Summer Analyst Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my internship with Bank of America. The bank was clearly committed to upholding the integrity of the programme, despite the challenges of conducting it virtually. As a result, I learnt a substantial amount over the course of 6 weeks. The bank arranged speaker sessions, external training courses and ensured we spent adequate time with our respective desks. The culmination of this resulted in a programme that was challenging, engaging and highly insightful.

I felt extremely valued by my colleagues. I had a buddy and a mentor who I spoke to regularly from the start of the programme. My team made every effort to ensure I had a great experience. Everyone made time for the interns and were more than happy to speak with us. This became especially important with regards to work we were assigned. It was great knowing we could always reach out to various members of the team to get their input and feedback.

I had daily calls with senior members of management who were very involved in the work I was doing. Their oversight was fantastic and they really guided me through the tasks. I could always approach them with questions I had and they were always quick to clarify my concerns. They were clear with regards to what they expected from me each day and I never felt like I was given anything that I couldn't handle.

I was assigned a project from once I started with my desk. I spent the vast majority of my time working on this. I never felt like I was idle and always had things to be working on. We were set case studies each week which helped break-up the project work. I really enjoyed these and found them extremely interesting. I also spent a portion of each day networking with employees and getting a better insight into their own experiences of working in the bank.

I was given a significant amount of responsibility with regards to the tasks I had been set. As the internship was virtual, interns were restricted in relation to the amount of direct client interactions we could have. Despite this, I was able to sit-in on a number of calls with investor relations from the company I was covering. I found this to be extremely interesting and really enjoyed the experience. I felt the bank performed well in this area given the constraints of working-from-home.

I learnt an incredible amount over the course of the 6 weeks. I knew relatively little accounting prior to the programme and felt I improved my practical understanding of the subject immensely. The internship will definitely help me to focus my studies as I move into the final year of my degree. It has been great to get an insight like this so early in my career. It will shape a lot of my decisions going forward as I consider my career path.

I was working with a relatively small team and this was highly beneficial. Everyone was willing to take time to help each-other and I always felt I could reach-out to everyone. It created a great atmosphere even if was entirely virtual. The team was determined to ensure that the other interns and myself enjoyed ourselves and enjoyed our work. I felt extremely motivated throughout and believe that the atmosphere that was fostered was core to this.

The internship was extremely well organised considering the circumstances. I was impressed by Bank of America's commitment to the programme from the outset. It was a challenging and rewarding 6 weeks and this is testament to how well the internship was conducted internally. The internship included speaker sessions, external training classes and project work with our respective desks. We always knew what to expect with regards to our schedule each day. It enabled me to plan effectively and the events flowed from one to another on-time.

The Bank invested heavily in the intern class and this was evident from the outset. We had the opportunity to participate in extensive training sessions with 3rd party providers. The sessions covered the fundamentals of accounting for finance and data literacy. These classes were a huge help and gave me the impression that Bank of America wanted the interns to learn and succeed within the role. I would say I definitely benefited from the courses and will bring the knowledge with me as I progress in my career.

The future employment prospects within the firm are promising. I spoke to a number of employees who had been through the internship process and are now working full-time for the Bank. These included employees at every level of the organisational structure. There was a clear path to map your career and everyone I spoke to had progressed quickly and seemed to really enjoy their work. It was encouraging to hear as an intern starting out.

From a virtual perspective, I believe the Bank did everything it could to enable interns to socialize amongst themselves. We were grouped together on 3 projects throughout the internship and so I spoke regularly with my peers. It was great to hear the other interns' perspective on the internship and how they were fairing more generally. We were encouraged to speak often and had blocks of time each day to work on our projects together.

N/A - Virtual internship

N/A - Virtual internship

We had the opportunity to speak to secondary school students who were trying to decide on a career path. I found this aspect of the internship extremely rewarding. It felt removed from the rest of our work and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The internship was shorter than usual and so I believe the Bank was relatively constrained with regard to the amount of external activities they could organize for the intern class. On balance, I believe the firm still performed well in this area.