Software Engineer Program Summer Intern Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my Software Engineer Program internship at J.P. Morgan. Although it was made virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I was still able to create many professional relationships as well as friendships with fellow interns too! I was also able to fully engage in the work presented to me and was always able to utilise an abundance of support networks if I ever struggled - including my formal manager, members of the team managed by my formal manager and my STEMP graduate mentor.

I felt extremely valued by my colleagues. My colleagues could not do enough to help me. If I ever had a problem with the weekly assignments or social good group project, all I had to do was make any issues known and my colleagues would free up some time without fail to have a meeting in order to assist me. If any of my colleagues were ever unable to help me on a particular issue, they would do everything in their power to pass me on to the right person to help.

I was given a substantial amount of support and guidance from management and my mentor throughout the internship. I participated in two weekly one-to-one meetings - one with my manager and one with my mentor. These meetings would generally consist of my manager or mentor touching base with me, ensuring that I am enjoying the internship and on track to achieve my own personal goals for the internship. They also helped me to arrange work shadowing sessions with colleagues in roles that I had particular interest in.

I was never rushed off my feet, feeling stressed or feeling overwhelmed at any point throughout the internship. However, I never found myself without anything to do. Each week we were given an individual task to be submitted at the end of the week. We were also expected to spend a substantial portion of the week doing work for the social good group project - whether this be individual work or group meetings. Work-life balance was very easy to keep on top of.

I was given a fair amount of responsibility during the internship. I was left to my own devices in terms of completing the weekly assignment. However, I was always able to express any issues I was having and get help on these. The social good group project allowed all intern team members to have great responsibility. While we had social good advisors to guide us through the project, we came up with the majority of the features of the final prototype ourselves.

I believe that the skills that I developed and the training I received during the internship will assist me in my degree studies and beyond. These skills range from communication and interpersonal skills to technical coding skills. In terms of the training I received, I now have a broader knowledge about the banking and finance sector due to mandatory trainings based on these topics. I also attended a number of live training workshops. These covered topics such as effective virtual collaboration. All of the skills I have developed are extremely transferrable.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I was unable to enter the physical J.P. Morgan office. However, the general atmosphere amongst employees virtually was a very positive one. Everyone I came into contact with throughout my time on the internship was extremely friendly and welcoming. Employees were more than happy to take time out of their busy days to allow me to work shadow them and ask any questions that I had regarding their typical working day or even just general questions about the workplace.

The internship was extremely organised and this was very evident from the way that the internship was presented to us. I find it particularly admirable that the internship program team were able to quickly adapt the traditional internship set up (in person and in the office) to one that was to then be completed virtually (due to COVID-19). They were very helpful in on boarding the interns onto their system and assisting us with any issues that we had during the on boarding process.

I believe that J.P. Morgan as a firm invested a lot of time in personal training and development in me. This was evident due to the fact that as interns we were required to complete mandatory assigned trainings. These were ranging from banking/financial themed trainings to safety and diversity in the workplace trainings. Interns were also encouraged to sign up for live instructor-led training sessions covering topics such as Agile Methodology and Enhancing Business Communications.

I have been privileged enough to have been offered a graduate job at J.P. Morgan (conditional upon successful attainment of my Bachelor's degree). I have accepted this job offer and cannot wait to return. J.P. Morgan as a company treat their employees very well and there is a large number and range of future career prospects and opportunities for promotion down the line which is very exciting! I would recommend J.P. Morgan as an organisation to apply to to anyone.

There was a good social scene amongst fellow placement students/colleagues. The interns had a quiz night organised by the organisation which was a great opportunity to meet new people and have fun! The interns also took it upon theirselves to organise some social events on a few occasions including breakout rooms to play icebreaker games and even a karaoke session! These were very enjoyable and a great way to socialise, especially given the isolation working from home could cause for interns.

The cost of living in the area I worked in was fair. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I was able to complete the internship from my family home and saved money as a result. I did not participate in much socialising - again due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the government restrictions that were in place in my area. At a minimum I was able to socialise with friends virtually via platforms such as Skype and Zoom.

In the city of Glasgow (where the internship was originally supposed to take place), nightlife is normally very good. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, interns were unfortunately unable to take advantage of this as most (if not all) nightlife venues were closed. All interns were also working from their home locations - so were not all located in Glasgow. In more normal times, I would definitely recommend the city of Glasgow and its buzzing nightlife.

There were some optional webinars that interns could attend outside working hours. These included senior speakers such as Jamie Dimon (J.P. Morgan's CEO). There was also an interns social quiz night which was great fun to be involved in and allowed me to meet and work with new people. I was not made readily aware of any other events or activities that took place outside of working hours for interns, but that is not to say that there weren't any.