Associate Review

Working on this internship was great - lots of opportunities to learn, and I would have been able to change stream if I didn't like what I was doing. The team I was in was friendly and supportive, which is always really helpful. The work I was given was challenging and enjoyable.

During my time at the FCA I felt highly valued by my colleagues. They would answer questions and engage in a helpful manner even if I felt that the question was not an intelligent one. I was invited to events outside of work hours with them as well, which aided in feeling like part of the team.

I was given a large amount of support by my manager, given a wide variety of work, and guidance where I requested it. It may have been nice to have a bit more direction in my work initially, but I think part of that is not being used to a work environment.

Most days I did not struggle to find things to do, though sometimes I would complete a task and there would be a lull in work while it was determined what should be done next. Towards the end once I had completed most of my technical work and there was not time to start a new project, I found it uninteresting to write reports on a daily basis.

During my placement I was given responsibility to investigate and make formative decisions on the project I was working on. This included research, implementation, testing and reporting on effectiveness of the objects I was asked to make decisions on. I was given a large amount of freedom in what I wanted to research.

I have not had studies since the internship, but in general it gave me a good idea of how tools which I have learnt about at university can assist in the working world. It has also helped me understand better how to work at a higher rate in general, which is something I struggled with at university.

The general atmosphere in the office was very good. As it is not a for profit company, there is not the inherent competitiveness which can be present in more corporate environments. This means that people are willing to help you learn and engage with you on issues you are having.

The internship was organised ok. As it was the first year of this stream, it was initially disorganised as people were unsure what to do, but after the first week things settled down and more regular. The problems with organisation were largely due to this being the first year, and not incompetence or lack of engagement.

The firm put me on training for a visualisation software, and people were willing to help explain things to me so that I was able to get work done, and talk about their experiences so I was able to understand their thoughts and their journey to get to the FCA in general.

Future employment prospects within the organisation are good depending on department and motivation. It is a civil service, so the atmosphere and objective are very different from a profit seeking company. I found this to be a key motivation in thinking about future employment within the organisation. Additionally location and work type were important to me.

There might have been, but I found it great to just be involved with the colleagues in my team, and didn't spend much time socialising with the other interns, as I did not live in the same area as them, and had different travelling time constraints. Additionally the areas of work we were doing was vastly different.

The FCA is in Stratford, London and it is therefore incredibly expensive to live there in the long term, though it does have good transport links to areas in Essex, and it is easy to get to central London from. In general places had London costs, which is much higher than out of London, and not always feasible on a lower salary.

There is not a wide variety of nightlife in stratford, though there are a large number of bars and pubs, and a large number of restaurants, it is mostly geared towards either office workers or the shopping centre, which is right next to the office

I had several opportunities to get involved with activities outside of work, whether these were drinks with colleagues or was a physical activity with a small subset of the team. These were always enjoyable and the people were amiable and supportive, and willing to talk and make jokes about many topics.