Summer intern Review

I highly appreciated the virtual experience. The HR team made sure we had the right amount of training online beforehand and the whole team was then very open to scheduling slots to meet us virtually. There was no real problem with working online when your internet connection allows it and everything was designed to guarantee the maximum amount of safety for you and the firm. I was very happy with my online experience at Rothschild.

I felt valued from the beginning. The team, from analyst to MD, was genuinely benevolent and helped me throughout the internship. I worked closely together with my team and we naturally managed to create link. I felt comfortable asking them for help and advice on various topics. People I was working with were permanently thanking me and praising me for the work done and when I would make mistakes, they would help me understand why and correct me in the nicest way.

The HR team was available the whole time were we to have any doubts or questions. The biggest support we would however need was IT support as all of us were sometime experiencing bugs on our computers. And the dedicated team did not fail to deliver. They managed to answer all requests, however with a bit of delay sometimes, but they were available on the phone and through email. In my opinion, we received all needed guidance during the training week and regular checkpoints with HR

I developed hard skills associated with how fast you need to deliver your work (Excel, PowerPoint, research mechanisms), but also soft skills (working under pressure, managing work / life balance, etc.). I think these will stay with me all my life, it increased my employability and achieved to perfect the knowledge I gained at school. However, each internship is different and I think that getting to learn more about hard financial concepts or gaining modelling knowledge is tricky in such a short time.

The virtual experience was very well structured, especially as HR had to completely rethink the structure of the internship to adapt it to an online version and hence we received our confirmation that the internship would take place and our planning shortly before the starting date. During the internship itself, there was a very good balance between team deadlines and HR deadlines for certain projects and I had the impression that the two were coordinating smoothly. Thank you again HR team for this

Everyone was home so of course it was very tricky to build a solid team spirit. Especially with the other interns. We all got extremely busy and our timetables didn’t match. Organising virtual catch-up call was quickly dismissed as an option. However, I found that among the team members, the different one to one calls we had helped us connect with each other and get to know more the mentality of the company, which is extremely positive.

I think the firm invested quite highly in us. I cannot compare it to what the company usually invests in its summer interns (more events maybe ?), however I felt like they really deployed all resources to provide us with the best one-week trainings (Excel, speech, finance-related etc.) and we were provided with very good equipment that made me feel much safer. The team invested also quite some time into giving me personalised feedbacks (+2 sessions in 4 weeks).

I think, as I was working alongside analysts the whole time, I could really understand what it is like to be a junior in a firm. Networking with more senior bankers also gave me a glimpse at how your life changes between the different positions. However, the only “negative” point is that the internship was so short that you only get to experience the “rush weeks” of an analyst. As I was explained by many junior bankers, the working hours get to be more bearable if your average it out

I think the HR team did a pretty good job at giving us insight about the company culture. We got to have a full very interactive session on the history of the firm and the chance to talk to as many people as you could during your time there. Being assigned a mentor from another team than yours is definitely a plus that allows you to broaden your vision of the mentality of other teams

I think that it really depends on the intern. I personally didn’t help too much with purely finance-related tasks but I had the opportunity to ask my questions and learn from the documents I was exposed to. As an intern you’re often exposed to not too high level tasks but you always learn a lot doing them. I would say that it is all about what you personally want to take from it and how long you’re willing to dedicate to learning

Even though the internship was remote - making networking lunchs impossible - I think we had all the keys to network in the company. Everyone encouraged us to do so, we had contact details of everyone in our team and in the company as well. Being able to talk with my mentor from a different section also helped me greatly. I even got to talk with people from very different teams and they all made themselves available to answer my questions