Summer Intern Review

The relatively small nature of the firm and number of interns make for a incredibly friendly and collaborative atmosphere. You truly do get given the opportunity to add value right from the beginning, rather than just being given tasks for your own insight, which was one of the most rewarding aspects

I was surprised at how quickly you integrate with the team. After you've been working there for a couple of weeks you feel like you've been there a number of months, and people are general very tolerant of and willing to help the interns with any queries.

The mentor scheme was perfect in this sense. You have 1 mentor for each of rotation, and were the ones that set me most of my work and whom I asked the majority of my questions to. I had far less contact with my managers.

I wouldn't say it was a perfect balance because there were numerous nights when I'd leave the office after 9pm, which for a S&T role is rather out of the ordinary (I started work at 6:45 each morning). However, this was because I was assigned an extra long term project on top of my daily work (which I wouldn't have changed for anything & was for senior management), and especially as you're only there for 11 weeks, you should relish any opportunity like that.

Every task I did was for the benefit of someone on the desk or the whole team, whether that be market comments, producing spreadsheets, or conducting research. The large project I mentioned above was perhaps the pinnacle of the level of responsibility an intern can have.

Developed my core skills that will be useful for my final year at university, along with IT skills, predominantly Excel and Bloomberg. I was also able to massively further the introductory knowledge of convertibles I'd gained at uni, through a lunch & learn session, online modules, a convertibles handbook, and most importantly, on-the-job learning. I would love a future career in convertibles/equity derivatives, & the knowledge I've gained will be invaluable in this sense

To my knowledge, very different to how someone would normally regard a trading floor as being. It was relatively relaxed most of the time (partly due to summer market conditions), and there didn't seem to be much tension at all, but don't let this fool you, everyone is extremely hard working

We had a variety of events organised throughout, and everything flowed smoothly without any problems.

The week's training at the beginning was the perfect introductory training for any internship of this kind, learning about all of the front office teams, their products, and financial calculations, as well as gaining a degree of support function and capital markets knlowedge We had a presentation training day, lunch & learn sessions, & onlien modules as well

For me, I it's honsstly the perfect place to work, thanks to the company's culture, size, work ethic and ambitions. They have also been heading in the right (opposite) direction to most banks over the last few years

Amongst the interns, not all the interns would go out on Friday nights, but everyone came to the company-organised social events. We also went out with past graduates, whilst I went out for drinks/lunch/dinner multiple times with my teams. Also got taken out with one of our brokers.

It's London. I often brought my own lunch in, and the subsidised staff canteen is incredibly useful (& the food is great there!). Fortunately I lived close enough to the offce to get the bus, which saved money compared to getting the train, but my accommodation was extremely expensive for what it was. Our choice of clubs on a Friday night certainly didn't help in this respect either!

You won't get tired of choosing somewhere to go after work, and theres an open area with bar just across the road from the office. There are a few clubs nearby, although on Friday nights we went to farther-out places towards the west side of London

We have a sports & social club, but in terms of sport, you're very limited as a company as to what times you can book in the evenings for football etc (6-8pm), and unfortunately every slot was taken as a repeat booking. I tried organising an intern vs full timers match but again had the same problem - couldn't find 1 available time slot. One highlight was the J P Morgan run I took part in, along with others from MUSI, & I believe there's a golf company golf competition not long after I finish here for the summer