This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
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The Role
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The Company
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The Culture
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
The work was very challenging, and independent. I was given four stocks to analyse over eight weeks, and give recommendations every two. I was expected to develop over the eight weeks, and learn by myself with guidance from two ex-fund managers and a director of research. One particularly good aspect were weekly lunches with senior members from each department of the company, allowing us to learn more about the company and industry.
To some extent as the work is so independent there is little work based interaction with full-time members of the department. The grads were helpful with questions however. I would say I neither felt valued or undervalued, as the interaction with colleagues was limited with regards to work.
I was given limited feedback on our stock-pitches, but the amount of time I was given could have been improved. It was sometimes difficult to gauge whether I was doing things right or wrong, which meant that I had very little idea of my actual performance.
Very busy, almost always working on something. In the main it was interesting work though, and I'd rather have that than not be doing anything at all.
The stock pitches I did were purely academic, designed so that I could learn as much as possible and Fidelity could assess me. As an intern in Equity research I added no value to the company. However this is not the same as no responsibility. I had complete autonomy over how I ran my day, for example what information I was looking at and who I was speaking to. It was about learning to be an analyst, something which takes a lot longer than 8 weeks, rather than being given "responsibility" over mindless tasks.
I learned a huge amount about the financial markets and also about business in general. I presented a lot, and the way I deliver my thoughts improved a lot over the internship. I also developed my analytic skills, as being able to break down a complex company into a few simple reasons for what was driving it was important.
The Company
The other interns across the company were all good fun, and we went out as a group for drinks or lunches quite often. This was also helped by events laid on by the HR department, that meant we never lost track of each other. The department was very friendly, if not the most lively, but a very easy and relaxing place in which to get your work done.
Really really well, the work given is just the right amount, and there is a lot of information given about the company in lunches with senior staff members.
Our first week was independent training with a firm called Kaplan. We then had individual fortnightly feedback session with a Director of Research, as well as two ex-fundmanagers giving us group lessons once a week each at least. All three were on hand at any point to answer further questions.
Company Parties/Events
The future employment prospects are very good, with a clear career development plan in place from day one in the internship. Do well in the internship and you are offered a full time job, and then from there you do roughly three rotations analysing different sectors, before being considered/trained as a fund manager. The idea is that Fidelity train their own analysts to become fund managers, which is appealing for a graduate interested in this career path.
The Culture
Yes, we had drinks together a lot and lunches, and everyone got on really well.
The job was in the City of London, so the cost of living and socialising is somewhat higher than elsewhere in the country.
Really good, if pricey.
I did the JP Morgan run, and there were a lot of socials organised by the HR department.
Details
Internship (1 Month+)
Banking
London
October 2014