Insight day Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my day at M&G hearing from past graduates about their experiences at the company as well as networking with lots of other employees. The ratio of students to employees was also very good, with students actually being able to have in depth conversations with workers. The trading simulation was also a lot of fun and a good insight into portfolio management.

The employees and event runners took time to answer our questions and any queries we had with good lengthy q&a s at the end and thoughtful responses.

There was plenty of insight into the internship and graduate schemes and we learnt lots about shorting and trading equity.

The speech on ESG will be very useful for my management module this year and I found the communication and teamwork skills very useful.

I liked the list of names along with job descriptions at the back of the insight pack and the microphones in the auditorium meant the q&as were effective.

Not only were the staff but the other students at the event really lovely and very friendly.

It seemed like they wanted us to all get through and succeed in the application but the majority of the investment comes once you have landed a role on the grad scheme and they train you up for the CFA and slowly through those levels. I enjoyed the personal and transferable skills workshop!

I would’ve liked to hear more about their day to day jobs but still found it helpful in deciding which department I would be best suited too. I would love a similar day of potentially a few students shadowing one employee to see what they actually get up to, potentially after the trading day and basics has been completed.

This was a common question asked during the networking lunch and it seemed a very positive response from everyone. It seems like a very collegiate atmosphere and many of the employees were very chatty and funny which set a friendly tone for conversation. It was great to add them on LinkedIn too.

I really enjoyed seeing what reading would be like and it made me very excited to apply for roles similar. I would like another day highlighting other aspects potentially another type of simulation to do with another division but I really enjoyed taking part and would do it again for good practice.

I only had a tube fair but it was still in rush house at 9am which is the most expensive public transport cost. I would recommend getting there as early as possible as currently with the protests and strokes going on there are lots of delays on the tubes and getting in and out of the stations is quite slow but it’s well worth the travel. There were some students from Southampton and Portsmouth and they really enjoyed it too.

Yes there were opportunities for networking and meeting other employees of the company during the breaks and lunch but I would’ve loved the networking to be a little longer during lunch. Two of the speakers from the panels also didn’t go to the networking lunch and I would’ve loved to have chatted to them more.

There wasn’t much time to eat and chat at the same time but I really liked the breaks breaking up the parts of the day with refreshments to bring back the energy levels. Luckily getting straight into the group exercise meant that little ice breaking had to be done so it was already quite a social environment.

I asked the employees this and a few mentioned their netball and sports as well as yoga and meditation on the top floor however the majority were apart of schemes to help their colleagues and offer support which was nice to hear. I would love to know more groups and activities that are on.

Yes! I would definitely recommend it to my friends and other students. I also didn’t know much about M&G before so it really opened my eyes to the buying aspect of the finance industry and also taught me a lot about the corporate social responsibility that is taking place too.