Technology Summer Intern - Risk & Finance Technology Review

Once environment setup issues were resolved (first 2 weeks), work started progressing a lot more smoothly and I began to gain an in depth understanding of my team's activities, as well as their role within the larger department. While there wasn't much excitement at first, after I got assigned concrete tasks, I started enjoying coming in to work a lot. I also felt I became more confident in my ability to produce useful code for the team and, after observing the culture and relaxed atmosphere, felt a lot less apprehensive to ask for help when I needed it.

I was always included in team meetings and communications and my opinion was asked for on certain occasions, which definitely contributed to gaining a feeling of inclusion. My questions and advice requests were also never ignored or dismissed. Overall I felt the entire team tried their best to ensure I got as much support as I needed, while simultaneously trusting in my technical skills and learning abilities, by assigning tasks that reasonably challenged me.

From the very first day, my manager introduced me to my team members and their roles early on and encouraged socialization. This was a big step towards achieving a feeling of inclusion within the team I was working in. He also strove to set up weekly 1-on-1 catch up meetings during which we would discuss the events of the previous week, address any pending questions or issues and figure out a work agenda for the coming week. The firm also organized a good number of senior management networking events, which gave me some insight into some of the careers of successful people and the advice they had for interns.

In the initial phase of my internship (first 2-3 weeks), my manager worked together with our team leads to come up with a suitable task list for me. Thus, the first few weeks were filled mostly with research, as I observed the work practices within the team and looked through our code base to get a grasp on the functionality of our application. After I got assigned specific work items, my days became gradually more productive and I was able to schedule and prioritise my tasks for the day. The fact that I split my work between two separate projects, as well as the addition of various daily or weekly intern events, ensured that I was rarely ever idle or bored.

Within one of the projects I was assigned, my work was initially a bit marginal. My code provided minor features and some administrative support to better enforce code and documentation quality. However, one of the scripts I wrote eventually became key in providing functionality for some of our application's users. On the second project, I was an integral part of a team working on a demonstrable proof of concept for an infrastructure solution. Thus I held a lot of responsibility for ensuring the code I produced could run without failure and clearly showcase the intended functionality.

The time I spent working within the firm definitely strengthened my teamwork skills and got me used to operating within an agile development environment. In addition, I got a very in-depth understanding of a Python, a programming language I'd only used sparingly in the past, which is going to come very much in handy in my fourth and final university year, where my individual project will likely employ this language. Furthermore, I got a firm grasp of the various technologies within the sphere of Big Data, a much-coveted skill in today's IT world, as increasingly more companies need to support large volumes of data.

Everyone adopted a fairly relaxed attitude. We would address each other casually by our given names and frequently make light and amusing conversation during work breaks. As a generally shy person, this warm atmosphere made me feel a lot more at home. This doesn't mean people weren't taking their jobs seriously, though. Everyone on my team was diligent about their work hours, the quality of their code and assumed responsibility for it whenever it was required to do so. Work hours were surprisingly flexible, which was a definite plus.

I feel that a good amount of time was wasted at the beginning of the internship (first 2 weeks) setting up my work environment, getting appropriate access to the systems I needed to use and having tasks assigned. While I understand that due to the size and importance of the company, there is typically not that much time to allocate to intern onboarding before the start of the internship, but the recruitment department could've probably been more involved in this.

I received numerous requests to complete online training courses designed to get me familiarised with the company's work ethic. While not all of these were entirely relevant to my position, they helped create a context around my role and how technology fits into the operations of a financial firm. Most of the other skills, including knowledge of the projects I was working on, I picked up as I went along. There were, however, opportunities for me to develop further by taking on additional training courses.

Working in a financial firm was a surprisingly more pleasant experience than I would've initially expected and it definitely broadened my work horizons a bit. I think I would consider returning to the company in the future, although I would like to experience other various work environments, to get a full picture of what my future career opportunities are.

The company-sponsored intern events were a great way for me to socialise with other intern, comparing and contrasting roles. However, I did not interact much with them outside of these sessions, as many were not working near or around the same floor as me. Nevertheless, I consider that this was not too major of a loss, as I already knew many of the interns from university.

I have been living the city of my internship for three and a half years, which means I was already quite familiar with the area and its living costs before the start of the intern programme. Going out to lunch did, however, reveal some of the more and less expensive parts of the city I wouldn't have visited otherwise. Overall I'd say the costs of living are moderate and one can lead a reasonably healthy lifestyle on a budget.

I'm sure there are some clubs and bars which offer good value and high quality service, but as I am not very interested in clubbing, pubbing or drinking in general, I did not concern myself with them.

One of the intern events organised consisted of a full day of community work, where us interns performed various landscaping and beautification tasks on an indoor/outdoor activity centre catering to local communities. This was a very fun experience, and just one of the many opportunities we were offered outside of work, including afternoon tea events, paintball days, etc.