Summer Vacation Scheme Review

The first three days of the summer vacation scheme involved a mixture of in-person and virtual induction training. This included attending a series of talks, getting familiarised with the IT equipment/systems and meeting everyone else. This was followed by spending roughly one week per different team within the assigned division in the department. A typical day would involve completing various tasks set by the team, with an approximately one-hour lunch break in between.

The range of tasks I completed and the opportunity to rotate between different teams not only allowed me to pick up new skills but also enabled me to reinforce any existing and newly developed skills along the way. Moreover, in addition to being set a number of compulsory online training courses to complete, there is free access to the firm's wider learning resources.

You are given considerable responsibility during the vacation scheme. Firstly, the work you do contributes to the team's ultimate goals. Secondly, you have the responsibility to shape your own learning experience. For instance, a number of the tasks I completed during the vacation scheme came from taking the initiative to ask the relevant questions and talking to various people in the team.

There is an induction training and initial line-manager meetings at the beginning of the vacation scheme. Each vacation scheme student is assigned a smart-contact prior to starting the scheme as well as a buddy during the duration of the scheme. The buddy will usually be the first point-of-contact to most questions, should any, arise. In addition, there is one half-hour meeting per week with the line manager to reflect on how the current week has gone by and to set goals for the next.

The people are interested to get to know you and will make an effort to introduce themselves to you. There is certainly an ever-improving and learning vibe too.

I enjoyed meeting people whenever I had the chance to on the vacation scheme, whether it be through working on different teams, during lunch time or the socials. I also enjoyed completing the tasks as they helped me gain a deeper understanding of the capability and strengthen a range of skills.

Yes

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