Investment Banking Summer Analyst Review

I really enjoyed the internship, there was enough variation and intensity in the work that I was able to get a true picture of what a career in Investment banking would be like, and for me that was what I wanted to get out of the process. The team were lovely and extremely open to tailoring the process to help me get what I wanted out of it.

I felt extremely valued, even if it was the small "thank you"s after spending an all nighter trying to get client work done, or the random mid-day drinks to celebrate a milestone on a task, everyone was very appreciative of the work that we were doing and it made me feel like I was actually contributing to meaningful work.

Not only my buddy (as well as other analysts on the team), but my intern staffer were both ready to help at any time and ready to hear anything I might have to say in terms of opinions on a piece of work, or requests in terms of the kind of work I would like to do. They constantly looked out for me and helped whenever I needed it, be that showing me shortcuts to doing tasks or clarifying a task they had set - everyone was extremely helpful!

It sort of came and went in peaks and troughs, but on the whole, after the third week of the internship, I was pretty busy on the regular. I'd get in at around 8-8:30, and be busy working till about the evening when I'd check around for more tasks. There were some points where I thought I might have been given a little too much work (especially when we also had to finish intern projects) but my Intern Staffer was very helpful in shuffling work around to help!

I was extremely surprised at the level of responsibility that I was given. It was very much a "develop trust and get more work" kind of environment. Initially, I was doing quite simple task: updating things etc. But as the weeks went on, I was given pretty serious deal work to do, so that was incredible, because I got a real taste of what being a first year analyst would be like!

Given that I'm a non-finance student, it is not directly relevant to my degree studies, but it is very relevant to the future as I will be continuing at JPM full time next year, so these 10 weeks have been a great training ground in how to navigate the workplace and tackle many tasks at once.

The floor that I was on was great, it really did not matter which team people were in, there was a lot of cross-chatter. People really were willing to help you. Most MDs offices had open doors, and almost all of them were happy for you to knock and have a chat!

Pretty organised on the whole. The first week was training, and by the time we hit the desks, there were socials, senior speaker events, volunteering days etc. So there definitely was a lot to do to occupy our time and HR sent an email every week detailing everything that you had to / could get involved with that week

We had a week of training before we hit the desks, which was a crash course in accounting and the basics of finance. It was super helpful considering I hadn't done any finance before! But, there is also continual drop-in session through the internship if you need help beyond that will valuations or excel etc.

Really appealing - have received an offer to join full-time, so quite excited for that! HR explained what getting a full time offer would entail in terms of training in New York, and potential rotation if you wanted to go to a different team. So on the whole, it was quite desirable.

I think on the whole there was a good social scene, but given the fact that investment banking hours can be quite long, it's not always the most desirable thing to go out after a really long day (and sometimes night!). But it was very common to go down for drinks on a Friday after "pens down"

The cost is alright for London, not cheap, but not too expensive either. If you're working late, cabs and food are paid for by the company, so that drops that cost. But lunch etc. isn't too bad as there are a lot of common chains around the place (or you can go to the 7th floor!)

Canary Wharf doesn't have too much to do, but there definitely are a few nice bars dotted around the place that come alive on Friday evenings. But the City really isn't too far if you'd like a proper night out. Some interns would get together on weekends to go out.

We have a community service day which was really nice to meet interns in other lines of business. Our team would have a few sports events etc. But on the whole, there's not too much time, just because the hours on the desk can pile up and it's just not feasible all the time.