Spring Intern (2018) Review

The Citi spring week was an incredibly valuable experience. This was my first prolonged work experience in the banking industry, and it allowed me to vastly broaden my network, learn more about the bank, the culture at Citi, how to have a good career progression at Citi and what it takes to be successful at the bank. It was also an enjoyable experience as it taught me how to behave in a professional office environment

I felt valued at the firm during my spring week, as even though the insight was short, it was very evident that a lot of effort and time had been put into creating a good program. The week was well structured, with significant time on the desks for work shadowing, and alongside this, there were various networking events and presentation sessions to give us a better introduction to the bank and the business as well as the culture of the firm.

There was great support throughout the whole program from the bank with guidance from beginning to end. When joining the desks, we were all assigned a buddy for the whole week who would be our point of contact, and throughout the week, this gave the program structure as for me, my buddy and I were able to design our own personal schedule for the week including work, reading and networking to make the most out of the time on the desk.

The skills I developed during the spring week were instrumental for me going forward. It gave me the knowledge and confidence to secure a summer internship with the firm, and eventually a full-time graduate position. The time on the desk allowed me to determine which area of the bank would suit me most, and through networking, I was able to establish a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of how the bank operated and what products it offered.

The insight was incredibly well structured. On the first day, we received a welcome pack which detailed all the events that would be happening throughout the week, and at what time. The insight was split into 2 key experiences. The first was work shadowing on the desks which took up a significant portion of the week. The other experience during the spring week was more structured with sessions such as networking and panel/presentation sessions for different business areas.

The insight was instrumental in allowing me to understand what a full-time role would entail at the firm. The most important experience in seeing this was our time work shadowing on the desks. This experience on the live desks allowed me to absorb a lot of information, as well as expand my network across different teams, to get a better understanding of how the different businesses operate and which teams would suit my skillset the most.

The insight was very important for me to determine the company culture. It was very evident that the employees at Citi enjoyed working for the firm, and it was clear that Citi gave its employees a lot of flexibility. The networking events allowed us to get an insight into why people chose Citi and it was striking to see how many people decided to stay at the firm for many years, with many seniors across the firm being at Citi for 10, 15 and sometimes 20+ years.

The content of the spring week was important for my decision in terms of my future career. Prior to the spring week, I was interested in both Sales and Trading, as well as Capital Markets. Being able to speak to people from both divisions as well as others, alongside work shadowing allowed me to determine which business area was more suited to my skill set, and which one I should target for my future career path.

For this spring week, we were not paid a salary, but we were adequately reimbursed for expenses. We were provided meals throughout the program if presentation sessions and networking sessions coincided with lunch or dinner, otherwise, we were given a set allowance for specific meals which adequately covered any expenses we might have needed to incur. We were also covered for any travel expenses that we required, and if we did not have London accommodation, the firm provided a hotel stay.

There were several opportunities for networking and meeting other employees of the bank. Firstly, the work shadowing part of the week was great to allow us to work directly with people in a specific business area. This then allowed me to further expand my network on the floor, as the people I spoke to would refer me to contact other people. We also had access to networking events which allowed us to network with people from other divisions.