Summer Intern Review

Interning at the FCA was a great experience. Not only was I able to develop skills ideal for work, such as communication and writing, I was also able to learn a lot about what motivates me in my own career. Although the internship was conducted online, everybody tried especially hard to make sure I was welcome and that I felt able to ask many questions. For anyone who wants to learn more about themselves, and to develop skills that will ease starting work after graduation, I cannot recommend this internship enough!

Throughout the internship everyone I spoke with made such a huge effort that I felt extremely valued. On the one hand, my line manager gave me work important to my team's overall goal, ensuring that I felt like what I was doing was important. On the other hand, whenever I emailed a colleague for a 'virtual chat', to learn more about their role and experiences, they were extremely welcoming. Overall, my colleagues went out of their way to ensure that this was an extremely valuable internship.

My line manager was fantastic through the whole internship. He made sure that I had a clear task to carry on with and organised regular catch-ups where he asked how I was finding the internship. Further, whenever I wanted to get involved with work that wasn't directly related to my team, he made maximum effort to make this as easy as possible. My manager also provided feedback on work that I produced, allowing me to work on developing my skills.

On a daily basis I was quite busy, however I was never expected to work ridiculous hours. As an intern there is a huge emphasis on yourself to ensure your day is as busy as you are comfortable with. For example, if I felt like I had little work to complete, I offered to sit in on meetings and take notes for other teams. My line manager also regularly asked me how I was finding the level of work, offering to give me additional tasks if I felt like I needed them.

I was given some responsibility, enough to occasionally put me outside my comfort zone, but never enough to cause excessive amounts of stress. In my case, my manager gave me a project to complete. He explained the background and what was expected, before letting me take full responsibility. This included doing the relevant research, communicating with relevant individuals and delivering it to a high standard. Knowing that the projects' success was dependent on the work I put in, provided me with high levels of motivation and enjoyment.

Although the FCA does not promote an academic style of writing, I was able to develop my way of thinking about problems and my process of designing plans of action. In my degree, this will assist me when thinking about how to structure an essay or answer an exam style question. Further, we were provided with relevant training sessions, ranging from presentation skills to a background of the financial service sector. The skills promoted in these are applicable to any degree, and are valuable no matter which career you do.

Although we were not able to go into the office as the internship was run virtually due to the coronavirus, colleagues tried as hard as possible to ensure there was a welcoming atmosphere. This meant I felt comfortable calling just about anybody in the organisation, and chatting to them about their role, responsibilities, and experiences. Further, everybody was extremely understanding of our situation and made effort to invite us to meetings which they thought we would like to listen and sit in on.

Considering the situation in which the internship was run, the set up was incredible. We were all sent company laptops prior to the start of the internship, with instructions on how to set these up. Our line managers were then easily able to contact us and assimilate us into our teams. The internship was also extremely well structured, with relevant intern training and projects provided. There was an induction for the first couple days which provided us with loads of relevant information and ensured a seamless transition into out teams.

I felt like the FCA really cared about our personal development and ensuring we could be the best interns possible. Firstly, this was done was through the provision of training sessions. Additionally, I felt like my manager had been really well prepared to help me with my own development, knowing when to offer feedback and designate more work. We were also tasked with designing a project in teams of interns, which helped develop personal relationships, as well as providing a comfortable atmosphere for us to develop our skills.

The FCA made sure we understood what life on their graduate programme is like, and provided us with every opportunity to talk to current graduates about their own experiences. Further, in my team I was given tasks which helped me learn more about the work that the FCA does, helping me to understand better whether this was a future employment opportunity that interested me. Finally, there was always a positive atmosphere when the graduate programme was mentioned, it wasn't made to feel like the interns were in direct competition with each other.

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Although the coronavirus ensured that there were less opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work than normal, there were still some. For example, interesting, non work-related, talks were put on which all employees were invited to listen to. Further, it was clear to see that in normal times there would be many opportunities for activities outside of work. These included a measure of things, whether sports related or volunteering opportunities in nearby communities.