Summer Analyst Review

The internship was very enjoyable. I would have loved to have been able to meet up with my peers in-person but COVID-19 restrictions meant that this was not possible. In light of this, the office I worked in organised weekly virtual quizzes, and daily calls so that the interns still felt involved with the social aspect of the job. It would have been nice to have a some organised social events across the whole intern class but it was still very enjoyable

My colleagues actively involved me with a variety of real-time projects, as well as explaining how my involvement would help them. I wouldn't really say that I was treated as an intern, rather as a full-time member of the team - I was given valuable advice and constructive criticism and felt as though my colleagues really wanted to get me involved with projects (not just that they had to). The office was very close-knit and I definitely felt part of the team.

Every intern has a buddy and a mentor. My buddy was an analyst, who had been in the same positions as us! This was great as they were familiar with our stresses/worries and were able to provide great support and guidance. My mentor was a director who was part of a different team - this was a great point of contact who genuinely seemed happy to speak to me! It was very useful to have a mentor from a different office as it allowed me to get an insight into how the different teams work.

I was kept very busy for most of the day. I found generally that I tended to have more work in the evenings than on the mornings when I was sometimes waiting to be given more work after finishing my previous project the night before. I could have evened this out myself by finishing earlier in the evenings and doing the extra work in the mornings, but I prefer to get everything done in plenty of time, so this was perfect for me.

I was invited to be involved with lots of real-time projects (albeit with lots of direction). This was great for me, as I wouldn't have had the confidence to take charge of projects myself (having only worked in the office for 4 weeks in total) so I enjoyed being given tasks to do, and the opportunity to work on project with colleagues. The interns in my office did organise a daily quiz question to ask to our colleagues, and organised one of the weekly virtual quizzes. This gave us a nice level of responsibility without fear of not knowing what we were supposed to be doing

Despite only having 3 days of training, I was able to apply the skills learnt well to the internship and used many of the skills daily - the training programme taught excel skills, basic accounting and basic valuation. I think that the internship itself allowed me to develop these important skills and also learn more from my colleagues - including email etiquette, presenting skills, excel skills etc. All of which I will use in the future whether at Rothschild & Co or at a different firm.

The office environment seemed to be very fun, friendly, and almost family-like. Members of staff in the office would often make jokes which really created a lively atmosphere. I felt this even though the only contact I had with my colleagues was virtually over video calls, so I can only imagine that in the office this atmosphere would only be even better. I felt very comfortable asking any of my colleagues questions, or asking for help

The HR department did a great job of organising a completely remote internship in such a short space of time. The 1st week was just training, introduction and presentations. This was timetabled perfectly and there were no clashes for me despite meeting with a variety of different people in groups and one-to-one. HR also set up a long-term project for each intern to assess what we had learn / how would fit in at R&Co.

We had 3 days of formal training from an external provider, but I think that we were learning throughout the whole internship experience (this was particularly helped by the fact that every intern had a buddy and a mentor). Every intern also received feedback from colleagues at the end of internship which was discussed in a personal meeting with HR - I thought this was great for personal development as I was able to see exactly what I did well and what I could improve on

The internship lead directly to a graduate role within the office that I interned in - this obviously shows the great future future employment prospects. This was disclosed on the very last day of the internship which was great as there was no waiting around to find out out if we would be offered a graduate role. Opportunities for progression within the company seem appealing, and I am very much looking forward to working at R&Co

Due to COVID-19, the social scene was very much lacking, with some but limited virtual socials- although this is by no means the fault of Rothschild & Co. There was some virtual communication in terms of group chats, or virtual lunches but this was all organised by the interns ourselves. I would have loved to experience the internship again without COVID-19 restrictions so that I could experience the aspects of social scene among fellow interns.

Because the internship was 100% remote, I worked from my parent's home which meant almost £0 cost of living. Rothschild & Co provided a lunch allowance which was great, and also an allowance to make sure that we had everything we needed to be able to work well from home. I would have worked in Leeds if the internship has gone ahead as planned which would have been more expensive but still fairly low-cost as it is a relatively cheap place to live and socialise

I wasn't able to experience the nightlife due to COVID-19 restrictions, although I know that the nightlife in Leeds is very fun. There are a large number of cheap pubs and bars, and more expensive, and more upmarket places to go too. It would have been really fun to be able to experience this with my intern class. Instead, we held some virtual socials on Friday evenings where the office would do a quiz with drinks optional.

My fellow intern and I were heavily involved in organising social aspects of work for the office. We did a charitable daily estimation quiz where we had a call with each person in the office to ask them a question - this ensured a god level of interaction with colleagues. We also had the opportunity to plan our own quiz night for the office. This was great fun and we decided to make it team-based