Summer Student Review

I really enjoyed the virtual internship at LCP. I felt that it was very well planned and interns were well integrated into their respective teams, despite the remote circumstances. We were kept busy with numerous projects which were really engaging and required us to present our findings. I definitely learnt a lot in a short space of time. It was also really nice to be included in social calls at the end of the week which were good fun and provided a more informal way to get to know team members.

It is difficult to really get to know those you are working with in during a remote internship. Having said that, I felt that I got to know many members of my team very well, had daily full team meetings and catch-ups with my two buddies. I did feel able to reach out to members of other teams and ask questions in their areas of expertise and arrange calls, which reflects well on the culture at LCP. Given the circumstances, I think the firm did well to make interns feel valued during our time there.

We had two buddies who we could contact with any questions we had, no matter how small. They contacted me via WhatsApp before I even started at LCP so that I could contact them with any tech issues or queries. This meant that I felt more comfortable from the very beginning on group calls and if I had problems. Throughout my few weeks at LCP, other employees were more than happy to give up their time to call me and help me to understand difficult concepts, or to check over projects with me, which made me feel very supported throughout.

Coming from a non-financial background, I found the work LCP does very accessible and the training we received was challenging but digestible. I think that my skills in presenting, time management and finance will have been strengthened through this program, which will be useful to me both going into my final year of university and in a future career as a graduate. I got the chance to speak to numerous people across the investment department which has given me insight into how I can apply my skills to different aspects of the job. Sadly, we didn't get any client contact due to confidentially issues with remote working.

The structure of the LCP virtual experience was brilliant. We had 5 projects over the course of the 3 weeks, which all overlapped slightly so we always had something to be getting along with. In the first week, we received plenty of training which would give us the background we needed to tackle each individual projects. These progressed in complexity from basic asset class training, to investment strategy and manager recommendation. Our final few days on the internship was spent constructing a final presentation on a topic of our choice to present to all the team leaders on our last day at LCP.

It was difficult to gauge an atmosphere whilst communicating over video calls. The daily team check-ins showed that employees were a cohesive unit and enjoyed working with one another. Throughout my time at LCP, I felt very included and other employees made an effort to get to know me. From the atmosphere on the Friday social calls, people were relaxed. This being said, employees evidently do work hard and we were encouraged to do the same.

We were given a lot of training in the first week, and those who gave the presentations were more than happy to answer any questions we had and encouraged us to reach out if we had any problems. We received some basic training in some internal software and databases however this ended up being quite independent as it formed the basis of some of our projects. It might have been nice to have a few more specific training sessions about next steps with LCP.

It's quite difficult to understand what the full-time role would be like without the client-facing side of the business. This is more than understandable as we were all working on our own laptops so there are issues regarding confidentiality. Despite this, I think I got a good idea about the of the culture at LCP and the camaraderie between employees. I left with a belief that I would enjoy a role with LCP in the future, should that door be open to me.

Due to the virtual nature of the experience, I had to ask questions in order to really dive into the culture at LCP in terms of normal social activities and what goes on after work. Having said that, at all the team catchups it was very evident that employees got on well and enjoyed working with one another. The project work we interns did was very independent, and I got the impression that this is not very representative of what working at LCP is actually like, given that pieces of work are passed through several different people before completion and there is a good collaborative approach taken.

The content helped me realise that I did have the ability to have a career in finance. However, the training we received was quite broad and without the client training, I'm not sure how I could narrow down whether I would be better suited to more research roles or to client-facing roles. Despite this, I loved that it felt like there was a real breadth of opportunities at LCP and so even if I didn't know exactly where I fit in coming out of the internship, this didn't really matter as in a graduate role I would get the opportunity to find this out for myself.

We were paid £400 a week. This is not very much if we were to be working in London, as my commute costs would take a large chunk of this. However, I am unsure whether this was a rate implemented as we were working from home and not doing client work and if so, I think this was reasonable. LCP offered to reimburse up to £30 for additional tech needs such as a webcam and paid our 1.5 days of annual leave if we didn't need to use it.

It was up to us overall to reach out to people if we wanted to have a meeting or ask them questions. Our teams were large and we met many people through daily catchups as well as through the various project launches. I felt like I got to meet a good amount of employees within the investment team, although feel like this would've been a lot higher in an office environment, which is to be expected.

Again, there were no explicit networking opportunities but interns were encouraged to reach out to those whom they had questions for or wanted to know more about. We had bi-weekly "intern coffee roulettes" where we were randomly put into groups with 2/3 other interns and got to catch up about how we're finding the internship and our projects as well as general chat. These worked well between departments but it would've been nice to be able to branch out beyond who we met frequently in our teams etc.

I asked about things like sports teams, of which there are many at LCP, including football and netball. There was also a good emphasis on general work-life balance and general socialising within teams. During the internship, there should've been the employee summer party and there was much disappointment that this wasn't going ahead due to corona, which was good to see. On a different note, the diversity networks and women's networks play a big role in the firm and it was really good to hear about how employees at LCP can get involved and give back.

I would absolutely recommend interning with LCP, whether this be virtually or not. I found it a very valuable experience as a whole and really opened my eyes to wider career paths such as in investment consulting. I found it challenging but was supported at every stage of the process. The hours were manageable and I was encouraged to regularly take breaks throughout the day. The experience has made me want to apply for LCP graduate roles.