Summer Analyst Review

While it was at times quite challenging, it was definitely a very exciting experience. I learned a lot during only 8 weeks, both about investment banking and about the way I react in stressful circumstances. I very much enjoyed the environment, the interaction with professionals and the opportunity I was given, to always ask questions and understand more about my area of interest.

It was quite surprising to see that people actually make an effort to include interns into their projects and activities. I especially appreciated the fact that they took their time to explain what I needed to do, welcomed questions and clarifications, and then offered feedback, always telling me when I'd done a good job and what I could do to improve even further.

We had review sessions, when my manager spoke very clearly and directly about our performance in the team until that moment. As far as time allowed it, we also got advice on the job and after completing specific tasks. This was quite helpful, since it allowed me to understand what traits the team members valued and how I could contribute to the projects I was involved in.

It very much depended on the day. Work in banking is known to be mainly unpredictable, so it sometimes happened that I had little to do and sometimes I had several tasks at the same time. Luckily, we had a staffer, who was aware of our capacity at all times, so I would not find ourselves in the situation in which I had too much work to handle, and also whenever I thought I was able to handle some more work, I could ask for additional tasks.

It was a gradual process, from having everything I did checked at any step, and then from actually being given a presentation to do almost entirely on my own. It was obviously checked at the end, but I could see the fact that if you prove you can handle easier tasks, people do not hesitate to give you more complicated ones and work with you to help you understand what you can do better next time.

It was quite interesting to see how the theoretical concepts I'd studied are actually applied in practice. The internship helped me understand better some things that I'd just taken as given from university. And it's helped me be more selective and critical when reading specific information related to the field I'm studying.

It was always busy during the day, so there wasn't a lot of chatting. But the atmosphere was quite open and friendly.

I believe it was very well organized, given the large numbers of interns joining. At least in my team, everything was quite well set up for interns. Of course there sometimes were some problems with accessing certain databases, but there was always a way to get information when we needed it, either from the team, or from the IT support.

Apart from the general training, which was organized for all interns, my team organized specific training sessions, where important concepts were explained, both to interns and to junior analysts. Also, there were weekly networking/learning events organized for all interns, where different teams held presentations and talked about what they did. It was very pleasant to see that we were encouraged to reach out to all other teams with the Investment Banking Division, to understand what their role was within the bank and whether we would like to work there or not - meaning that if we were assigned to a specific team during the internship, we did not need to be tied down to that team alone and could feel free to explore more.

I received an offer to join the Graduate Programme with the bank.

People in the team I was in were quite friendly, and informal events were always organized, at least once per week.

The area, Canary Wharf, was just as expensive as the rest of London. The array of places to socialize in the area was quite wide, though.

Crowded, expensive, but for people who enjoy this, it was quite nice.

There were opportunities, but for such a short period of time (9 weeks' internship), there wasn't much time, unfortunately.