Summer Intern-Compliance Review

In general, a very good experience with a significant amount of substantive work and responsibility. Of course, there were slow days and administrative components, but the emphasis was, rightly, placed on giving the intern a reasonable feel for quotidian aspects of the office.

The organization, and all of its employees, appear quite comfortable with the notion of a strange intern attending and contributing to fairly significant discussions. To the extent that this translates into the organization 'valuing' the intern of course varies by individual and division. Some business areas appear more adept at soliciting and integrating their intern's feedback, others appear to view interns as a useful, but perhaps not ideal, appendage to carry around for a few months.

Though I didn't recognize it at the time, I received very little support/guidance aside from the occasional 'good job.' That being said, the structures were in place for management to have more formal and likely useful to discussions were there more substantive critiques or comments to discuss.

The work fluctuated considerably. There were a few days where I spent the majority of my time exploring interesting business-related articles to read, and a few days where I was engaged in team-related tasks for the entirety of business hours.

I was never put into a position where a major issue succeeded or failed on the basis of my work; however, nor was I a cog in the machine doing largely mechanical and/or insignificant labor. In short, then, I was likely given a level of responsibility appropriate to an internship--I was allowed and encouraged to contribute where I could, and generally left with something else to manage in those situations where I could not.

Above all, the internship was useful for understanding how individual employees go about their tasks within an organization of this size and complexity. Administrative and governance concens occupy what would have before seemed to be a ludicrous amount of everyone's time and worry. How does this impact me moving forward? Primarily, it indicates the virtues of working in a smaller environment as well as the more social skills critical for succeeding in a business such as UBS.

The general atmosphere was warm, if not particularly energetic. Everyone was there to complete their job, and at the conclusion of that job, to head off to pursue their other interests outside of work. In this sense, there wasn't a great sense of team, but nor was there a sense of competition or hostility.

With regard to the orientation and the on-the-job experience, everything was prepared as well as could have been asked. The application process and interviews were at times protracted, and at times appeared to lack some of the organization that I have found once starting to work for the company.

The most overt investment occurred during the orientation week by way of speakers, events, etc. However, the more valuable investment, and certainly the larger one, comes in the form of the accessibility of the general staff for questions, comments, and most broadly, spending time with individuals who have little (direct) impact on the firm's profitability in the near term. Everyone is open and willing to answer your questions, even at the higher levels of management.

UBS isn't unique in not promising a particularly promising hiring environment at the moment. However, with regard to my particular business division, one of the two interns on the program will receive an offer to join the graduate program. A 50% hiring rate, even if just in this division, isn't too shabby.

This is likely more a reflection of the fact that there were only two interns in my division, and that we worked in separate offices, however I didn't find a great deal of a social scene away from work amongst other interns. There were attempts early on in the summer to get football matches together, but after the first few weeks elapsed and the workloads increased, everyone appeared to keep to themselves.

London is expensive--hardly a revelation. The only real contribution I can make here is to highlight the costs and benefits associated with taking student housing for the summer. On the positive side of the ledger, you are guaranteed security, an environment filled with your peers, and generally a location within a reasonable commute. On the negative side, you are likely to have less space for your money, will be placing oneself in the same environment as at University, and will be hit with random fees that would be completely unacceptable elsewhere.

Accessible but expensive would be the short answer. The longer answer is that there are any number of opportunities to have a good time in the evening for cheap, but these are largely going to be oriented away from the larger clubs and may be more weather dependent. In other words, the summer is filled with free movies, concerts, and fairs, but if one wants to get into whatever club Saturday evening, especially if one has a Y chromosome, it's going to be pricey.

There were opportunities but they were generally of a one-off nature. Because the internship was only two months long, the firm didn't make any great attempts to get us engaged in any longer term volunteer work, intramural leagues, or anything else along those lines.