CAPD Summer Intern Review

A fantastic insight into working at J.P. Morgan. The team worked really hard to provide an amazing opportunity whilst working remotely to complete meaningful work and learn a huge amount about different teams, areas and processes within the company. I enjoyed the challenges that were provided both in the work we were completing as well the the challenge of working remotely and building up working relationships and networks without physically meeting any members of the team.

Whilst on JP Morgan’s Corporate Analyst Development Programme I gained exposure to a huge number of employees at various levels of responsibility. Each and every person I met and worked with were extremely generous with their time, giving me the opportunity to get to know them and pass on their knowledge and learning to me. The amount of support that is available is incredible with so many different routes to gain support and speak with other employees.

The support and guidance provided by my management and supervisors was brilliant. For starters I had two direct managers supporting me with the two projects I was focusing on. Alongside these direct managers I had numerous recruitment officers, project supervisors and other people dedicated to supporting me. These people gave me lots of daily support to assist me in completing my work to the highest standard, with plenty of opportunities to ask lots of questions.

The projects I was working on were very carefully thought out to ensure there was always more opportunity to take on more work if you have the time but without the work becoming too much. Working remotely came with the pitfall that working long hours could easily become normal and go unnoticed. The team always encouraged us to finish early and not work into any evenings or weekends. The workload was very well balanced and allowed high quality work to be completed without taking over your life.

We were given full responsibility for our own projects, one of which was working with an external company. As a team we delivered presentations to the external company as well as numerous other presentations of our work to internal stakeholders. Having this level of autonomy created a brilliant atmosphere and inspired us to work hard to ensure we delivered excellent results. Because we had lots of support and contact with our managers we knew whether we were working to the right standards.

The experience and skills that I developed over the 10 weeks were so immersive and a great learning experience it was well beyond what I could expect to learn over a similar period of time at university. The skills I learned will be really useful and I will take this into my continued studies and onwards with me for life. The training provided was really high quality and will continuer to be useful in the future.

Although we didn’t ever go into the office physically it was possible to gain an understanding of the culture and atmosphere through zoom. The atmosphere is different in the individual teams that work within JP Morgan but all carry a professional and high standard of work. I really enjoyed the high standard of the work I completed, atmosphere of continuous improvement and teamwork that was present whilst working with JP Morgan in their Bournemouth office.

With the pandemic hitting so soon before the internship started I was concerned the internship would not go ahead. The internship start date was delayed and the duration shortened slightly but the initial remunerations were honoured which showed the value that JP Morgan place in their future talent. The programme that was put in place at such short notice was faultless, allowing interns to learn so much about the organisation and demonstrate our worth and learn new skills.

The company provided a huge amount of training and development for all their interns. It was amazing the level of training that was provided at the start of the internship and continuously throughout. All training that was provided was fully comprehensive and allowed opportunities to ask lots of questions and there was further support available. For a company which had no guarantee that any of the interns would work with them in the future it was really positive that they put such focus on providing training and development.

I have accepted a role with JP Morgan in the future. Usually an offer is either made (or not), and communicated, on the final day of the internship however 2020 was slightly different due to the shorter duration. The offer was communicated within the 2 weeks following the conclusion of the internship. The broad range of roles available at offices around the globe really appeals to me as a job for life without being limited to a single area.

Online socialising was promoted and organised but with not having any physical interaction was a limitation on socialising.

We worked from home so the cost of living was completely self controlled and socialising was very limited to online!

It was all closed due to the pandemic

Yes, there are loads of different societies and clubs to get involved with.