Summer Associate Review

I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have gained key skills, found out so much about the FCA and financial services and now want to come back to the FCA as a graduate. The work I was doing has been exciting, topical and varied. I have felt that I am making a difference right from the start. Everyone in the division I was working in has been so helpful and welcoming and I have enjoyed the sense of community provided by the interns (there were around 30 of us!). In terms of my career development, there are very few other places I could see myself after having worked at the FCA for 10 weeks!

Even though I was only an intern I was treated as a full member of the team, on the same level as the graduate associate / other long-term members of the team. Managers would consult my opinion in the same way they would other associates and I never felt that I was given menial or simple tasks just because I was an intern. The hardest part was settling in to a team when many team members had been there for several years, however this was not an issue in the long term.

My manager was highly experienced at dealing with interns as they had hosted ones before in the division. They had already set up several things I got working on right from my first week so I could get exposure as soon as I arrived. My manager was frequently busy which did mean I had to ask around the team for more work to do, yet in terms of helping my development I thought that my manager was especially helpful in ensuring I got what I wanted out of the internship.

I had the right balance of work most of the time. There were times where I was very busy and other times where there was less to do. However, if I was too busy other members of the team were more than happy to help, and if there was not enough to do I was able to focus on my own development (which the FCA are really keen on) by meeting with other teams / reading up on the FCA to improve my knowledge.

I was trusted to work under my own initiative and then report back to management. This trust was instilled right from the first week. The way the FCA works, in my experience, is that managers decide the work that needs to be done and delegate this to their teams. I was given several things to work on, and could use my judgement to decide when something needed to be escalated.

Whilst the division I was working in did not require me to apply the specific knowledge I had learnt in my degree, the "soft-skills" I learnt have really equipped my well for the future. Some key skills I have developed are stakeholder management (as the project I was working on required meeting people from across the FCA) and time management (as I often had several projects going on at once). I would have liked to have the chance to apply my degree skills and would hope to do so if I return to the FCA.

The atmosphere was so enjoyable! The new offices in Stratford are a great place to work, open spaces with desks and breakout spaces. I think this helped to foster a relaxed working environment. When I had less work to do the office was relaxed, people would talk and come up to me for a chat. I never felt I couldn't ask for help and other colleagues would come to me to see if I needed support.

I think most of the organisation was done by my line manager in terms of setting up work for me to do. I think communication between HR and the interns / my line manager could have been better. There was not much clarity from HR about the steps we needed to take to secure a graduate programme offer at the end of the internship which I would have liked. However, HR did organise "lunch and learn" events with senior managers in different departments which I found enjoyable, as well as a CSR day.

I think that the company could have done more to invest in me, but this was partly due to us only being there for a fairly short amount of time. I know colleagues in the team have the opportunity to pursue further study / go on secondment to other divisions as part of their development. However, I did have a discussion with my manager about what I wanted out of this internship and they helped me to do this.

From what I understand, most interns, subject to if their performance has been good enough, will be offered a graduate role. I do not know whether we will get to specify which department we would like to be in. From HR communication at the start of the internship graduate offers will be made a few weeks after finishing the internship. If offered the role I would most likely take it!

There was a really good social sense of community among the interns. We were all in different teams spread across the building but all met up for lunch nearly every day. There was also a weekly trip to the pub after work each Friday and some of us joined the FCA's sports clubs as intern members. Having such a large cohort (35 interns) meant that it was easy to build a good network.

Westfield is quite expensive, although we managed to find cheap ways of having fun after work. That said, the Stratford area does have everything you could need after work (bars, shops, food etc.). I was fortunate to find a sublet near work for the course of the internship and this was quite good value. The FCA pay very well relative to some other internships in London so money was never too much of an issue. I especially enjoyed the staff canteen where a full cooked lunch was less than £5. London is expensive, but the salary we were earning did make it affordable.

Stratford does have some bars and pubs and I think this is getting better as more organisations move out to the area, however it would not compare to central London. If we wanted something to do after work we'd head out into the city e.g. Shoreditch is only 20 minutes from work on TfL Rail.

The FCA does have sports team which myself and some of the other interns did get involved in. However, since we were only there for 10 weeks I didn't really look into other activities outside of work. I know there is a sports and social mailing list and there are regular activities but I have not researched this.