Summer Analyst Review

Despite the internship being virtual, Nomura made every effort to ensure the interns had a great experience. The training provided by FinancialEdge was well structured, content-wise very good and given by enthusiastic instructors. Following the two weeks training, we had at the desk work experience for three weeks in a team that we could select prior via a sort of virtual placement fair. In the three weeks at the desk, the recruitment team and our own teams ensured that we had video meetings with all the seniors for about an hour at a time and the juniors hosted virtual drinks every week to chat in a more informal manner. The team supported the interns in every way possible. They were very eager to help with any questions or tasks you might struggle with.

I think this rating would be 10 stars if the internship was not virtual. It is simply harder to become very close from such a distance. Besides this, Nomura made every effort to ensure the experience was as close to a regular internship as it could be. The juniors and staffers provided us with tasks that kept us busy our entire internship, and were very grateful and positive about the work we delivered back to them.

As mentioned previously, the team was very open to questions and would get back to you immediately. On a few occasions I received a task from a senior which I had some questions about, which I then discussed with my buddy. My buddy would get back to me with a very structured e-mail explaining where I could find every piece of information and gave suggestions for lay-out and content. Even the assigned buddies of other interns would often make time available to help.

The tasks kept me busy the entire internship, but still gave me an hour or two every day to take breaks, have lunch or dinner etc., while allowing me to have a decent night sleep. I managed to go for a run every day or go to the gym to take a break from work and not sit at my desk all day, which is a great way to refresh and refill some energy. Overall a perfect balance, busy but not overworked.

Depending on your own attitude, you could either chose to work completely independent for days on end, and only have feedback whenever you required. Other interns had multiple calls/chats every day to discuss how their tasks progressed and receive guidance on next steps. Naturally, analysts or associates would still make small changes in your work before it goes to the seniors, but that is simply a matter of taste and style that you have to get used to at a new, unfamiliar firm.

I think the skills I developed will be most useful if I end up working for Nomura in the long-term. I learned a lot about how they do things at Nomura, which might be very different at another firm. I already had a few years work experience, so the basic skills (e.g. what content should be on certain slides, how to model etc.) where already present. Still, the training prior to hitting the desks provided me with some very useful tips and tricks.

It was very social and fun, but naturally it would be quite busy at sometimes where everyone would be focused on their tasks. I think it's the right balance between fun and work, since I sincerely enjoyed it but still managed to get a lot of work done. Despite the internship being virtual, many social video calls were organized and informal gettogethers, either one on one, with all the juniors or the entire team together.

Despite the very chaotic situation with the pandemic leading up to the internship, Nomura pulled off a very structured five week internship. The program was clear to us, the training prepared us for the work at the desk and, contrary to stories you hear from interns at other banks about their virtual internship, you actually felt appreciated and felt like you put in work. Further, the virtual desktop systems we had to use were set-up perfectly by the IT department, so we had no issues during our internship with connecting or accessing files/databases.

The training we received was very extensive, included many exercises and recordings of virtual lectures we could fall back on if we required and was accompanied by a sort of online encyclopedia for finance which we could use if we needed to figure out e.g. how the equity to EV bridge worked again. Further, we had training in public speaking and extensive feedback on our final internship project presentation. Lastly, we received extensive feedback on our performance at the end of the internship, including pointers for the future.

Very appealing, despite a current restructuring and hiring freeze at many firms. We will hear whether we get an offer in September, so the 10 stars is not applicable yet. The feedback however made it seem as if an offer is very likely, and I am very inclined to accept. Nomura is definitely a firm I can see myself working for in the future, I felt very welcome in the team and found the work to be right up my alley.

As mentioned in previous answers, no effort was spared to ensure that we had a good social scene despite the work from home situation. Meet and greet video calls of about one hour each with the seniors from the team were organized as well as weekly analyst/intern video sessions in a more informal setting. Further Zoom video calls were organized between all interns where we were put into small rooms with random interns so we could catch up.

Since I was working from home, in Rotterdam the Netherlands, this question does not really apply to me (neither do the following questions, so I will just answer for all of them here). Rotterdam is quite doable, rent for a big apartment of about 90m² is about €1100 a month, excluding utilities. This is quite above average for the Netherlands, but still far below Amsterdam. Other living costs are similar to the rest of the Netherlands.

N/A. Work from home.

N/A. Work from home.