Markets Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement. The workload was substantial however the content was extremely interesting and my team were very attentive at all times, offering me help whenever I needed it. There were so many opportunities to network, get exposure to professionals higher up within the business and understand more about the day to day of the graduate roles. I would say overall this provided a great insight to life at the firm and I really enjoyed my time there.

With an internship, I feel the balance is often hard to strike, however the team I was working in were very happy to give me feedback at all times, always mentioning things I had done well as well as constructive criticism. My manager and I had meetings once a week to discuss my performance and these made me feel very valued. Even at my team's busiest times, they still checked in with me and made sure I was happy with the work I was doing.

I was given lots of support from my manager. I was proactive in seeking this. My manager was always very upfront about my performance, yet constructive, giving me key points to improve on, as well as seeking criticisms from my team about projects I had done, and presenting them to me with action points going forward. I always felt welcome to ask questions. For the most part I was expected to use my initiative and to have thought deeply about the problems set for me, if I got stuck my manager was very forgiving and would give me the guidance I needed to continue.

I was quite busy during the day, mainly due to HR events, talks and networking sessions and then on top of this I had my own project work. There were set things that were expected of each project, however there was always optional work, and because I enjoyed the work and I wanted to impress, I would try and at least make a start to the optional work. This meant my days were quite busy, but the content of the work was very interesting and my workload was never ridiculous, always manageable.

I was given a reasonable amount of responsibility, however due to the corona virus restrictions in place at the time, I was unable to see sensitive information due to working from home. This was completely understandable. Nevertheless, my team created project work which was extremely close to the analysis I would be doing as a graduate employee and I presented this work to senior people within the business, which gave me a certain level of responsibility to represent my team and manager well.

The skills I learnt were extremely transferable, including excel work, report writing, basic professional conduct and time management. My manager often sat and spoke to me about my degree, my life and gave me advice on what I hoped to do, which was really appreciated and really showed they cared, even on their busiest days. I was trained to use various systems which are applicable to the industry and therefore will hopefully be useful to me later on in my career. The work I did in understanding aspects of the product relates closely to a course I will be taking in the upcoming year at university, giving me a head start.

The atmosphere was focused but nice. The team were making jokes when things were slower, which always lifted the mood, but they were also extremely focused when they needed to be, which provided a great environment to work in. The team also organised an after work socialising session, so I could get to know the team better outside of the office, which I thought was a really great idea, and definitely helped me to build a better relationship with them all individually.

It was extremely organised. I was always aware of the timeline of each of my projects very far in advance, as well as the HR teams managing our calendars to ensure we were aware of every opportunity available to us. The amount of opportunities organised, the range of opportunities and how smoothly they ran was really appreciated and definitely improved the experience significantly. The whole internship was very well organised, I could not fault it.

The team invested a vast amount of time and energy into helping me to understand the product, what they did and how each part of the team contributed to the wider goal. Each member of staff in my team, and the closely linked team, was more than happy to give as much time as I requested to go through any questions I had about their role and their product and how their job role would interact with that of a graduate analyst.

Extremely appealing. The business is extremely well run and full of extremely motivated people, with ambition, drive and intelligence like no other. They all have amazing personalities that I really can see myself getting along well with and that is why I applied for a graduate role with them after finishing my placement. I viewed my placement as an opportunity to see if I enjoyed the job role and the company, which I can say without a doubt I did.

There was a very good social scene, although this was harder initially due to the virtual nature of the internship this year. The other interns were all so great to chat to, and there wasn't any toxic competitiveness as some internships have. We all supported one another and helped each other where we could, but also became good friends. I have spoke to a lot of the interns outside of work since as friends, and its great to have so many like minded people to share the experience with.

We did not live in the area, due to covid restrictions the internship was virtual this year.

We did not live in the area, due to covid restrictions the internship was virtual this year.

Yes there were lots of social opportunities despite the virtual nature, as well as a charity volunteering day. The company were very flexible and encouraged you to network outside of your direct team, which didn't feel like work at all. We were invited to lots of talks not directly related to our workload, so we could understand the wider business. There were non-work social events too, some organised by HR, some organised by my team, others organised by the interns,