Business Management Intern Review

It is a great company to work for and gave me a really valuable insight into the industry as a whole. The programme was managed really well with many talks and events for the interns to get to know each other as well as senior members of the company. I was able to get very involved with the work of the company which was very rewarding.

My team definitely made me feel a part of the team. They were all very friendly and I was given work to do which was adding value to the team and the company. Therefore they appreciated the work I was doing, as some of it was on tasks that they otherwise would not have time to do. I enjoyed being able to make a genuine contribution and therefore felt that I was valued by my colleagues.

I was given good levels of support and guidance. I had a meeting with my manager early on to outline my objectives for the internship and what was expected of me. This was useful as it enabled me to measure my progress and understand what was required. All the interns were also assigned a 'buddy'. This was someone on the graduate scheme for my stream, who I met with a couple of times and exchanged emails for them to help me settle in and answer any questions I had. This was nice to have someone to turn to for any questions or issues that I may have had.

I was a fairly steady level of busy throughout the internship. A lot of it came down to time management as I was given a few longer projects over the duration of the internship, which meant that I was able to manage my work to ensure a fairly consistent workload. I was busy in this sense but able to manage it so I was never too busy. There were a few occasions where I had less work to do, particularly at the start when waiting for access to the various systems, but I expected this and it allowed me to undertake various bits of reading to help with the job and the systems that I was working with.

I was given quite a good amount of responsibility in that I was given my tasks and able to undertake them in the way I felt best. Most of the work I did was then sent through my manager for checking which I was expecting. This allowed me to receive feedback and improve the work that I was doing. I would say the level of responsibility I was given was therefore pretty good - enough that I felt like I had my independence when working, but also with the knowledge that my team and manager were there to help me out when needed.

The skills I have developed whilst working will definitely be useful going forward. I have picked up and built on a variety of skills during my internship which will be very useful to take back to my final year of University, particularly when it comes to working on group projects and presentations. The training I received during my induction week including an introduction to financial markets and some basic Excel training has also been very useful for me, both during the internship and moving forward.

My team was based in an office outside of London, making for quite a relaxed and friendly environment. It was still a hard working atmosphere but a very friendly one too, making for a good balance. There was also a good subsidised restaurant on site which was very good and encouraged eating with others which added to the general environment.

The internship was very well set up. We had a week of induction training to start which gave us a good background knowledge for the company and the industry. Twice a week throughout the internship there were 'lunch and learn' events, where someone from a different part of the company would come in and talk about their business area, which gave us all an interesting insight into other areas of the business and the company as a whole. Fidelity also put on various social events, ranging from curry nights to intern drinks as well as charity day where we were put in teams and took over a charity shop for the day. There was also an It's a Knockout event put on for the interns and graduates. All these events encouraged interaction with the other interns and other employees.

The company invested quite a lot. The training sessions we had during the induction week were at an external provider and would have cost a lot. At the various talks we had with senior level figures in the company they took time out to speak to us and share their knowledge. All of the interns appreciated how generous these people were with the time that they gave us.

There is a meeting at the end of the internship where interns are required to give a presentation about their time at Fidelity and what they have done. This combined with an interview will then lead to some of the interns being offered places on the graduate scheme the following year. Fidelity seem to have a fairly high proportion of interns converting to graduates.

The social scene among the interns was good. This was helped by the various drinks events that were organised with free drinks and free food. There was also the opportunity to socialise with the other interns outside of these organised events, either at lunchtime or going for a few drinks after work. The interns were a very friendly bunch which definitely improved the overall experience.

I lived at home and commuted during my internship which saved money. When in the London office the cost of socialising after work was obviously high as expected in London, with drinks being quite expensive. At my main office the subsidised canteen meant that lunch was good value for what it was, the food was very good quality and was fairly cheap at the same time.

At my office outside of London everyone just went home after work as there was no real nightlife around. Up in London this is obviously very different as there is lots going on, so I would say it depends on which office you are based in.

There were opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work. As previously mentioned the charity shop day was an example of this. There were also other charity events we had the chance to get involved in as Fidelity would email round to all the staff when these events were happening, which enabled everyone to get involved if they wanted to.