Operations Intern Review

I did not wholly enjoy my virtual experience. The remote aspect of this experience prevented me from getting a true idea of what it is like to work in Citi. We were simply taught about Citi from an external company and never entrusted to try Citi work. In saying that, I made some great connections within the company (ie with my junior and senior mentors) and had the opportunity to really think about my future in finance.

I did not truly feel valued during my virtual experience. As I mentioned above, we weren't entrusted with any Citi work, we were simply taught what it would be like in Citi. With our lecturers from Neueda, I felt very uncomfortable as they would constantly remind us that we were up for hire, and that they would be judging us. Furthermore, I felt like we were treated like high school students as opposed to colleagues.

I received a lot of guidance and support during my internship. As someone who is not from a financial background, I felt I was supported greatly during my internship. My junior and senior mentor would always make sure I understood what was going on and did not make me feel silly for knowing Citi abbreviations. The content given to use by Neueda was also very clear and concise. The reason I am not giving a ten is because a few times, the Neueda lecturers would make my colleagues feel silly for asking valid questions.

This internship will greatly benefit my further studies. I going on to complete a Masters in Finance after this internship, and as someone from a non-financial background, this internship has taught my (what I believe to be) everything I need to know of the basics. The digital skills I learned on the Operations Programme, will also be a massive help as before I was not tech-savvy. I know know how to use Excel and PowerBI to a better extent.

I believe the internship was incredibly well-structured. In Operations, we did four sprints across different practice areas and each did give me a better insight into how each worked in theory. The only thing I would say is that I did not enjoy the assessments at the end of each sprint. In Operations, every week was another presentation and a lot of the content in our presentations overlapped. It felt like we were giving the same presentations to the same audience every week.

There was not a vibrant atmosphere during this internship and I put it done entirely to the fact it was virtual. With the Neueda lecturers, we would often be called out for yawning or not sitting up straight. This made you act like a robot across Zoom every morning, in fear that you would be given out to. I think the most vibrant thing we came across was the Charity Intern Quiz, but even then that was short-lived.

Citi obviously invested a lot in us by bringing in external company, Neueda, to teach us materials, but I truly think this backfired. I don't believe what I learned with Neueda was incredibly valuable. I learnt a lot more from brief conversations with my junior and senior mentors. In the future, less of the internship needs t spent with Neueda. In order to develop training and personal development, I would have had to complete some real Citi work.

As mentioned above, most of this virtual internship was spent with external lecturers, Neueda. My time with Neueda simply did not show me what it would be like to work in Citi. Everything I learnt about actually working in Citi came from my mentors, and I spent very little time with my mentors. Also the fact, I never saw the offices and the atmosphere at them meant that I could not truly judge what it would be like to work in Citi.

I do feel like I understand the company culture due to my senior and junior mentor. They were able to provide me with that inside knowledge that I was not really getting from Neueda throughout the internship. It was also interesting to incorporate talks from the different societies in Citi, such as Roots and Pride. I think if I had been in the Citi offices, I would have had a complete idea of Citi's company culture.

The content taught to us be Neueda played a very small role in helping me to decide my career path. Again, we would be taught things by Neueda and my junior and senior mentors would later tell me that I would never have to do work like that in my department. Learning more about finance in general cemented my decsision to go into finance, but in terms of my direct career path in operations, the content I learned was not much use.

We were paid very well for this internship. Our ten week internship was reduced to five because of Covid-19, but we are still being paid for ten weeks.

There were a fair few opportunities to network with graduates working in the company or with managers in my department.

There was one social event in the internship and it only lasted an hour. It was a charity quiz and while it was very enjoyable in the moment, I wish there were more social activities in the internship.

From what I learned, there are very few activities to get involved in outside of work. I could be wrong, but I was introduced to three societies that I would have no interest in attending and there was no mention of any other societies.

I would recommend an internship in Citi to a friend, but not the virtual experience.