Fixed Income Intern Review

The company culture stuck out as the best thing about my internship. Everyone was always very welcoming and willing to get to know you. I always had something to do and was able to use my initiative throughout my work placement.

I felt comfortable with all the members, regardless of their seniority and I feel that they treated me like an equal and gave me an equal say on the projects that I was working on.

I knew that I could call on my manager when ever I needed help although at times I did feel that I was just thrown in the deep end and would have appreciated more help when I asked for it.

I became very busy as I learnt more about the industry in general. More trust was put in me in the latter weeks of my placement which meant I became really busy and the work that I was doing was varied and very stimulating which meant there was never a dull moment.

I was only there for only a limited amount of time but was given a lot of responsibility. I did take my own training session by providing a presentation to my team and even compiled reports to senior management which outlined the performance of the team. This task is seen as quite important and I was pleased that I was able to work on such an important project.

I learnt about prioritising as I was constantly working on various projects and had to handle the most important projects first and learn what I could leave to work on at a later stage. I also learnt other skills such as team-work as well as knowledge of the industry as a whole.

At times it did seem as though everyone was busy and in their own world but this was understandable due to the nature of the work. On less stressful days, people were more cheerful and this definitely improved the atmosphere of the work place. Very rarely did I feel that I was isolated because I was a new starter and an intern.

Initially I was given two tasks to complete during my placement although I did manage to use my own initiative and work on another task. If it wasn’t for this initiative I feel that I wouldn’t have had enough work to do so in that regards it could have been organised a little better to make sure that I always had something to do.

All of the team gave me their time and various members ran through training sessions with me. I didn't feel awkward about going to the team members and asking them questions about my day-to-day tasks. The HR department ran good soft-skills sessions too.

It's a great place to work in and I was given a graduate job offer at the end of my placement which demonstrated that they were keen to make the most of the interns that they had hired.

The team often had social events but there wasn't much for the interns and colleagues of my age. I didn't end up getting to know the other interns that well. Although the staff on my desk were very socialble which meant that I did get to know them.

I didn’t socialise much outside o work although whenever I did I tried to minimise the costs because central London isn’t at all cheap! I found that going to the local pub wasn’t too much of a financial burden. I also preferred going to the cinema with work colleagues instead of going clubbing, which again is a much cheaper option.

There wasn't much that really went on very late apart from the usual such as the clubs which I didn’t really frequent much. If you really try hard I’m sure you can find something to do.

A few but the team events seemed quite established already although I did join the football team and got to know a few other staff through this. I really enjoyed the department outings which included picnics and boat rides.