Summer Financial Analyst Review

I really enjoyed my internship. Being an American company, networking and personal development are really strongly encouraged, which meant that throughout the Summer I had a great combination of practical work experience, but also the opportunity to meet various senior leaders and partake in a variety of social events, both with my colleagues and with other interns and industrial placement students.

Very valued. I was working on a value adding project, and all my colleagues took a genuine interest in what I was working on and were always willing to help me out if I needed it.

My manager saw the project I was working on as a joint project, and therefore was always willing to provide me with guidance and help if I required it. In addition, I had regular meetings with my manager to discuss my progress.

Being assigned a project, as opposed to a job role, meant that there were periods of downtime, for example, when you had to wait for someone in another business unit to get back to you. However, having said this, given that networking is so strongly encouraged, I took this opportunity to meet various people and to improve my knowledge of American Express.

My project was a value adding project, and many of the suggestions that I made are either being implemented or strongly considered, so in that case, I believe I was given a lot of responsibility. In addition, throughout the whole internship you are given huge exposure to senior leaders, and I think with this entails a type of responsibility as well.

At the beginning of the internship, all the interns were given a 2 day induction in which we were given an overview of American Express, and basic training, including presentation skills. However, as most of the skills required are job specific, there was a lot of on the job training, and in the first week, you are fairly reliant on your colleagues to teach you how to use the appropriate software. Given that I am not studying Accountancy & Finance, the skills I have learnt have little relevance to my degree, however, they are skills (such as the ability to use financial software), which will be invaluable in my future career.

The atmosphere in the office is great - there is a great work/life balance within American Express, and I have been amazed at how friendly and welcoming everyone has been.

Extremely well organised. Even from the application procedure, I had regular calls from the HR Graduate team to ensure that everything was OK. In the first 2 days of the internship, we had a very varied and useful induction, and then throughout the 10 weeks, we had weekly Speaker Events, weekly Intern Social Activities and various Networking Events. In addition, the Grad Recruitment Team is very accessible, meaning if you ever have any problems then they are always more than happy to help.

My colleagues invested a lot of time in me teaching me how to use the appropriate software.

American Express is a huge international company, so the employment opportunities appear to be endless, given there are so many countries you can work in and there are various roles and business units you can work in. Further, as a company they encourage you to move around every year, so I believe it would be relatively easy to have a hugely diverse career.

There as a great social scene - we had weekly events organised for us by the Graduate team, however, we frequently met up outside of these events. In addition, there are various events going on within your team and more general Finance networking events.

I was living in Brighton, where rent was relatively cheap, and the cost of living is fine.

The nightlife in Brighton is great! Pretty cheap but also a huge amount of choice, and really great fun.

There weren’t a huge amount of activities outside of work that weren’t networking events; however, we did do a community/charity day, in which we did volunteer work at a homeless shelter.