Sales & Trading Summer Analyst Review

Fairly enjoyable, especially the trading simulation was a good idea. The other interns were very friendly and campus recruitment was always available to answer questions and support us. It was a great learning opportunity and all the managers valued learning. Most of the employees were always willing to provide support and arrange a call. I enjoyed the tasks and nothing really felt like a waste of time. I think it was the best way to learn about the industry in such a short time period.

Some managers during the rotations were more involved than others. My main manager was a good mentor and always was providing work to help my knowledge of the desk. On other rotations the other managers were not all as involved with the process, so it really depends who you get. With some trade ideas my manager would get me to send them to the rest of the desk, so I think he valued some of the better ones.

Once again, it really depends who your manager is. Some had a particular teaching style which would not suit all interns and others were sometimes absent. My main manager provided good support, always giving up his time even after work to guide me through any issues I was having so no complaints. Bloomberg support was also fantastic, they were all always willing to help and gave a lot of their time to all the interns helping them with projects.

Fairly desk dependent, I felt as though my desk gave substantially more work than other desks did. This was good since it means you can learn a lot more about the product than you would be able to otherwise, however there is a trade off with ability to network with other desks. If you are on a desk with a steep learning curve then you will have a lot more to catch up on, also if you don't have any finance experience you may have more work.

As it was a Sales & Trading internship, there isn't really much 'real' work and responsibility interns are allowed to be given. I was assigned a project throughout the internship which was quite difficult although it helped me with excel and bloomberg. This is what I spent most of my time doing throughout the 10 weeks alongside morning meeting notes as well as trade ideas. Some managers required trade ideas several times a week, others less - this was the best way to develop your understanding of the product.

My degree isn't massively relevant, however, I was able to talk about the experience at other interviews. It would be helpful if you are intending to do a masters in finance since you cover a lot of the basic topics. I think this will help with any other career in the future, especially market based roles. RBC is a good brand to have on your CV at an early stage so I would definitely recommend completing the internship here.

Fairly good atmosphere, sometimes it was a bit intense when major announcements were being made, but massively desk dependent. I think the atmosphere was a lot more relaxed than some other banks, everyone was professional but also not too intense. Since it was online it was hard to gauge the atmosphere all the time, however, most of the traders were fairly relaxed and made time. The other interns got on really well despite not being in the office.

Can't complain. Despite the circumstances the campus recruitment did a good job ensuring the internship was the full 10 weeks. They were also good in ensuring we had access to BBG terminals and laptops as well as constantly being connected with our managers. The presentations could have been run slightly better as there wasn't really any clarity on these. Perhaps 3 weeks of training was slightly too much as most of the learning was done on the desk itself.

We were given 3 weeks of training, which covered basics of Fixed Income and Equities. We were also assigned Bloomberg supervisors who guided us through any BBG related issues, as well as taught us new functions which we could use for our work. I think this was the best learning we could have been given since the supervisor was always willing to arrange a call and guide us through our projects which we would otherwise have had difficulty completing.

I think they are generally quite good. RBC is a good name to have on your CV for most future careers. I managed to speak about it a lot in my other interviews and they were generally quite impressed with the work that we did. Within the firm, you have to 'impress' all the managers and speak with all of them to get an offer on the graduate scheme. They could be better with their feedback throughout the process because it is often unclear if you are doing well or not.

WFH so difficult but we did manage to meet up.

WFH so N/A but London is fairly expensive; you're compensated for living costs.

N/A but London has good nightlife

There were lots of support clubs set up for different interests. I never really attended any but the options were there and interns were encouraged to attend if they wanted. As part of the internship, the hackathon we took part in was a good way to get involved in some charity work as well as plan an event which could have been used by the firm. There were also some global challenges which we were encouraged to get involved with.