Summer Associate Review

I really enjoyed my time with the FCA. I've done internships in a number of companies before, and this experience was definitely the most supportive and welcoming. My superiors always held an interest in helping me better myself, with daily check-ins to make sure I was comfortable and on track. However, while I was supported, I definitely wasn't coddled. Despite being an intern, I was given actual tasks that contributed to the FCA's operations, which allowed me to get comfortable with more high-importance work.

Personally, I think it is a little difficult for full-time colleagues to get to know someone who is only there for a few months, but my team at the FCA was really welcoming and did their best to make me feel valued and involved. I have to note that my internship was virtual due to Covid-19, which most of my colleagues admitted made getting to know me a longer process than normal. To make sure I had the change to get to know them, I was invited to multiple 1-1 calls, which ranged from highly professional to completely casual.

As mentioned above, my superiors always held an interest in helping me better myself, with daily check-ins to make sure I was on track. While I worked independently, most of my tasks were managed by a full-time employee on the team, which meant that whenever I had a question I was able to reach out to the particular person who was working on it with me. Weirdly enough, I found this really great as it meant that I wasn't pestering one person about everything, as well as being able to get advice from a wide range of experienced individuals.

Fairly busy, with realistic deadlines that I was able to use to manage my time. Despite being there for an entire 7 weeks, I don't think there was a single day where I was just sat staring at my computer. The early careers team gave us enough training modules to fill extra time, but I found myself having to remind myself to complete them in time - there were so many interesting tasks to get done! I also barely found myself having to work outside of my 8-5 schedule, which let me really enjoy my last summer holidays.

A fair bit, more than I have been given before during an internship. I was able to speak up during external calls, as well as organise my own schedule and reach out to whomever I wanted to chat to. If I was working on something with a full-time employee or superior, I felt comfortable to voice my own point of view and thus many of my ideas made it into final pieces of work. Moreover, as I was under less pressure, I was delegated a lot of important work by superiors.

I was really surprised by the amount of soft skill learning we received. We were taught modules about communication, team work, self management, resilience etc., which were all extremely in-depth and not overly dependent on the fact that we were FCA interns. While most of the learning was quite easy content, the lessons I learned were seamlessly transferred to other situations in life, e.g. University. Outside of that, I was able to pick up many life skills tips during calls with FCA employees - relating to career moves, people management etc.

I don't think I can really answer this question as I did my whole internship from my university flat in St Andrews. I suppose I could say that when I went to see the Endeavour Square building for the assessment centre, I was really impressed by the cleanliness and warmth of the rooms. During Covid the building was closed, but my graduate buddy (who I called once a week) was able to get in to the offices. She mentioned that it had a very productive atmosphere and the hot desk policy allowed you to mix things up when you feel you need to.

Despite the sudden and massive impact of the Covid-19 lockdown, the internship organisers were quick to adapt to the situation and shortened the internship from 10 to 7 weeks. They made sure that each intern received a work computer to allow them to work from home, and that we all knew who to call for tech advice. We had trainings every week and my team had had interns in previous years, so they were all very eager and happy to accommodate me.

They really invested in us as individuals, and were sure to continuously remind us that if we performed well we could be offered a job in the graduate programme. As a result, we were given continuous training and support. Outside of being an intern, I found that their learning resources available to all employees were really good, and let me learn how to use business operational platforms, such as salesforce. Whenever I had a worry or issue, it was taken with full seriousness and dealt with fairly immediately.

Very appealing - but as usual depends on how they review my performance and whether they need people on the team at all. However, the graduate programme sounds fantastic, with training and educational support throughout those 2.5 years, as well as the opportunity to do an external secondment with a firm of your choosing, related to your area. I'd really recommend looking at the graduate prospects when considering applying to any internship programme - the FCA is definitely a great long-term opportunity.

Again, answering this question is difficult given the situation of Covid-19 and remote working. Speaking to current graduates who did the internship programme in other years shows that they made and kept really strong relationships, which is good news if you're thinking of applying when there's not a global pandemic. However, if Covid is still around in 2021, I nonetheless found that I was able to gain a few friends though virtual meetings. Other interns seemed like-minded and keen to meet up in person when we're able.

Again, this is not relevant to my experience. I stayed at home in my university flat, which let me save loads of money as I was not travelling or buying food from tiny little Tesco Metros. Generally though, I know that London is not a cheap place to live in terms of activities and rent. Before the lockdown become real, I had a three-person flat lined up with some friends and it was not overly expensive, but definitely more than my normal flat.

Again, this is not relevant to my experience. From conversations with my university friends and FCA graduate buddy, it seems that if you decide to live in Stratford you may not have many other university-aged people in your area. I know that Stratford is quite far away from where a lot of other interns chose to live, as the FCA is quite a bit outside the city/university campuses. This is pretty good for focus if you want to get good results, but from what I've heard it's not the most wild spot.

Again, this is not relevant to my experience. But, when preparing to move to London for the summer I was able to find a few triathlon teams in the area and various record stores/cafes. London is also very well connected by public transport, so you are able to go anywhere from the Stratford station, which is connected to the massive Westfield mall. The FCA offers a lot of volunteering opportunities for their employees which was also very exciting - most are related to the Stratford/Newham area.