manager, prebooked into my calendar at the beginning of the internship to go over my priorities and goals that we had set in my first few days of joining. In addition to this I had weekly/ daily catchups with my immediate manager to discuss how I was progressing, or to ask any questions about the task at hand.

I was relatively busy everyday. My priorities were set in week 1, and I knew exactly how much work I had to do on a daily basis to achieve my goal by the end of the week, in order to finish my projects by the end of the 10 weeks. In addition to this, I would assist with any additional tasks that would come up during the day, meaning I was never really left without something to do.

I was given a fair amount of responsibility, but as my role was project based, there was a limited amount of responsibility I could take. I still had enough responsibility to contribute significantly, and felt comfortable asking my manager for a larger responsibility, and was also comfortable saying when the workload was too large.

Some of the excel training we received through the programme was hugely beneficial, my skills vastly improved and will be transferrable to wherever I go next. The actual skills I gained from the projects however were not that great, largely because the projects were so niche that I'm not sure how applicable the knowledge will be.

The general atmosphere is very friendly and everyone was very welcoming in the first week. We also had several introductory events to help us settle in fast. However the Edinburgh programme is quite small, so it meant that our opportunities to meet other interns were more limited compared to CADP in London or Bournemouth.

The overall programme was set up very well in my opinion. There was a structure in place for us before we arrived, and the structure + rotations of the graduate scheme were also very clearly communicated to us. This allowed us to see where the internship could potentially take us and provided us with a sense of direction.

The employment prospects seem to be quite positive. If you achieve your goals by the end of the internship, it is likely that you will end up with a grad offer. The same applies to the grad scheme where by the end of the 2 years if you perform well, it is likely you will get promoted to Associate.

The socialising wasn't the best especially as the campus is quite far from the city centre. Although we had socials organised by JP Morgan during the internship which were definitely very fun, I can imagine that working here full time would make it more challenging to socialise if you didn't commit effort.